It’s been a while since I’ve written or posted anything here. My apologies – it’s been a bit of a wild time here with me of late, but the sun is shining here in England this weekend so I thought I’d ignore it and write up an old post I had on the go!

If you think that I don’t write about my paternal side very often, then spare a thought for the family of my poor husband – they barely ever get a look in! Consequently, a message on Ancestry regarding some matches on that side made me revisit one particular line, that of Elizabeth Ellis Wood … or was she?

My husband’s great-grandfather, James Ernest Joyce, was born in late November 1885 in Wandsworth, Surrey (although his birth wasn’t registered until early the next year). His baptism in February 1886 lists not only his date of birth but also his mother’s maiden name (thank you, vicar of St John the Evangelist, Clapham)!! Thankfully this information matches what is on his birth certificate!

It therefore came as no surprise when I found George and Elizabeth’s marriage certificate and it gave her father’s name as Thomas Wood. The assumption was that her middle name of Ellis was likely her mother’s maiden name, or perhaps a grandmother’s maiden name.

The 1861 census gave me my first inkling that something might be a bit wrong with the simplest scenario … Elizabeth is living with what appears to be her parents – the Thomas Wood mentioned on her marriage certificate, and an Elizabeth Wood – and then two of Thomas’ “sons-in-law”, Edward and George Ellis. Son-in-law in census returns did not have the more rigid meaning it does today (i.e. husband of my child). It could also mean an adopted child, step-child, or even a cousin of some degree but of a lower generation. However, given that Elizabeth has the middle name of Ellis, my first thought was that her mother Elizabeth had had two illegitimate children before her marriage.

Two further things then became apparent: no marriage record could be found between a Thomas Wood and an Elizabeth Ellis, and there were no Elizabeth Wood births between 1854 and 1857 in the right area (Islington/Holloway in London) … Was Elizabeth (junior) actually born as Elizabeth Ellis?

I turned my attention to the other members of the household: the Ellis brothers, born in or around Islington. Thanks to the GRO website, I found a possible pair with the mother’s maiden name of Fair(e)y, and then I found a likely family group in the 1851 census:

Elizabeth (senior) has a fairly distinctive place of birth of Eaton Socon, Bedfordshire, so I was certain that this was the correct Elizabeth but recorded as the daughter of the head of the family: Edward Ellis and his wife, Sophia. Elizabeth is recorded as a widow, and the other children in the house are also recorded as the sons and daughters of Edward. However, their ages seem to fit a more likely scenario of Elizabeth being their mother. A trip to the GRO confirmed that all the (post-1837) children are recorded with Fair(e)y as their mother’s maiden name. The birth certificate for the youngest confirms this:

So if Elizabeth Fairy had married George Ellis, presumably it was his parents she was living with in 1851, with their children. Presumably, George had died at some point between Barbara’s conception and the 1851 census (although, much like ‘son-in-law’, the term widow on a census might be covering for something else!). And what about Elizabeth junior? How does she fit in? Is there a marriage for a George Ellis to an Elizabeth Fairy?

Well, the easiest one to answer is the last question. There is a marriage recorded between George Ellis and Elizabeth Fairey in Eaton Socon, Bedfordshire, on 22 July 1832. I suspect this to be the correct pair, given this seems to be Elizabeth’s home parish. They would have a total of 6 children together:

• Mary Ann Ellis, born 17 July 1834, Islington
• Henry Ellis, born 21 November 1836, Islington
• Sarah Ellis, born 1840, Holloway
• Edward Ellis, born 1844, Islington
• George Ellis, born 1847, Islington
• Barbara Ellis, born 15 January 1850, Holloway

Two days after Barbara was born, George Ellis was involved in a horrible accident whilst working on the construction of a new sewer in central Islington. The below appeared in The Globe on Saturday 18 January 1851.

The bodies of both men were later found at the mouth of the sewer at London Bridge and an inquest was held in the vestry room of St Magnus’ Church. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental Death”. I’m sure this did nothing to help Elizabeth with a family of six to look after. The fact that in the 1861 census, when her and her daughter Elizabeth are living with Thomas Wood, he is listed as being a labourer excavator may go some way to explain how she met Thomas – was he a friend or colleague of her late husband?

Now to the question posed right at the beginning. Is Elizabeth Ellis Wood actually a Wood? You’d imagine that her birth certificate would be the perfect place to start, wouldn’t you? Well, it’s not as much help as you’d think …

Elizabeth names her legal (but deceased) husband George Ellis as the father when she records the birth, and somehow includes the Wood surname in her own details. Her own box implies she was born Fairy, then became a Wood and is now Ellis. Which goes against the established facts. Now, her husband was dead, she wasn’t cheating on him, but somehow it was easier than naming Thomas as the father or even pretending to be married to him, as she would ultimately do for the 1861 census. Elizabeth is always enumerated as Ellis after that point, even her death is as Elizabeth Ellis.

So, Elizabeth (junior) was legally at birth an Ellis, but it seems likely that she was, indeed, a Wood biologically and to name him as her father at her marriage seems to imply that she certainly considered him her father, even if he seems to disappear from the records after 1861.