Ann Hird (nee Hindley), my seven-times-great-grandmother, gave me a run for my money!
Working back from her marriage record, I had established Ann Hird’s family connections. I thought I knew her parentage, her siblings, the family’s standing in the community (her “brother” was parish clerk). Then suddenly I realised two things: first, she was the only one of the family to be resident in Marton rather than Scampton and second, she was over thirty when she married.
A radical re-think
Neither of these would be an insuperable difficulty but just on the off-chance, I looked at the situation in Marton. (The whole enterprise had not been helped by somebody transcribing “Marton” as “Martin”, which is why I like to see the original records if I can.) The record of her marriage to Edward Trever did not have much detail. At this time widowhood was not routinely recorded, so she could well have been a widow when she married him. So was there an Anne who married a Mr Hird in Marton? There was. Anne Hindley married Mark Hurd in 1709 and he died in 1714.
My next problem was with the two Richard Hindleys – my heart sank when I found a death record in 1696 for Anne Hindley, daughter of Richard Hindley Snr. But a “senior” implies a “junior” and sure enough, there were two Richard Hindleys, both with daughters called Anne. Our ancestor was the daughter of the later marriage, in 1677, of Richard and Gertrude. (The terms “Senior” and “Junior” would not necessarily imply a relationship, just a difference in age.)
The revised version
Anne had two children of her first marriage, Mary and Richard. She had lived in Nettleham with Mark Hurd but seems to have returned to her home in Marton after his death. She was living there when she married Edward, but they returned to Nettleham where they lived the rest of their lives.
Anne’s older children were eight and five years old when she re-married. With Edward she had five more children: John, Mary, Edward, Garterett and Elizabeth. Sadly she and Edward lost both of their sons. John died in infancy and Edward Jnr lived to be three years old. A year after his death she had our ancestor Elizabeth, her last child.
Mother of Elizabeth Trevor and daughter of Richard and Garthred Hindley
Baptised Anne Hindley on 22 November 1685 at Marton, Lincolnshire
Married (1) Mark Hurd on 16 May 1709 & (2) Edward Trever on 17 March 1718
No record of death found