Category Archives: Royston

George Jacklin: The search for his wife's maiden name

Published: January 28, 2017    Last modified: February 22, 2017

Emily Grace Pearce 1899-1987: Family Tree (edited excerpt)

Yesterday, the weather being particularly cold and inhospitable, I decided to stay indoors, keep warm and organise into some sort of order, my numerous scanned images; this did not get very far.

Soon I came across a scanned image of Aunt Grace's family tree, an edited excerpt of which is shown above, of which I have discussed before in this previous article: Emily Grace Pearce: Jacklin Family Tree

George JACKLIN was a younger brother of my great grandfather Daniel JACKLIN. Looking at my GEDCOM I realised that I had never seriously researched George JACKLIN and his descendants.

According to my research George and Daniel JACKLIN were both born at Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, though depending on the source, my ancestors born at Whaddon often migrate to Orwell and vice versa. The villages are nearby and seem to be used in parish records and various censuses, by my ancestors, interchangeably!

Over the last few years on-line publicly accessible databases have grown enormously so I thought I would be able to establish births and marriages quite quickly, and possibly, though with more difficulty, deaths.

Well one of the problems with this family tree is that it consists mainly of forenames, and in some cases, shortened familiar names; this was going to be my downfall.

I had in my GEDCOM the surname of GLOVER as being the likely maiden name of George JACKLIN's wife. I had not made a note of the source but it most likely came from a quick search of FreeBMD.

Now the problem with GLOVER is that it conflicts with the information cited in Aunt Grace's family tree. Aunt Grace has written "George m. ? Jeanette Barker". Does the question mark indicate she is not certain regards the first name 'Jeanette': does it indicate other first names, or does it indicate she is not certain about the whole name?

I searched on various forms of Jeanette, a not so common first name, without result. I substituted BARBER for BARKER but could only come back with a Emily BAXTER - George JACKLIN or Emily GLOVER - George JACKLIN marriage as being remotely possible, matching dates and locations. In fact I tried every permutation I could think of; still no result. Eventually I decided to concentrate on George's children.

This becomes much easier of course, once one passes the September quarter of 1912, when birth registrations record the mother's maiden name.

So following Aunt Grace's tree I quickly established the year and district of birth for all the names that Aunt Grace listed. Many of these descendants will still be alive so I will not document them publicly. The descendants known to have passed away, I will document here:

George JACKLIN had three children:

Ada JACKLIN married Thomas HOWELLS and had 1 child.
William JACKLIN married Rosa F BROTHERS and had 2 children.
Emily JACKLIN married William HOWLETT and as far as I can establish did not have children.

I successfully traced all subsequent generations and will add them to my GEDCOM, though of course there could well be other children that have yet to be transcribed. Aunt Grace does record the passing of Lilian, William and Emily.

I then returned to the problem of George's wife's maiden name. I moved on to parish records and censuses and eventually made what I thought could be a vital breakthrough: I discovered a christening for one William George Daniel JACKLIN at the Church of Saint Mark, Enfield, Middlesex on the 2nd of June 1895.The father's name being George JACKLIN and the mother's name Agnes Emily Janette JACKLIN. The first mention of a 'Jeanette' that all my searches had found.

I then checked the England and Wales Census 1901:

FHJ Ref: 044
Census: England and Wales Census 1901
Household: George Jacklin

SURNAMEFIRST NAME(S)RELSTATUSSEXAGEOCCUPATIONWHERE BORNREMARKS
JacklinGeorgeHeadMarriedMale34Royston, Hertfordshire
JacklinAgnes I EWifeMarriedFemale34Whittenden, Essex
JacklinAgnes H EDaughterFemale7Enfield, Middlesex
JacklinWilliam GeorgeSonMale6Enfield, Middlesex
JacklinMary ADaughterFemale3Enfield, Middlesex
JacklinEmily M ADaughterFemale1Enfield, Middlesex

To view this table full width please click here.

Having found the name 'Agnes Emily Janette JACKLIN' the 1901 census shows Agnes I E JACKLIN though the substitution of 'I' for the 'J' could be a transcription error.

Having gleaned all this information and a quite distinct series of forenames one would assume I would quickly arrive at George's wife's maiden name; this was not to be. Even after further research, I could not establish beyond reasonable doubt Agnes Emily JACKLIN's maiden name.

