| Notes |
- On the 1841 census, Edmund and Sarah are living in the household of John and Elizabeth ALLEN, but as well as child George there's an Ann PETTIT b 1836/7. She would be born well before Edmund and Sarah's marriage - also as noted above, both Edmund and brother Benjamin married an ALLEN. Always relishing a challenge, I thought this worthy of a little investigation this evening.
I found Ann in Odell in the 1851 census with correct age - as the daughter of Benjamin and Mary, and together with their younger children! I initially couldn't find a record for Mary ALLEN's baptism at all, but bizarrely there's an entry for two different Sarah ALLEN baptised the same day! The original record (Harrold independent church) gives the explanation - the minister has written in a single entry that he has baptised together in July 1817 two children, both called Sarah ALLEN and the children of John and Elizabeth, one born 1815, the other born 1817. This is clearly a mistake!
The 1841 and 1851 censuses show Mary ALLEN and Mary PETTIT, wife of Benjamin respectively as born 1815/6 - in the former she's in Carlton, Bedfordshire as a lacemaker, and in 1851 she's in Odell, where both herself and Ann (see above) are lacemakers. The 1861 census indicates Sarah, wife of Edmund, is born 1817/8.
So, the answer seems to be that Benjamin and Edmund married sisters Mary and Sarah ALLEN respectively, elder brother marrying elder sister, and that the minister should have written that he baptised sisters Mary and Sarah ALLEN the same day. It seems that Ann is Benjamin and Mary's child (if so, about 6 years before marriage!), and that she was being looked after in the ALLEN household (her grandparents), where her uncle and aunt (Edmund and Sarah) were also living following their marriage the year before, together with their child George.
!Source: Mike Sasse 06/09/2015 email
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Abt 1835 - Aft 1891 (~ 57 years)
