Saturday 15 January 2011

Surname Saturday: Yardley

Eliza YARDLEY came from Dublin, Ireland in about 1803.  For over 20 years she was housekeeper to my ggg grandfather, Adam BUCKINGHAM, and appears in the censuses as such.  Yet, there was never a mention of a Mr YARDLEY, and small children kept appearing.  Adam and Eliza got married in 1869 (why have the children first, and *then* get married?) when the youngest child was in her early 20s, and Eliza died in 1876, with Adam following a year later.

This has provided me with somewhat of a mystery.  Were the small children a result of Eliza doing more than housekeeping for Adam?  Did Eliza really come from Ireland? (another census says she came from Foleshill in Warwickshire, where she was living, and there are YARDLEYs who come from Foleshill, so perhaps she was a part of them?).  Hmmm.  I feel more certificates coming on...

3 comments:

  1. Perhaps Adam and / or Eliza were already married and had to wait for the death of their first spouse(s) before they could marry? Or was there such a disparity in social status that marriage was not something Adam could countenance, for family and professional reasons, until he and Eliza were in the last years of their lives?

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  2. I assume Eliza lived in the Buckingham household. Did the census indicate who was the father of the children? Did the obituaries of any of the children name a father?

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  3. In the 1841 census, they are not described as anyone's children LOL. In the 1871 census, John is described as 'son' (doesn't say whose). I have not found any obituaries yet.

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