Our NANA GERT maintained a life-long attachment to her Cornish ancestral roots and, although no locations were ever mentioned, she frequently talked of her family being from Cornwall. One of my most exciting discoveries was to find details of the ancestry of her grandmother MARY HARRIS (understood to have been born HEARD).
MARY's maiden and married name are quite common in Cornwall, and with the incredibly helpful clues from the details on MARY and WILLIAM HARRIS's marriage registration details and the dates and names in the single remaining page of MARY's prayer book, I set out to find her background.
This post is about MARY HEARD's family and her ancestry, and my cyber-journey to find these details.
To summarise the previous post about MARY, her maiden name is clearly identified as HEARD in her prayer book, and her location in 1838 is placed in the vicinity of Meadrose Sunday School (established after cross-referencing the unclear writing with locations in Cornwall). Her birthdate, probably in her own handwriting, is established as July 1st, 1825, giving her age when she received her book as 13. At a later date, obviously after her marriage, WILLIAM HARRIS's name is added, and his date of birth is given as October 1st, 1823.
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| Page from the prayerbook of MARY HARRIS born HEARD |
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| Snapshot of entry in the Warbstow parish register of the marriage of WILLIAM HARRIS and MARY HEARD. |
From the most wonderfully comprehensive Cornwall OPC website which transcribes and publishes the details from parish registers in Cornwall, I had found the marriage details of WILLIAM HARRIS and MARY HEARD, which established details of both WILLIAM's and MARY's fathers.
Details from the Warbstow parish register:
1847 marriage solemnised at the parish church in the parish of Warbstow, in the county of Cornwall.
Entry number 43: May 2nd, William HARRIS, of full age, bachelor, servant, at Trevillan, son of JAMES HARRIS, labourer, married MARY HEARD, spinster, no given profession, from Penwillan, daughter of RICHARD HEARD, labourer.
The marriage took place after banns had been read, although I can find no record of the banns. The marriage was solemnised by the curate (name currently unreadable) and was witnessed by Richard Hawke (signed) and William (possibly) Burdon. Note that MARY signed her own name, and WILLIAM was - at that stage - illiterate and could only leave his mark.
I can find no mention of Penwillan anywhere, and assume it was the name of a small farm.
So back to the beginning... After spending literally hours unsuccessfully looking for the baptism details of MARY HEARD born in 1825 - with a father called RICHARD - I tried a different approach, and searched all the births of 1825, and discovered a MARY YARD (with a father called RICHARD), who must be our MARY. Maybe it was the way it was pronounced?
From that information, I was able to find RICHARD's marriage details.
According to MARY's personal details in her prayer book, she was born on July 1st, 1825, (Friday). Parish records indicate that she was baptised on Sunday 14th August.
Baptism records give her parents as Richard - a labourer - and Jane, and their residence is Treliggo, St Teath. Nowadays, it's called Treligga and more information and photos can be found here and here.
I can find no mention of Penwillan anywhere, and assume it was the name of a small farm.
So back to the beginning... After spending literally hours unsuccessfully looking for the baptism details of MARY HEARD born in 1825 - with a father called RICHARD - I tried a different approach, and searched all the births of 1825, and discovered a MARY YARD (with a father called RICHARD), who must be our MARY. Maybe it was the way it was pronounced?
From that information, I was able to find RICHARD's marriage details.
According to MARY's personal details in her prayer book, she was born on July 1st, 1825, (Friday). Parish records indicate that she was baptised on Sunday 14th August.
Baptism records give her parents as Richard - a labourer - and Jane, and their residence is Treliggo, St Teath. Nowadays, it's called Treligga and more information and photos can be found here and here.
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| Treligga today. |
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