My Yorkshire Pudding

 

Above is the tombstone for Ann Chicken which I had to probe though the pine needles and other debris to eventually find and unbury. I had known that it was there by previously seeing an online picture that had been taken by someone else and posted on the genealogy website Find-A-Grave. According to the credits, it had been posted on their site in 2016 but judging by the severe deterioration between my photo above taken in 2018, I suspect it had been taken many many years earlier. It says:

Ann
Wife of Joseph Chicken
Was Born
Aug 10, 1812
Died

(Here is where the tombstone is broken obscuring what had been etched into it)

Frances
Daughter of
J & A Chicken
Born
Apr 10, 1851
Died
Feb 11, 1858

At the time, I didn't know much about Ann and up until recently, still hadn't. But now that it is cooling off a bit and outside work slowing down, I decided to remedy that. I didn't know much about my 4th great grandmother other than her name was Ann and that she died sometime in the 1860's. She is found in the 1860 United States Federal Census but by 1870, her husband and my 4th great grandfather Joseph Chicken, was already remarried to Mary Jane Commins. If you recall, I wrote about his life and rather gruesome demise back in March of last year.

So I started my search by looking for more information on their children, specifically death certificates which usually list the name and place of birth for both of the deceased's parents. Two of her children listed her last name as Brittan/Britton and place of birth as Heinsbey and Hemsbey, England. I cursory search on google told me neither of those towns existed but I didn't put much stock in google for my knowledge of English geography is severely lacking when it comes to the micro scale.

I started casting a wider net, searching for Ann Britton's born in 1812 in England and perhaps hit paydirt. According to my genealogy research site, there were a half dozen born around that time but only one specifically born on 10 Aug 1812 and she was born in Helmsley, YORKSHIRE, England. This matches up well to the 1841 England Census when she and Joseph were living in Evenwood, Durham, England which lists Ann as not being born in the county of Durham along with a couple of her older children. Evenwood and Helmsley are roughly 45 miles away from each other.

The Yorkshire born Ann Britton was second daughter to John Britton, a carpenter, and Elizabeth Frank Britton and they had five other children James, Robert, Elizabeth, Simon and Margaret. I am slowly looking into their lives to find more ties that bind this family to my 4th great grandmother but English records of that period are hard to be use. Most other family trees with this family end them have the lives of all the children but Ann mapped out but Ann disappears. This would jive well with marrying a Chicken and moving to America. 

But one thing brings me pause and stops me from popping the cork on the champaign bottle. Joseph and Ann Chicken would had seven children starting with the eldest ones birth in 1831. I have located one marriage record for Joseph Chicken and an Ann Brittain but it lists their marriage date as 25 Nov 1837. This is six years after the birth of their first child, three years after their second and one year after their third. Having not one but three children out of wedlock would be a first for me in all my years of genealogy research. Of course, the marriage record is an index record meaning that it has been transcribed from an original record and thus opens the possibility of error, which is definitely something that I have found before in transcribed records. 

So the jury is still out for now. 

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A side note on the title for those who aren't in the know. Yorkshire Pudding is the blog of Mr. YP of Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, the only person I know from that area. He lives a fair distance away from Helmsley and as far as I know, isn't related to us Chickens over here in America but does share a bit of our humor.