X00379 Nancy Rothwell after 1841

I had previously talked about finding Nancy Rothwell's birth information. Aside from her birth information, however, I had only found her in the 1841 census and nothing beyond that.

Ancestry hints suggested a marriage record, which turned out to be a marriage record between a Nancy Hacking and a James Hindle.

No age is given, which doesn't help identify to see if this is the right person. The only witness to the marriage appears to be from the Hindle side, which doesn't help. As well, there are some questionable details.

For one thing, her name is given as Nancy Hacking, which could mean that she went by her mother's name, which might make some sense, given that she was likely born out of wedlock.

As well, her father's name is listed as "Benjamin Farrar". This doesn't help in identify her as the correct Nancy, but it does lean to someone who was born out of wedlock, as the surname doesn't match and the marriage record does not indicate that she had a prior marriage. If this is the correct Nancy, it would shed some light on who her biological father is.

The location doesn't help in making any identifications either, as I haven't found any other connections to Bury, Lancashire at this point.

So, there isn't a whole lot of definite proof that the Nancy in the marriage record is the correct one, other than the name fitting.

But I had a look to see if I could find more records about the family and I managed to find them in the 1851 census.

In the 1851 census, they are living next door to Henry Rothwell and Alice Hacking and family, which would be too much of a coincidence for them not to be connected.

So, now having identified the correct Nancy in the marriage record, we now have found her up to 1851. Of course, we still have the question of what happened after 1851. I have not been able to definitely find the family in later census years, or in any death records. Plus, there is now the new question of who was Benjamin Farrar?

Next Steps:

• Continue looking for family members in the later census records
• Continue looking for death records for either Nancy or James Hindle
• Look for the children found in the 1851 census (Alice and Richard) in later records

X00370 & X00371 Nancy Rothwell Birth info - Solved!

Nancy Rothwell appears in the 1841 census living with the rest of the Rothwell family, aged 13 (implying a birth year of about 1828). Unfortunately, she doesn't appear in any later census records with the family that I could find.

This information created a few questions as described in previous posts:

• X00370 - Birth information for Nancy Rothwell
• X00371 - When did Henry Rothwell and Alice Hacking get married?

I have found a marriage record for Henry and Alice in 1833

A marriage in 1833 implies that Nancy was likely born before the marriage. And sure enough I found an interesting baptism record:

It's a baptism record for a Nancy Rothwell, baptised 21 May 1841 and the parents are Henry and Alice Rothwell. And Henry is listed as a carter which matches. The actual date of birth however is given as 2 April 1828, which would match. So, it's a definite possibility that Nancy was born 2 April 1828 out of wedlock, but was baptised later in life (at age 13) when the parents were married.

So this fits. I did however, find a baptism record dated 11 Oct 1829 for a Nanny Hacking, born to an Alice Hacking, with no father listed:

This could be an original baptism record, but the date and location don't match and there's not enough other information to tell for sure.

I did also look into the possibility that Alice Hacking as married previously and found a marriage record between an Alice Strong and a James Hacking on 28 November 1828.

But this seems unlikely. For one thing, Alice is listed as a spinster in the 1833 marriage record, and the name Hacking appears as a middle name for one of her children. Also, the marriage would have taken place after Nancy was born, according to her later baptism. So, it would seem that this is more of a coincidence than anything else. I have also found James and Alice Hacking in later census records.

After considering the evidence and timing, it would appear that the 1841 baptism record for Nancy Rothwell and the 1833 marriage record for Henry Rothwell and Alice Hacking are the correct records.