X00087: Mary Ann Slade Birth Correction

As mentioned previously, I have been trying to correct some information and try to solve some issues with my Slade family.

On the marriage certificate for William Slade and Emma Smith, it lists William Slade as a widower. I've been trying to find out more information about his first wife. The first clues are in the 1841 census.

You can see, William Slade and Emma Smith in the census, as well as their daughter Emma. There are two additional children, however, Mary Ann and Charles. Both children were born before William and Emma's marriage in 1839 and are therefore likely from the first marriage.

I managed to find a baptism record for Charles John Slade (born in 1827) and one for Mary Ann Slade:

This one, however, raised a number of concerns. First the baptism date of 1837 didn't match with the age in the census. As well, it's ten years after Charles was born, so there is quite a gap in time. As well, the occupation of smith for William Smith doesn't match, as William Slade shows as a clerk in almost all records. So I had another look and eventually found this record:

This one seems a better match.The baptism year is 1825, which better matches the census record, and is closer in time to the birth of Charles John Slade. Plus, William Slade is listed as a barrister's clerk which is consistent with other records. So this one makes far more sense.

As well, this gives a better idea of timing for finding further records. William Slade and Mary Ann likely married before 1825, and Mary Ann likely died shortly after 1827, unless there were other children born after Charles John.

Slade Family Research

I have recently been doing some research on my Slade line, particularly because I found some errors and wanted to try to sort them out. So over the next few weeks there will be a number of posts about the Slade line as I try to resolve some issue.

Some time ago, I discovered through a search of PERSI, that there had been an article published in Family Tree Magazine from January 2013 on photo dating, and the example that they use was a wedding anniversary photo between a William Bridgen and a Mary Ann Slade. I was naturally curious because there is a Mary Ann Slade in my family tree. So, I requested the article.

As it turns out, however, I'm going to rule out this family as having a connection. The Mary Ann Slade in my tree was born much earlier (around 1824, rather than 1851) and married a William Morris, rather than a William Brigden. Mary Ann Slade could be a daughter of someone in the Slade family, but the article states that she was born in Somerset, and my Slade family does not have a connection to Somerset (as far as I am aware).

I did a quick search on Ancestry for a Mary Ann Slade born in 1851 in Somerset and there are more than one. One was born to a Robert and Anne Slade; another to a William and Mary Slade. Neither couple matches the names in my tree, so I'm going to file this as a different family.

X00047 The Sir Slade Connection

Family lore has it that our Slade line is descended from a "Sir Slade" somewhere along the line. So far, I've only managed to trace the Slade line back to a William Slade (born 1800) and his father, a Robert Slade.

I had a search of the last name Slade in FindMyPast's Britain, Knights Of The Realm & Commonwealth database. All of the occurrences of the surname Slade were born after 1800 except one: a Sir Thomas Slade 1703-1771 who was a Naval architect.

According to WikiTree, Sir Thomas Slade lists only one child in his will, dated 1760 and that child is Thomas Moore Slade 1749-1831. WikiTree hasn't identified any spouse or children for Thomas Moore Slade. If the family lore store is true, then it would likely have to be the case that Robert Slade is the son of Thomas Moore Slade. It's just a matter of proving things one way or the other.