Ari’s 4x great-grandfather, Henry Pearson, was born in about 1838 in Cromford, Derbyshire, but has proved difficult to trace. According to his marriage certificate, his father was a labourer also called Henry, but I can find no census records for 1841 or 1851 that fit this family, nor any record of a birth or baptism. The alternative theory, which is supported by various records, is that he was born in 1842 to Mary Kitchen Pearson. In this version of his story, in 1851 he is

For several of Ari’s ancestors, I know very little about their lives. I thought I’d do a post about Frances, one of his 6x great-grandmothers, to illustrate this. Apart from her burial record, the census records for 1841, 1851 and 1861 are all I have found for her so far. Frances (or Fanny) was born in about 1782 in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. I don’t know when or where she married, but her first child, John Williams, was baptised on 8 Nov 1807 in Cawston, Norfolk, which was where