the other side

Most of my posts have been on relatives from my side of the family; however, today we can finally celebrate one of Jeff's (and the kids') ancestors. Jeff's 4th great grandmother, Mary Smith, married her second husband, William Cottrell, March 4, 1845 in St. Martin, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, 165 years ago.

Mary married her first husband, Jeff's 4th great grandfather, James Scattergood, probably in the mid 1830s, as their first daughter, Ann, was born around 1836. I was not able to locate Mary and James' marriage record in the BMD (Birth, Marriage, Death Index) on Ancestry.com, probably because these records began in 1837. I would have to look at the parish registers for Birmingham, although I am not sure where they were married. Birmingham parishes would be a good guess as this is where Mary was from. James is not listed as deceased on his son Samuel's marriage record in 1869; but Mary Smith's 2nd Marriage record states Mary is a widow when she remarries in 1845 to William Cottrell. I did find a possible death record for James Scattergood. The dates match up, as this record of James states he was 32 years old when he dies, which means he was born around 1811, the same year our James was born according to his 1841 census record.

[possible death : Name: James Scattergood Year of Registration: 1842 Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun District: Birmingham (1837-1924) County: Warwickshire Volume: 16 Page: 175 - obtained record 3-1-07]

When Mary married her second husband, William, the marriage record states she was living on Lancaster Street, Birmingham, England. She was also living on Lancaster Street with her first husband, James, in the 1841 census, so she was probably still living in the same place after his death. I will have to take a look again at the James' death certificate to see if it lists the street this James lived on before he died. If it does list Lancaster Street, it probably is the correct James. I have not located Mary and William in the 1861 or 1871 censuses, so I am not sure when they made the move to another house.

Mary is found living at 9 Court 9 in Birmingham, England, in the 1881 census without her second husband, William. Mary is listed as widowed. I am not sure about the street address as I am not familiar with British addresses. It looks like the street listed for the family above Mary's entry live on Newhall Street. Mary's entry states 9 Court 9 - with a space in front of the first 9. Familysearch has transcribed her address as 9 Court 9 Newhall Street. The 1881 census lists street addresses and names of houses, so perhaps they lived on Newhall Street and Court is the name of the house. The entries after Mary's family also list Court - so perhaps it was a complex of some nature. It also could be that Court is the name of the street, but I am not sure why there would be two nines listed - one before and one after. Looking at Maps on Google - there is both a Newhall Street and a Court Street in Birmingham. They are about 1 mile apart from each other, so it would seem strange that a Census enumerator would go from Newhall Street then to Court Street immediately after, missing all the other streets in between. I guess the best way to figure this out would be to look at previous census pages to see if other house names are listed on Newhall Street and to look at pages after Mary's entry to see if Newhall Street is listed again at the top of the page, as it is on Mary's page. This will give me a better sense of the area that was enumerated.

Further evidence that they probably lived on Newhall Street and the name of the house was Court is explained on Wikipedia's entry on Birmingham Back to Backs. It is an article about a set of Back to Backs in Birmingham that were restored, and gives an address of 50 Inge Street/ 1 Court 15, which is very similar to the entry above for Mary and her family of Newhall Street, 9 Court 9. Another article on Wikipedia is useful in it's description of what a Back to Back is :

"Back-to-back houses are a form of terraced house in which two houses share a rear wall (or in which the rear wall of a house directly abuts a factory or other building)..Usually of low quality (sometimes with only two rooms, one on each floor) and high density, they were built for working class people and because three of the four walls of the house were shared with other buildings and therefore contained no doors or windows, back-to-back houses were notoriously ill-lit and poorly ventilated and sanitation was of a poor standard."

If this is the type of house that Mary and her family lived in, it must have been very crowded. Mary is the head of household in the above mentioned 1881 census, which includes Mary's daughter Sarah and her two children (Sarah and William) and Mary's widowed son Samuel and his three children (Agnes, Luisa, and Arthur). Mary's daughter Sarah is listed as married, but no spouse is listed. Mary's son, Samuel Oakley Scattergood, is Jeff's 3rd great grandfather. Mary also had two other children, Ann and Mary, that are probably living with their spouses at this time. According to approximate birth dates gathered from census data, all of Mary's children were from her first husband, James Scattergood.

It seems Mary Smith Scattergood Cottrell lived in Birmingham, England thoughout her life, from about 1816 until her death after 1881 when she was probably living on Newhall Street. Google books has The Encyclopedia Americana... online, with an excerpt on Birmingham here. Also on Google books is A Concise History of Birmingham, published in 1808, a little before Mary was born there. Of course, Wikipedia also has an entry here with some Birmingham history, sharing with us the following passage, "author J. R. R. Tolkien was brought up in Birmingham with many locations in the city such as Moseley bog, Sarehole Mill and Perrott's Folly supposedly being the inspiration for various scenes in The Lord of the Rings." Some interesting things occurred in Mary's homeplace of Birmingham, including the composer Mendelssohn's "Elijah" being preformed for the first time at the Birmingham Festival in 1846 (a year after she married William). Another part of history occurred in Birmingham about 15 years before Mary was born, the Birmingham Riots of 1791, perhaps Mary's parents witnessed this historic event.

To Do List:
1. look at the pages before and after Mary's entry on the 1881 Census to see if other house names are listed (before) and Newhall Street is listed (after)
2. find James Scattergood death certificate that I ordered to see if Lancaster street is listed as his address - which would make this death certificate a more probable match - also see if his parents are listed on this death certificate.
3. find where Mary's daughter Sarah's husband may have been in the 1881 census - why he is not listed with them as Sarah is listed as married, not widowed.
4. find mary's first marriage record to james scattergood perhaps in birmingham parish registers