Note in Sarah and John G Heath's marriage registration (above) where it requires name and place of birth of parents: John G Heath supplies both his parents' names and places of birth, and Sarah writes her father's name - Charles Cossell - but no place of birth. What a missed opportunity for us to have learned or confirmed where he was born! We can infer that she may not have known this information. She includes her mother's first name only - Margaret - and place of birth has been shortened to Zeland [sic]. Transcribers must have thought it was a maiden name of Leland. Compare the original handwriting of Sarah's place of birth of New Zeland [sic] and you can see it's the same spelling - minus the "a" in each Zeland and the same way of doing the capital "Z". That is why it's always good to see the original copies of documents where possible.
Sarah had at least three more pregnancies after Charles Herbert Evans was born and, so very sadly, none of her babies survived birth or early infancy. What must this have been like for her to go through each pregnancy and birth with increasing despair that this one, too, would end in tragedy?
On 8th March 1862, George William Heath was born to John G and Sarah Evens Heath - exactly nine months after their wedding - just saying. This must be the same child known as George Elmer Heath also recorded born 1st March 1862 and died 7 October 1862. This child is buried at Tilton Cemetery, Belknap County, New Hampshire.
Then one year later, on March 5th, 1863, Sarah gave birth to an unnamed stillborn baby boy. Sarah's maiden name was recorded as Sarah Evans.
In June 1863 John G Heath, aged 30, shoe maker, was included in the list of new subjects to do military duty (US Civil War Draft Registrations Records 1863 - 1865.) I can find no evidence that he was involved in any active service - which is not to say that he didn't.
On October 12th, 1872, Sarah gave birth to an unnamed male. The father was recorded as John G Heath. There is no evidence that this baby lived for any length of time.
The next information I can find about John and Sarah is the 1880 Census.
1880 Census (16th June);
John G (47), and Sarah (44) Heath were still living in Northfield. Sarah's son Charles Evans (23) is living with them as a boarder. Sarah is 'keeping house", and both John and Charles are working at a woollen mill. John seems to have given up cordwaining (shoemaking). They have 3 other boarders with them (two males and one female) who were also working at the woollen mill. Some time between 1880 and 1889 Charles started going by his stepfather's surname. This may have been happening interchangeably up until this time, but it was locked in at the time of his marriage in 1889.
In July 1886, John and Sarah came by train from Tilton with delegates to a grand and raucous reunion of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) at San Francisco via Los Angeles. Delegates came from far and wide and a robust and jolly time seems to have been had by all. Check out this article in the Los Angeles Herald, 31 July, 1886, for a very long-winded article about the event, but it gives you an idea of the company John and Sarah kept on the train and the experience they had. (John G Heath and Mrs J.G. Heath - Tilton - it has to be them!). If they weren't attending the reunion then, might they have been using the journey as an opportunity to visit Sarah's siter Marilla who had moved to the West Coast? This theory awaits further research. See further below for an extract from the History of Northfield where it states than John and Sarah Heath went to Southern California several times for John's health. Again, this possibly provided opportunities to catch up with Sarah's sister Marilla - to be explored in a later post.
On 5th November, 1889, Sarah's son Chas Heath (formerly Evans) married Ida M Sanborn at Tilton, NH. Charles' occupation is railroading, and it is his first marriage and Ida's 2nd - she was divorced.
1891 Birth of John Samuel Heath: son of Charles Heath (formerly Evans) and wife Ida, and Sarah's first (and only - it seems - grandchild). Charles H Heath is listed as a fireman, living on Park St, Tilton. (Probably fireman on trains rather than putting out fires? See occupation below.)
John G Heath is listed living on Granite Street, Tilton, and boarding house given as occupation.
1900 Census (7th June):
Sarah and John G Heath were living in Northfield, Merrimack. Sarah's birth is given as New Zealand in February 1836, and both her parents were recorded as born in New Zealand. She declares having one child only and that one child is still living. Her stillbirths weren't counted as births, but sadly little George Elmer/George William's short life was not counted here either. She gives 1857 as the year of her immigration to US (not 1856, interestingly, when she first arrived with husband Charles A Evans). John and Sarah are operating a boarding house on Granite Street, and they have ten boarders living with them, including two married couples (two females in total). All the boarders work at the woollen mill or hosiery mill apart from one man who is a rail road section guard.
