Brick Walls

I've decided it might be helpful to have a page describing my current brick walls. Maybe other people with the same brick walls will find it and we can work through them together. :) I'll sort them by generation, with the ones closest to me in my family tree first, since those are the ones I most want to break through! This page is a work in progress.

Current Brick Walls

Henry Prince and Sarah Jane Elson

Henry Prince and Sarah Jane Elson, married, probably in Ontario, in about 1860, are my 4x great grandparents. Henry was born in England around 1835, and Sarah was born in Ontario around 1841. I can't find them earlier than the 1871 census.

I have found a picture of their tombstone! The tombstone gave me their death dates, which confirmed that the death records I thought might be theirs are in fact theirs. :) I also discovered that Henry Prince remarried after Sarah died! He married Eliza Hodson (or maybe Hodgson). So that marriage record confirms Henry's father's name: Joseph Prince. And it confirms that his mother's first name was Elizabeth. I've seen people give Elizabeth a few different last names, so I still don't know which one is right.

Update: I have managed to find earlier records for Henry, tracing him back to England. See my recent post about him for more details. I'm still stuck on Sarah, though. I've found her in censuses going back to 1852 now, but that hasn't helped, because her father died before that, so he isn't in any of these censuses, and her mother's name is just shown as Mary Elson, which doesn't exactly narrow things down!

Recently Broken Brick Walls

Frances (Unknown) Broughton

Frances Broughton is Annie Broughton's mother, and the wife of William Broughton. She's my 3x great grandmother. According to the 1881 England Census, she was born around 1829 in Lockwood, Yorkshire, England. I want to know her maiden name!

My next step will be to search the other England censuses, and see if I can find any more hints there. I've also found a birth record on FreeBMD that I think is Annie's, so I could order that, and, assuming it's the right one, it would include Frances' maiden name.

Brick wall broken: I ordered Anne Broughton's birth record, and it gave her mother's name as Frances Armitage.

Annie Broughton

I do not yet know who Annie Broughton's parents were. This is my most recent brick wall, as Annie is my great great grandmother. She was born in about 1861 or 1862 in England (possibly in Huddersfield). She married Beaumont Jackson in 1882 in Huddersfield. They came to Canada in 1904. She died in Minto, Manitoba, on July 14, 1940.

I just ordered Annie and Beaumont's marriage record from the UK, and it should arrive in a few weeks. That should tell me at least Annie's father's name, which I'm hoping will be enough to conclusively find their family in the England censuses! Here's hoping!

Brick wall broken: I ordered Annie and Beaumont's marriage record, and it named her father as William. I already had a note written to myself that Annie's parents might be William and Frances, because that was the most likely census match in 1881. I looked at that census record again and I'm certain it's the correct one, because they're even living on the same street that is named on the marriage record! Yay!