Sometimes
in the research process, the most obvious record is not always the right
answer. This happened recently when I
was researching my great grandmother’s cousin, Harriet Mary Ann Butcher Ashenden. She was born in 1838 in Strood, Kent, England
and married in 1858 to Thomas William Ashenden.
I was interested in finding her in records after her marriage, which
included the census records and her death record. I found Harriet in the 1861 Census living in
Strood, Kent, England. I could not find
her in any census after that.
When I
did a search for the death date of Harriet, assuming she died in Strood or in
the vicinity, the first item in the
search listed the following: Harriet
Ashenden, born about 1839, died in 1891 in Strood, Kent, England. Sounds like the perfect match, right? But I didn’t have any other information from
the death record to verify that this was the same Harriet that I was
researching. Was this Harriet Ashenden
married or was Ashenden her maiden name.?
Who were her parents? What was her
spouse’s name? These are questions that
were not included on the records but would have helped me determine if I had
the right Harriet.
A few lines below this entry, there was a “Mary Ann Ashenden”
married to a Thomas Ashenden who was living in 1881 in York, Ontario,
Canada. This time I had a spouse’s name
and I also knew that a few of Harriet’s siblings had emigrated to York. The census record showed that Mary Ann was
born in 1838 in England. I made the
assumption that Harriet Mary Ann began to go by her middle name of Mary Ann. It
seemed like I had found the right one this time. I even found her death record of November 30,
1890. Again, no parent’s names on the
death record but I was pretty sure this was the same Mary Ann listed with
Thomas in the 1881 Census. Not still
completely satisfied because of the slight difference in the name, I wanted to
dig a little more.
I frequently use two websites when I research: familysearch.org and ancestry.com. The above was from family search. I decided to go to ancestry.com and do a
search. This time I found the following
record:
Harriet Mary Ann Ashenden who died July 26, 1874 in York,
Ontario, Canada born in 1838 in England.
Bingo! This had to be the one I
was looking for, specifically because of the unique name of “Harriet Mary Ann”. But then who was Mary Ann Ashenden married to
Thomas Ashenden in the 1881 Census? Further
research answered that question as well.
In 1875, Thomas Ashenden, a widower, married Mary Ann Shaw. So that explained the confusion between
Harriet’s death in 1874 and the name of Mary Ann in the 1881 Census.
That marriage record led me to new findings for Thomas
Ashenden, Harriet’s husband. He married
a third time in 1898, was in the 1901 Canadian Census, and died in 1907! From these records, I was able to find his
place of birth as well as his parent’s names.
So, after much delving, the real Harriet Mary Ann Ashenden,
DID STAND UP!
