Death dates for John Westwell and Ann Ashworth - Part 3

In the previous two weeks, I have talked about finding the death information for my 4x Great-grandparents, John Westwell and Ann Ashworth Westwell and how the burial record for Elijah Westwell also showed the two of them buried in the same plot:

The question then remains, who are the other two names in the plot: Alice Westwell (died 1904) and Ethel Lomax (died 1905)?

Finding Alice Westwell (died 1904) was a little easier; the burial record for her lists her age at death of 53 years and describes her as the wife of John Westwell. Doing a little more research, I was able to place her as Alice Butterworth, 1850-1904, the wife of John Thomas Westwell, son of John and Ann.

Finding Ethel Lomax was a little bit more challenging. Her burial record puts her age at death as two years and and describes her as the daughter of "George Edward and Maggie".

A little bit more research and I was able to find a marriage record between a George Edward Lomax and a Margaret Ann Westwell, daughter of John Thomas Westwell.

So, it all fits with the rest of the Westwell family.

Death dates for John Westwell and Ann Ashworth - Part 2

Last week I talked about how I managed to find the death information for John Westwell. Next on the list is to find the death information for Ann Ashworth Westwell.

As mentioned last week, we know that Ann Ashworth Westwell died after 1891, and we managed to find a burial record for the Westwell family:

This record shows an Ann Westwell who was buried 12 January 1894 in Blackburn, Lancashire. I managed to find a corresponding death record for an Ann Westwell who died 9 January 1894, widow of a John Westwell, a cotton spinner

So, all looks good, except for one slight problem - the age at death. The age of death is given as 75 years, which would correspond to a birth year of about 1819, much later than the expected birth year of about 1811.

So I had a look at the informant, a Thomas Harrison, son-in-law and that checks out because Ann's daughter Mary married a Thomas Harrison. So it would appear that this is the correct record and that the age given for the death record might be inaccurate.

Death dates for John Westwell and Ann Ashworth - Part 1

John Westwell and Ann Ashworth are my 4x Great-grandparents. They were married 26 February 1832 in Blackburn, Lancashire. John Westwell was born around 1809 and Ann Ashworth was born around 1811.

I've been trying to find their dates of death and death information. John appears in the 1871 census and I have found Ann in the 1891 census living with her daughter and son-in-law and is listed as a widow, so John would have died between 1871 and 1891 and Ann would have died after 1891. I wasn't able to find either of them in the 1881 census to narrow the time down further.

I first had a look at John Westwell. Unfortunately, John Westwell is not an uncommon name, and the twenty year span from 1871 to 1891 is tough to narrow down. But looking at Blackburn in particular as a location, I was able to narrow the death record possibilities to two names:

The first was a John Westwell who died in Clayton-Le-Moors, Lancashire, 1 December 1880, aged 82.

This would have put his birth year about 1798 and his profession was listed as a stone mason, which doesn't quite fit, when every other record that I have found lists him as either a cotton spinner or cotton piecer.

The second option was a John Westwell who died 20 January 1874 in Blackburn, aged 63 and is listed as a cotton piecer:

As well, the informant is an Ann Westwell, which also fits. The age is off a bit, suggesting a year of birth of 1811, rathern than 1809, however the rest of the rest of the information matches

I had set aside this query for a while, but when I was gathering information on another member of the Westwell family, Elijah Westwell I found some more information. I managed to find Elijah Westwell's burial record, and then checked the other names of individuals buried in the same plot

In the same plot as Elijah, is a John Westwell who was buried 24 January 1874, and looking at the full burial record it appears to be the same John Westwell as in the second option - the one who died 20 January 1874. So, I'm confident in determining that this is the correct death record for John Westwell.