This week I am returning to my research on Great Uncle John Wilcox, and particularly his wife Jennie. I have described my earlier research in a post last month. Jennie, which was her familiar name, is a significant person in this story, mainly because I am struggling to find any records that relate to her prior to the 1921 Census return. Usually, the Census can offer sufficient information to search for someone’s origins. In this case, Jennie, named as Dorothy Jean Edwards in the 1921 return, stated that she was born in Talsarn, a hamlet in what was known as Cardiganshire, in the registration district of Aberaeron. This should have offered sufficient information to search for Jennie and her family. It did not. More unusually, I had the name of Jennie’s sister, Hannah, who was eight years older than her. She was listed in the same address as Jennie in the 1921 return. So, two names, sisters, eight years apart, but still no records appearing for them in my searches, even when I search for them separately.
The story that I had previously told was centred on where my Uncle John was living in 1921, after his heroic service during the First World War. He was living in Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell, and working as a Dairyman in a Dairy that was managed by Jean Edwards, and her sister Hannah was also living there and described as a Housekeeper.
With this information I should have been able to follow their lives and find more about their past. John Wilcox has a significant footprint in the public records. Jean Edwards does not.
The best I have been able to do is to discover their marriage registration which gave me the index details for ordering a copy of their certificate. I did order the certificate, but the General Register Office (GRO) replied that they could not find it under the details that I had given them. This suggested to me that I may have got something wrong. But then I realised that it was all to do with how Jean called herself. In the Census return she described herself as Dorothy Jean, but when she married John Wilcox, she had dropped the Dorothy. I reordered the certificate and, I got it right this time.
There is nothing more exciting than ordering a copy of a certificate like this and discovering information that surprises, pleases and makes you grateful for the details that these records offer. Opening the envelope when it arrives is the most exciting thing, being baffled and then surprised is the next.
Copy of marriage certificate, 1924, John and Jean Wilcox (purchased from General Register Office 2025)
The marriage was in 1924, three years after I discovered John Wilcox living and working in the Dairy in Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell. John confirms everything that I already know about him, his full name, age, and his parentage. His father is named and correctly described as a Builder and Decorator. Jean is named, without her first name. But wait a moment, she is named as Jane Edwards. Yet another pointer to the challenges of research. Were these errors and mistakes on her part or were they intentional? Or did the person officiating at the wedding get it wrong?
John Wilcox described himself as a Dairyman, but Jean (or Jane) described herself, or was described as, – a blank space. Three years previously she had been a Shopkeeper, managing the Dairy at Great Sutton Street. A woman’s occupation was frequently left blank in the past because the assumption at marriage was that they would be looking after the house. I know that Dorothy had a good job, and it seems grossly unfair that she is not able to have it recorded at the time of her marriage.
The marriage certificate is also the only time that I have discovered a tad more about her past. She lists her father as Nathaniel Edwards, and he was described as a Farmer. I know that John Wilcox’s father had died before 1924, but he was not described as deceased. Neither is Nathaniel Edwards, and I am left to not know if he is alive or deceased.
No one with the name of Edwards or Wilcox is described as one of the three witnesses. They are listed as D.A.Davies, E.Williams and J.B.Davies. Also, good Welsh names, for a good reason.
The wedding took place in the Welsh Tabernacle, which is on Kings Cross Road, Kings Cross. This was one of many Welsh Congregationalist Churches in London, serving the needs of the many Welsh people who came to London for work in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Jean had wanted to respect her roots and spiritual upbringing by having her wedding in what was probably the most famous Welsh church in London. It was also not too far from where both John and Jean were living. The Welsh Tabernacle became part of the United Reformed Church. Earlier this century it closed and it is now the Ethiopian Christian Fellowship Church.
The Welsh Tabernacle in Kings Cross Road. It is now the Ethiopian Christian Fellowship Church (copyright Robin Stott under the Creative Commons Licence)
The wedding ceremony was conducted by the Tabernacle Minister, H.Elvet Lewis.
Signature of Howell Elvet Lewis
When I researched Mr Lewis, there was another revelation. He was a famous Welsh poet and hymn writer and later that year, in 1924, he was appointed Archdruid of the National Eisteddfod of Wales, a position he held until 1928. From 1904 until 1940 Howell Elvet Lewis was the minister of this Welsh speaking chapel. Which leads me to believe that Jean was a Welsh speaker, but I cannot confirm that because the England Census return does not ask the language spoken question, unlike Wales and Scotland in 1921.
Were they alone in the Chapel or were their families represented. A question that I will probably never know the answer to. I wonder if my grandparents, William and Grace Wilcox, were present.
Jean may well have dropped her first name for many of her activities but when she died, she may have put it back. There is a registration for her death in 1966, registered in Ealing. Her name is listed as Dorothy J Wilcox and so I am hoping that this certificate will offer me perhaps another step in my research.
I think that Howell Elvet Lewis merits a post on his life and times.
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