Robert Jenkin Curnow (abt 1850, Towednack) and family

[stoker]

I have traced my Greatgrandfather Robert Jenkin Curnow (abt 1850, Towednack) in census returns back to and including the 1851 census.
Information from census returns:
Mother:    Elizabeth Curnow, Unmarried, b. between 1816 and 1820, Zennor
Siblings:    Elizabeth Curnow, b. abt 1841, Towednack
              William Henry Taylor Curnow, b. abt 1845, Towednack
              Sampson Curnow, b. abt 1856, Towednack

Birth:    Only 1 Robert Curnow registerd 1848 - 1851, Sept 1850 Penzance 9 183
          Birth Certificate indicates: Father - Peter Curnow, Farmer, and Mother - Mary, formerly Quick

Marriage Certificate:    Robert gives his father as Robert Curnow, tin miner, although this could be fictitious.

I would be grateful for any information regarding the ancestry of Robert Jenkin Curnow, confirming or otherwise the information I have.
       
I gather the mother's maiden name is often used as a child's second name, could this also apply to the surname of absent fathers?
in other words, could Jenkin be the surname of Robert's father? (And Taylor be the surname of the father of William Henry?)

[sue]

I have not yet identified the registered birth of Robert Jenkin Curnow ; as you say the Robert Curnow of September Q 1850 Penzance RD would be the son of Peter Curnow & Mary Quick of Penderleath Towednack, who can be seen in the 1851 census age 8 months.

Your Robert Curnow is declared as age 2 in the 1851 census; age 12 in 1861. Indeed his name, per 1861 as Robert Jenkin Curnow, is likely to indicate the father, although not definitely. I asked about what bastardy records they hold for Towednack when I was at CRO in Truro in May: the answer (at that time) was just the one, for a person named Baragnawath. (Although it is possible that I restricted my request to pre 1800 records, given I was looking for a particular birth.) 

However, if you search the 1851 census for a Robert Jenkin (variant) age between 20 and 50 in the Penzance RD, I think you will find a chap by that name (Jenkeyn) very close by to your Elizabeth Curnow & her children........ @ Bussow, just along the road in Towednack......

In 1851 you can find 2 Henry Taylors at Treassowe Downs Ludgvan, not so far away either......

Sampson, on the other hand, is a name within the family for mother Elizabeth Curnow.

As to Elizabeth's 1stborn, her daughter, again during a flying visit to CRO I looked at a few years' baptisms at Towednack for Curnows immediately post 1840 (which are not readily available) & noted a baptism 7 November 1841 Towednack of Elizabeth Curnow Curnow to mother Elizabeth Curnow of Cold Harbour.

Now, having a while back worked through most of the Curnows in the Towednack & surrounds areas that are declared in the 1841 census, it is my deduction that your Elizabeth Curnow is in 1841 the female servant, age 25, at Weal Carn Towednack to the farming/publican family of Margaret widow of Stephen Curnow & her sons Andrew & John. ( No, they are not closely related to your Elizabeth Curnow.) 

Using your old maps, you might want to look at the locations of Wheal Carn, Cold Harbour, & Amalveor all in the Towednack area (Amalveor being Elizabeth's “home”, see 1851.) What's the betting one of those Curnow boys of the publican family was the father of Elizabeth's daughter??? 

Going forward in time, I was pleased to see that in her older years, 1901, your Elizabeth Curnow was with the Barbers, her married daughter Elizabeth & husband Samsom Quick Barber up the top of St Ives.

So, Elizabeth Curnow herself, consistently declared as born Zennor c1816. Her baptism can readily be found on www.cornwall-opc-database.org/home/
if you search the baptisms at Zennor around that time, for Eli...... Curnow.   . Her parents come up as Wm & Mary.

Now, there is more than one William & Mary Curnow (sometimes just William recorded) baptizing children around this time in the Zennor/St Ives/Towednack area.     CT & I - well, mainly CT! - did a pretty thorough job sorting them out a few years ago: your Elizabeth belongs to William Curnow c1786 Towednack who married Mary Curnow 1786 Zennor at Zennor, 16 April 1808.  William & Mary baptized their 1st 5 children at Zennor through to Elizabeth 1816, then another 4 at Towednack, including a Sampson.

You might get a lot of satisfaction from tracking down what became of all your Elizabeth Curnow's siblings - you have many many distant cousins!

As to Elizabeth's parents, you can find your William Curnow & his wife Mary in 1841 at Amalveor, Towednack, with 5 of their children still at home. And in 1851, they are still there, with many of their children heading up next-door households.

Now, mother Mary's identity is fairly easy: one of her earliest girls is named Alice...... her parents are William Curnow & Alice Richards.

On the other hand, William Curnow is one of several born 1786/7ish in the Towednack area, and it is an ongoing project to "prove" which one is which in terms of their futures post their baptisms.

I think there should be plenty here to keep you busy for a while, though! 

Sue

[stoker]

Thank you so much Sue, for such a detailed reply.
So, I was on the right track, but as you say, I should follow up the fathers' surnames to discover their potential whereabouts.
I had also made a connection to William and Mary from a record obtained some years ago from familysearch.org IGI. But I had dismissed that as unreliable, as it gave Elizabeth (1841), William Henry Taylor (1844), Robert Jenkin (abt 1849) and Sampson as children of William and Mary.
It did, however give Elizabeth Curnow, daughter, christening 21st April 1816, Zennor.
You have confirmed that William and Mary are indeed the grandparents of Robert Jenkin Curnow.
I will check out census returns for their family.
Yes, I'm going to be busy for a while!

[sue]

A man of judgement, I'm glad to hear! Tablespoon of salt always at the ready when surveying online trees & member-submitted entries on FS!

