Here I continue looking at family tree research.
Mary Ann Cooper my great-grandmother
I thought I would look at my grand-parents and how using the census records available in the U.K. Between 1841 and 1911 every 10 years these were hand recorded and contain information on who lived at a particular address.
It is not unusual to find common names in your ancestry. Here you can see both my great grandmothers had the same maiden name of Pepper.
The Coopers
The Gents
On my grandmother's side I can trace the family back to 1781 with my 4th great-grandfather living quite locally to me in Ilkeston, Derbyshire.
On my grandfather's side I can trace them back to my 5th great-grandfather born in Pinxton, Derbyshire in 1730.
If the two families ever joined together I have not yet found out. It is very difficult to find records before these dates.
Looking at my grandmother's family and some of the census records you can authenticate your research.
I know my grandmother was born in Pinxton in 1895 because I have her birth certificate. Using this information you can see the family in the 1901 census. Move back 10 years and some older siblings are there and they are the correct age. The address could also be the same but families often moved house at this time. This could be due to the number of family members and the family income.
Authenticating this record was easy. The Coopers lived next door to 3 families of Pepper. It is very common for families to marry between neighbours.
Difficult to see in this 1861 census but 3 houses contain Peppers and one Coopers.
You get marriage records to confirm you have it correct. This is one big game with lots of twists and turns but make one mistake and you could go off in the wrong direction. That's why when something looks wrong it's worth checking and double checking. Then check it again.
Things I thought didn't happen much, like children out of wedlock happened quite often in the 1800s. No television back then and it was cold.
Farmers married farmers.
Miners married miners daughters.
If you find someone that married someone else from a distance away it is very common to find that the whole family had moved and the marriage was now a local affair. In the mid 1800s, many ship workers like the rope and sail makers, due to the change to steam shipping I found were no longer employed, so they moved to find employment. Local to my ancestors was coal mining.
Census records contain the address, names and ages. It also could contain the employment and place of birth. All tie things together.