Genealogy Chat

Thanks for all your replies. I thried emailing Ruth Hodges but the email was returned! Did I put Joseph as Joanna Gerrans father? That shows how confused I am! It says John on her marriage record. Thank goodness she married after the names of fathers were added!!! I've been through the 1841 census for Cornwall, and found a Joanna Gerrans living as a servant in St Clement, Truro. I found Joanna Davey who I thought was mine originally in Truro, but in 1851 she is still single and living with her parents! I can't remember if I've searched for a Christiana Gerrans or Davey so I'll do that. I think it's one of those cases where I'll never know what happened! Maybe I'll just call her Joanna Gerrans-Davey and forget about trying to follow her line!

Julia - if you haven't looked at the 1841 Cornwall census then google 'Cornwall Online Census Project'. They have transcribed the whole census! You can also search it on FreeCEN but I don't know which is the easier to look through. It may take a while to search but hopefully you will find them somewhere in there! I must say I am a bit confused about Joanna's parents - how do you know her father was John if she gives his name as Joseph on her marriage cert and you haven't found her baptism? Or am I missing something here? Kate.

Hi Irene, it made sense to me and it is a good point too. Joanna Gerrans however was born well after her parents marriage in 1805, so I don't think that's what happened in this case. Worth remembering though!

Eliza Blake was my husbands gg grandmother, I have the childrens birth certificate which states her maiden name. I had her married on census 1851-1891. Look high and low for her marriage to WH. It was while I was looking in Winchester 1851 for someone else I thought I would look for her possible parents and there they were living where eliza and her husband moved to about 1855. I then found a marriage for WH but could not still find Eliza Blake. Well it was the right one, but her maiden name was Churcher, father James Blake. Why because she was born 2 months before her parents marriage, only to confuse us when her grandparents also married 2 months after her mothers birth. So in fact Eliza had her grandmothers maiden name. Reading this again it sounds so confusing. Irene

Hi Kate, She is the dau of John Gerrans and Joanna Michell on the IGI!! Nicholas was her Uncle! I hadn't considered the adoption theory, but you've got me wondering, as she is the 5th out of 8 children, and the only one without a baptism record? I wonder if she was the daughter of Nicholas who was brought up by her Aunt & Uncle? Agewise she fits right in to either the 1817 birth year or the 1821!! but either way, she would have still been a Gerrans, not a Davey!! Oh dear, another mystery!!!

Dear Julia, I just thought of this to solve somebody else's mystery, but it could well apply to yours as well - could she have been adopted? Perhaps she was Christiana Davey at birth but then adopted by Joseph Gerrans and his wife, and they changed her name to Joanna? Then maybe she never knew what to give as her maiden name! Kate.

That's weird - I had thought she would be the Johanna Gerrans christened 28 Jul 1821 at Perranarworthal, but according to the IGI her father was Nicholas! Kate.

Thanks for those ideas. I hadn't thought about Christiana being her middle name. I've never seen a middle name or initial but that's not to say there wasn't one! I'm pretty sure she was a spinster though, as he father was recorded as Joseph Gerrans. I think it would be easier for a man to hide his state of marriage more than a woman, don't you think? I'll check out the Cornish Surname Index too, and the CHFS members interests for Davey/Gerrans while I'm about it! This mystery has been bugging me for a year!

If you enter Perranarworthal Davey into Google the first hit will be the Cornish Surname Index and on there is a Ruth Hodges who is researching the surname Davey place Perranarworthal so it might be worth contacting her to see if she knows anything. Kate.

Don't take for granted that a relative was actually a spincter/ batchular when they married just because the certificate says they were. I have an ancester that married twice and is registered as a batchular on both certificates. Have you considered that Joanna/ Christiana is the same person but one name is her middle name.

A few Cornish references for you to mull over from family history online: 1. Joanna GERRANS found in Cornwall Baptism Index 1 entry in Cornwall during 1854 details £0.06 2. Joanna GERRANS found in Cornwall Marriage Index 1 entry in Cornwall during 1831 details £0.05 3. Joanna Wasley GERRANS found in Cornwall Baptism Index 1 entry in Cornwall during 1808 details £0.06 4. Johanna GERRANS found in Cornwall 1881 Census 1 entry in Cornwall during 1881 details free 5. Johanna GERRANS found in Cornwall 1841 Census 2 entries in Cornwall during 1841 details £0.14 or list places £0.10 6. Johanna GERRANS found in Cornwall 1861 census 2 entries in Cornwall during 1861 details £0.18 or list places £0.10 7. Johanna GERRANS found in Cornwall 1871 census 1 entry in Cornwall during 1871 details £0.09 8. Johanna GERRANS found in Cornwall Baptism Index 1 entry in Cornwall during 1821 details £0.06 9. Johanna GERRANS found in Cornwall Burial Index 1 entry in Cornwall during 1821 details £0.05

Hi Anne, she was a spinster when she married. I just can't seem to figure out how or why she is 2 people. In a small place like Truro would have caused a major scandel if he'd just shacked up with her. As a widower, William did marry an Emma Duck in 1875.

Lol Sarah, That's just how I feel about it! I wondered if there were 3 ladies at one time, but in the 1851 census she is Christiana, but the birth cert of her child in July 1851 has her as Joanna Davey. A child born in 1853 has Joanna Davey but by the time said child is baptised in 1854 the mother is Christiana again! The census and Baptism records are the only instances I have of her being Christiana! Shall I totally confuse you by saying it looks like she died an 'Ann' in 1872!!!

Do you think she was born Gerrans but married a Davey before marrying your 3g grandfather? Or even the other way round. The registrar might have asked the question in different ways. Like in 1846 'what surname were you born with?' and in 1849 'what was your surname before you married?' There could be different answers to those questions if you had been married before. Anne

The censuses only say she is Joanna. I wouldn't have realised there was a problem if I hadn't made contact with a 3rd cousin who had the marriage of William to Joanna Gerrans, while I had the birth cert of our common ancestor which said Joanna Davey was the mother!! She was assuming Joanna Gerrans was the mother all the way through, while I was struggling to find a Grose/Davey marriage!!

Hi Julia! Have you looked at the original census records? It does seem very strange though, the names are not similar at all - hmmmmm puzzling! x

My 3x Great grandfather William Grose married Joanna Gerrans in 1844. She was born about 1819 in Perranworthal. I have the birth certs of all their children and between the birth of the 2nd child in Oct 1846 and the 3rd in March 1849 her name had changed to Joanna Davey. Not a simple case of William remarrying however, as there are no Joanna Grose deaths after 1845, and no William marriages in the vicinity within the years. Each birth cert has Joanna Davey as the mother from 1849 onwards (she was the informant, so it's not like William was guessing her surname!) In the censuses she is the same age and has same place of birth as Joanna Gerrans (apart for 1851 where she called herself Christiana for some reason!!), so is she one and the same, or 2 different Joanna's??? I thought that maybe she was illegitimate and when she found out after her 2nd child, she changed her surname to that of her real father, but she is slap bang in the middle of her family! Any ideas??