My ancestor Hannah Bird [Bird-9658, MVBJ-7M5] married Thomas Bird [Martin-63929, GHNY-THC] in Polesworth (in Warwickshire) in 1806. The 1841 Census shows that she was 60 years old, living in Wolverhampton and not born in Staffordshire. As the 1841 Census rounds the ages of adults down to the nearest five years, and even then has plenty of inaccurate ages, we would expect her to be born roughly between 1776 and 1781, most likely in or near Polesworth.
Looking at FindMyPast’s Warwickshire Baptisms, we find two plausible options:
- Hannah, daughter of John and Jane Bird, 15 October 1777, Sutton Coldfield
- Ann, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Bird, 16 November 1777, Polesworth
Both of these have questionable points: the first in that Sutton Coldfield is about ten miles from Polesworth – not an insurmountable distance, but about as far away as we could reasonably accept as being the correct record without further evidence in this era; the second in that the name is not an exact match – certainly it was the case that Ann and Hannah were related names, and the same person might use both names interchangeably, but in that case we would expect to find both names used on various records later in her life; in fact, on her marriage, 1841 Census, death and burial records, she is always “Hannah”.
A further point against the possibility of Ann is that there is a marriage for an Ann Bird in Polesworth in 1801, marrying William Thompson. This almost certainly matches to the baptism of Ann and therefore she cannot be the person we are looking for.
Looking later in life, Hannah seems to have moved around quite a bit for that era – she was married in Polesworth, in Wolverhampton on the 1841 Census, and in Wednesbury when she passed away in 1851. In the context of so much movement later in life, the idea that she could be born in Sutton Coldfield and living in Polesworth at the age of 29 is much more plausible.
Conclusion: Hannah was born in Sutton Coldfield and is the daughter of John and Jane Bird.
Looking further at parish registers, we find that Jane’s maiden surname was Hopley, and that their other children were Milicent (1771), John (1774), Randle (1780) and Daniel (1785).
Unfortunately, we cannot go any further back than this. The parish registers show that there were several John Birds in the area, and so we cannot be confident of which baptism and burial is his. What we can say is that a burial in 1810 matches to a baptism in 1745, but we can also find a probate record for this John Bird – or rather letters of administration, granted to an Elizabeth Lingard, wife of Edmund Lingard. As admins are granted only to the next of kin, this Elizabeth must either be John’s widow (and very quickly remarried after his death!) or, more probably, his daughter. There is a baptism of Elizabeth, daughter of John and Frances Bird in Sutton Coldfield in 1778, which means that this John’s wife is Frances.
Therefore, although we have ruled out one of the possible John Birds, we cannot say which of the other baptism or burial records is the correct one.
I also couldn’t find any baptism records for Jane Hopley, nor any burial records that would suggest a John and a Jane Bird in the same grave.