Several members of the JACKLIN dynasty of Orwell and Whaddon, Cambridgeshire, did relocate to the Edmonton and Enfield districts of Middlesex as mentioned in this previous article: Hannah Jacklin and the unknown grandfather

The districts of Enfield and Edmonton are what I would expect. Several JACKLIN's born at Whaddon or Orwell are sometimes documented as being from nearby Royston, Hertfordshire (a town that in the past has changed County several times).

The names, particularly the forenames, provide the greatest curiosity:

Aunt Grace documents 'Lill' and 'Lilian' yet my searches found Rosa F BROTHERS, neither of the Agnes' seems to use their first name and following a few more searches, even George JACKLIN's birth place becomes somewhat of a mystery. More research required!

There will be several updates to this article; of that I am certain.

Notes:
Looking again at my Aunt Grace's family tree, I noticed, in another branch of the tree, the surname Glover: Ivy GLOVER married Cyril Gordon PEARCE, a nephew of George JACKLIN 1865-1944 during 1929. Cyril Gordon PEARCE 1907-Deceased was the 4th child of Emily PEARCE (née Emily JACKLIN 1871-1951) and Henry PEARCE 1881-1993 (my gg aunt and uncle) and the brother of Aunt Grace who produced this family tree.

The family tree shows Cyril Gordon remarried in 1941 but gives no clues to the reason. Looking at my notes I found a death in 1934 in the Cambridgshire area, for one Ivy PEARCE aged 29 years. Curiously I have her date of passing as the 3rd of January 1934, a burial place of Whaddon, Cambridgshire, and a note indicating she died of TB. For whatever reason I have not recorded the source of this information. I cannot for the life of me remember how or where I came across this information.

Emily Grace Pearce 1899-1987 and Rosalie Faith Pearce 1902-1958

Published: October 10, 2010    Last modified: May 21, 2022

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Emily Grace Pearce 1899-Deceased

Daniel JACKLIN 1842-1897 and Lydia PEARCE 1843-1922 married on Christmas Eve, 1864 at Orwell, Cambridgeshire. This marriage produced 5 children:

  1. Daniel JACKLIN 1862-1953 my great grandfather
  2. George JACKLIN 1866-Deceased
  3. Jabez JACKLIN 1868-Deceased
  4. Emily JACKLIN 1871-1951
  5. Hannah JACKLIN 1874-1934

Emily JACKLIN 1871-1951 married Henry PEARCE 1881-1933 in 1899 at Royston which borders on the counties of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire. This marriage produced 3 children:

  1. Emily Grace PEARCE 1899-1987
  2. Rosalie Faith PEARCE 1902-1958
  3. Harry Stanley PEARCE 1904-Deceased

Though I do not remember having met either Emily Grace known to the family as Aunt Grace or Rosalie Faith known as Aunt Rose, my mother remembers visiting Aunt Grace at her home in Whaddon.

Questioning my mother about the sisters I was able to glean the following:
Emily Grace PEARCE 1899-1987 was an undergraduate at Jesus College Cambridge and later the headmistress at Pontefract and District Girls School, Pontefract, Yorkshire which closed I think in the 1950's.
Rosalie Faith PEARCE 1902-1958 was a teacher and possibly headmistress at Whaddon Church of England School, Whaddon, Cambridgeshire. This closed I think in the 1930's and eventually became the village hall.

I have not been able to substantiate any of these claims despite much searching of various websites.

Neither sister ever married and Aunt Grace eventually retired from teaching and retired to a large house on the edge of Whaddon village. I know less about Aunt Rose so it would be really nice if someone that remembers the sisters would contact me through this site.

I have yet to determine when and where the two sisters passed away but Aunt Grace was certainly alive in 1981. I probably need to speak with my late father's sister, since she probably had the most contact with Grace and Rose.

Updates:
2012-02-13 I recently came across this article on the Meldreth History website.

"Miss R Pearce (teacher) is to be congratulated on the excellence of this performance, being a “past master” in the handling of puppets." - The Herts and Cambs Reporter and Royston Crow

Meldreth is a village close to Orwell and Whaddon.