It is a pleasure to help with queries on anyone in the Curnow family; I have done a lot of painstaking Curnow research over the last few years, & am happy that any entries I have made into my records ( all from census, PR info, wills etc., not darn trees! ) have been thoroughly tested for all contenders! I couldn't have done this without CT's excellent analytical input at critical times (that means when I'm quite befuddled, which at times has been often... ).

I do get frustrated by many of the Curnow online trees etc. that are out there in the ether, which over & over again replicate guesswork, errors, or plain best attempt made by persons years ago, before so many records were available as they are now. Heh hoh!

Do come back with more questions, when you're ready.

Sue

[Cornish Terrier]

Doing a great job here Sue! I seem to recall we had a good bit of fun with this family a couple of years back.

Stoker - I am here to help as well if need be and I am sure Sue will 'activate' me if and when necessary. Meantime I will leave this with you while I continue on with some other tine-consuming research.

CT

[stoker]

Still working out the family tree five years on! I have returned to the Curnows to attempt to fill in several gaps and solve a few mysteries!

Do you, Sue or Cornish Terrier, have any information on 2 daughters of Robert Jenkin Curnow and Margaret Ann Hocking. According to 1881 Census when the family lived in Spennymoor, Co. Durham, both Sarah Curnow b. c1873 and Fanny Curnow b. c1876 were born in St Ives. I have been unable to find registrations for these births including variants for Fanny.
If the census data is correct, Sarah was born before Robert and Margaret Ann were married and Fanny one year after, just before the family moved from Cornwall to Co. Durham. In the 1881 census Sarah is given the family surname which suggests she is the daughter of Robert and maybe the daughter of Margaret.
The census also shows that Margaret had a daughter, Annie, b 1869 (confirmed by Cornwall opc) who retains her Mother's surname Hocking, thus lending further support to this theory.

Finding what happened to both Sarah and Fanny after 1881 is proving to be a problem. There is a possibity that Sarah was an unmarried servant in Yorkshire in later years but no real confirmation.
According to 1911 census Robert and Margaret had 10 children (presumably she did not include Annie Hocking in this total), 5 died before 1911. I know of 4 of the siblings who survived (confirmed by my late mother) and have traced the deaths of 4 sons (confirmed in parish records). This suggests that either Sarah or Fanny died before 1911, but I have been unable to find a registration for this. My Grandfather, William John Curnow b. 1880 Spennymoor, never spoke of the 2 girls. It is possible he had no memory of them.

I would be grateful for any information you may have, or suggestions for how I may progress with my research into this line of the Curnow family.

[sue]

Hi again!

Short answer is no, re Sarah & Fanny: I don't know under what names their births were registered, or quite who their respective mothers & fathers were - nor what happened to them post 1881. I've just spent a short time re-checking for sightings of them in records other than 1881 census, by a variety of names, but no luck.

With Robert Curnow born 16 Oct 1875 St Ives (per baptism record) then a 2nd Robert Curnow registered as born in the Q ending June 1877 in County Durham, it is only just possible to fit in the birth of a sister Fanny in 1876 between the 2 boys, which might perhaps raise a questionmark...

I have, as doubtless you do, sister Elizabeth Jane c1886 marrying Frank Harwood then to Ohio; Mary Beatrice c1892 marrying William Kelly; Robert 1877 marrying Eliza Jane Bryan & going to Ohio 1910; and William John 1880 being John in 1901 then I don't have him... I'm guessing perhaps to U.S.......

I wish I could be more help....

Sue

[Cornish Terrier]

I'm afraid I am not much help with these girls either. However I have looked at the Census again and noticed something that I don't think has been picked up before. 'Daughter' Sarah in the 1881 Census is recorded as being age 8 which means that she had to have been born before the marriage of Robert and Margaret (1875).
If that is the case then she also would be illegitimate although the difference between Sarah and Anne might be that Robert Curnow was actually the father of Sarah. Like yourself I still cannot find either Sarah or Fanny in the GRO Index or FreeBMD either as Hocking or Curnow.

CT

[stoker]

Thanks Sue and CT. The origins and fates of Sarah and Fanny may remain a mystery.

Just an update, Sue, of information on the surviving children of Robert Jenkin and Margaret.
William John (b. 24/04/1880 Spennymoor) married Elizabeth Ann Simpson (b.27/06/1879 Croxdale)in 1903 and lived at 61 Davy St., Deanbank, Ferry Hill in 1911. They had 5 children: Thomas (17/04/1905 - 1998), Robert William (04/10/1907 - 15/08/2003), William John (17/01/1913 - 1927), George (05/03/1919 - 1992), Alice (20/10/1920 - 26/12/2007).
Mary Beatrice c1892 married W.H. Kelly in 1913 and he died 07/07/1916. She married again in 1919 to Andrew Simpson.

My family remained in contact with the Harwoods (Elizabeth Jane Curnow c1886 m. Frank Harwood and emigrated in 1910) until the late 1980's. Perhaps their descendants have some information. I will add this to my to do list.

Thanks again.

[londoner]

Like yourself I still cannot find either Sarah or Fanny in the GRO Index or FreeBMD either as Hocking or Curnow.

CT[/quote]
Have you eliminated this as a possible for Fanny?
CURNOW, NANNY Mother's maiden name HOCKING
1878 J Quarter in PENZANCE Volume 05C Page 282

[londoner]

Answering my own question, looks like she was the daughter of Catherine J Curnow nee Hocking.

[Cornish Terrier]

Hi Londoner

Answering my own question, looks like she was the daughter of Catherine J Curnow nee Hocking.

Yes, daughter of Charles Curnow and Catherine Jane Hocking. Born at St Ives 18th May 1878 and baptised 2nd October 1878 as Nellie Nanny Curnow daughter of Charles Baragwanath and Catherine Jane Curnow.

CT