Charles isn't all alone!

I have been troubled by the fact  the Family Bible gives Charles' birthdate as a ditto mark below his brother, Samuel's birthdate of 2 January 1812 but census records and his marriage record showed him as being born in 1815 or 1816. While most of the time a variation in age doesn't stump a genealogist, in this case ALL the records gave the later birthdate, not the earlier. 

So I was not too surprised but very excited to find that Ancestry's recent database of Liverpool baptismal registers (database & images) popped up his baptismal record.  He WAS born in 1815, 6 of September, to be exact and baptized 29th of October in St Thomas' Church which was directly across the square from their house. 

Just to confirm all of the information that I already had on his brothers and sister, I searched for all children by these parents.  I WAS surprised to find two more daughters that I had never found before.  Margaret born 17 August 1814, baptized 18 September and Letitia Ann baptized 2 Nov 1817 both baptized in St Thomas' Church, as were all of John & Sophia's children.  There is no question about it being the same family, living in Cleveland Square and John being a Druggist.  But these girls are not mentioned in their father's will in 1833 or their mother's in 1837.  They must have died young, how young, though?  If they are not even mentioned in the family bible record, how young must they have died?  At least long enough to be baptized at about 1 to 1 1/2 months old.  They would have been 19 and 16 at the time of their father's death. 

Now to find where the two girls are buried and when!

Smethurst Hall...today

Here it is...Google has gotten really detailed now.


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A description of the Hall from British Listed Buildings.

Toxteth Park Cemetery

I found something today...

Toxteth Park Cemetery burials. I wondered about it. There is a great history listed there that references many cemeteries in Liverpool. The basic premise is that as people moved out of the squalor of the inner city, the churches' congregations in that area decreased. Eventually many churches were closed, and pulled down because the value of the land in central Liverpool was so high. Those buried in these church yards were exhumed and moved to centralized locations...Toxteth Park Cemetery was one of these.

And reading all of this made me realize that I have almost no records of burials for the Taylor family living in Liverpool. Hmm...

So, searching for the surname "Taylor." There are quite a few. But one jumped out at me: Samuel Taylor, address 7 Seddon St, buried 1 Oct 1875... Seddon St...that's the family address again (#10 Cleveland Square is on the corner of Cleveland Square and Seddon Street...the Paint & Varnish side of the business is usually listed on Seddon Street, while the Pharmacy is Cleveland Square) Well, yes, that was Samuel Taylor, Charles' next older brother, who died "suddenly" 28 September 1875 . There was a link for the grave itself and I found that both Samuel and his widow, Eliza were buried in that grave. And, oh joy! Eliza's burial date and address!

I'm loving this site already! Now to see who else is buried there...and where they are buried (did I mention the grave maps?)

Do you have an original of one of these photographs?