Still living in Northfield town in 1900, Charles Herbert Heath (57) gives August 1847 as his birth month and year and his mother's birthplace as New Zealand. He is a railroad engineer, can read, write and speak English and owns his own freehold house which is on a farm, although I see he has a mortgage on his property later on. The letter code was not very clear. Ida indicates her birth as February, 1857, and that she has had one child who is still living - their son John, 9 years old, at the same address. They have two young girls recorded as lodgers. Twelve-year-old Eva Dinsmore, born February 1888, attends school and can read, write and speak English. Her parents were both born in New Hampshire. Six-year-old Ruth A. Cobbett attends school. Her father was born in New Hampshire and her mother was born in Ireland. Side note about Ruth: In the 1910 Census, Ruth (aged 16) is recorded as living at home with her parents and also recorded in the home of her grandparents in Northfield. Maybe her parents included her as usually there, but she was actually at her grandparents at the time the enumerator visited? I can find no connection between the families. This Ruth is Ruth Adella Cobbett. Confusingly, there is another Ruth A Cobbett in the same vicinity and born the same year. I can see that some family trees have them mixed up. (Note: Ruth Adella had parents, brothers and sisters living nearby, and married into the Willey family who appear to be connected to Dinsmore, Heath, Evans and most of the other old families of Northfield.) Eva Blanche Dinsmore (1887 - 1957) was the daughter of Ida's brother Olin A Dinsmore and his wife Josephine Boucher. The marriage ended in divorce sometime after 1900 and Josephine remarried. Note that by 1920, Olin A was a full-time lodger with Charles and Ida. Eva became a nurse and married Robert L Cox. She died in 1957. Robert L Cox's grandfather was Sylvester E Cox who was Eva's mother Josephine's second husband. Confused?
1901, on 28th December, John Gerald Heath died at Northfield, aged 68, from heart failure, with acute bronchitis as a contributing cause.
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New Hampshire, U.S., Death and Disinterment Records, 1754 - 1947.
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John G Heath died intestate, and Sarah and her son Charles had to petition the court to appoint Walter Wyatt of Tilton to administer his estate.
1907: Sarah Heath died on 11th May at Northfield after residing there for 52 years. Her death certificate indicates her age was 71 years, 3 months and 8 days, and gave her date of birth as 3 February, 1836 at Mangonui, New Zealand. Note that her name says Sarah C Heath - the C is probably a reference to her maiden name Cossill. Her colour was given as white. Her father's name was given as John Corsell, a farmer born in New Zealand. Sarah's mother's maiden name was not given. Sarah had been suffering from nephritis for four years.
Sarah also died intestate, and her only son, Charles Herbert Heath petitioned the court to have the administration of her estate, which was valued at $3,500 worth of real estate.
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The graves of Sarah Heath born Ella Cossill, John Gerald Heath, and their son George Elmer Heath. (Source: Find a Grave)
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And so, after a life spanning so much of early colonial New Zealand history and some of the most significant events in American history, Sarah Cossill-Evans-Heath died on the other side of the world, far from where she was born to a released captive Maori woman and an illiterate English sailor-turned-labourer.
For many years, Sarah had been "lost" to her New Zealand family connections, likely after the last of her siblings with any memory of her passed away. Sarah having had no descendants after her grandson John Samuel Heath also contributed to our "loss" of her. There was no0 one left in America to remember her. Even though other Cossill descendants had been looking for her, she was thought to be called Ella - and that, of course, led us to brick walls.
Our discovery of Sarah is totally thanks to New Zealand historian and writer Joan Druett who was searching for a Sarah Gorsell, wife of whaling captain Charles Evans who was buried on an island in Mangonui, within sight of his father-in-law's house. From that tiniest piece of information, published in the newspaper in 1857, we found Charles and Pourewa's daughter - and much more.
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