George DAWES Line - New Development

The marriage certificate for George DAWES (1821-1869) and Esther COTTINGTON (1831-1863) arrived in the mail yesterday. Until then, I assumed that Esther was George's first wife, however, the certificate shows him as a widower.

Therefore, there might be more children from this family that we don't know about. George had five with Esther and two more with his last wife, Sophia SANTER (1831-1914). See more about George's families in a previous post here.

Now, I thought that solving this would be easy. Look for marriages for George in Uckfield before 1849 when he married Esther. EUREKA there is one! BUT, the marriage registration page for
the December Quarter 1844 has four possible spouses.

The good news is that they all have different given names which is not usually the case. With my luck, they are all Sarah or Harriet. Now, all I had to do was find a death between 1844 and 1849 and I would have her. EXCEPT, Sarah DAWES died in Dec. 1845 and Elizabeth DAWES in Sep. 1847. It's never easy, is it? Given that Elizabeth died closest to the marriage date with Esther of 1849 and that one of the witnesses was William HARVEY, I am going to guess that Elizabeth HARVEY is the best candidate. I have ordered this certificate so we'll see if I am right in a couple of weeks.


There are three DAWES births in Uckfield between the marriage date of 1844 and Elizabeth's assumed death date of 1847 (2 in Mar. 1846 and 1 in Mar. 1847) that could be attributed to George and Elizabeth. Although, there are no children who are unaccounted for in 1851 unless they were living with extended family, maybe the HARVEY's.


Now, to try and find the HARVEY family in the census.

NEWS FLASH: I checked my research spreadsheet that I enter all my B,M,D notes into and found a marriage between George DAWES & Sarah PECKHAM registered in Holy Cross Church, Uckfield 01 Dec 1844. So Elizabeth was the wrong choice!

The George (1) DAWES Line (Expanded)

George DAWES (1821-1869) married twice, first to Esther COTTINGTON (1831-1863) and second to Sophia SANTER (1831-1914). The original post on George (1) is available here.


Sophia's lineage is cloudy but her parents are believed to be Stephen SANTER and Judith BUSBRIDGE who were married 30 Nov 1812 in Benenden, Kent.

Sophia was the widow of George's nephew, Henry DAWES, so there are many more children in this extended family than shown here.

The chart shows the two children that Sophia had with George, Eliza Emily (1865-1944) for whom more information is available in a previous blog, and Charles William (1868-1927). Charles and his wife, Janet Mary STREETER (1872-1949) AKA Jeanette had six children of which I will look at over the next few blogs which will include their wedding photos.

The Two Elizabeths (see original blog Aug 9, 2009)

Henry DAWES (1831-1864) married Sophia SANTER (1831-1914) on 11 Aug 1856 in Uckfield, Sussex. They had one child, a daughter, Elizabeth b. 1856 in Uckfield. Henry died in 1864 and his wife then married his recently widowed uncle George DAWES (1821-1869) on 19 Aug 1864 in Brighton. George brought 5 children with him into the union and then he and Sophia had 2 more, Elizabeth M. b. 1866 in Brighton whom I'll call Eliza and Charles William b. 1868 in Uckfield.

The census returns provide the following clues to their existence:

Elizabeth 1861 (age 4) born Uckfield
Elizabeth 1871 (age 14) born Uckfield
Eliza 1871 (age 5) born Uckfield (should have been Brighton)
Elizabeth 1881 (age 26) born Uckfield working as a cook
Eliza 1881 (age 14) born Uckfield (should have been Brighton)
Elizabeth 1891 (age 35) born Uckfield working as a cook
Eliza 1891 (age 25) born Uckfield working as a housemaid in Brighton
Elizabeth 1901 (age 47) born Uckfield working as a cook
Eliza 1901 (age 35) born Uckfield married to John Smith in Newick
Elizabeth 1911 (age 54) born Uckfield (pensioner)
Eliza 1911 (age 42) born Uckfield married to John Smith in Newick
Elizabeth 1935 (age 78) died in Uckfield
Eliza 1944 (age 78) died in Newick

It is clear that there were two Elizabeth's because they are both in the same household with Sophia in 1871 and both identified as her daughters while George's children are identified as in-laws which was used for step children. There are no deaths registered for either Elizabeth DAWES or Eliza DAWES between 1881 and 1901 nor is there a marriage so what happened to her?

The trail of these two Elizabeth's is a good example of the many pitfalls that genealogy researchers can fall into. When Eliza disappeared in 1891 it was because she used her middle name "Emily" on the census. It wasn't until seeing her marriage certificate (above) that her full name was confirmed as Eliza Emily DAWES. In 1901 and 1911 she reverts to using only Eliza but she has been found which is the main thing.

Similarly, Elizabeth b. 1856, was hard to find in 1911 until a search for only people named "Elizabeth" and born about 1856 in Uckfield turned her up as Elizabeth DAVIES, a common mis-transcription of DAWES. The fact that she is living with her mother, Sophia, b. 1831 in Cranbrook, Kent proves who she really is.

The final episode in this story will be to find the death of Eliza SMITH, sometime after 1911, and to determine if her daughter, Ellen SMITH b. 1904, married and had a family but that's for another day.

(UPDATE Sep 20, 2009) I found a death for an Eliza E SMITH (age 78) registered in Lewes in 1944 March Quarter Vol. 2b Page 269. It will not be conclusive without a death certificate but with the middle initial E, correct age and location it is good enough for me.

Also using the GRO indexes I have found a marriage for Ellen SMITH to Harry E. MOORE registered in Lewes June Quarter Vol. 2b Page 408 followed by two births of Moores with a Smith mother: Joan M. MOORE 1926 Dec Quarter Vol. 2b Page 213 and John E. O. MOORE 1928 Sept Quarter Vol. 2b Page 215 both also in Lewes Registration District.

View original blog from 09 Aug 2009

The Two Elizabeths

Henry DAWES (1831-1864) married Sophia SANTER (1831-1914) on 11 Aug 1856 in Uckfield, Sussex. They had one child, a daughter, Elizabeth b. 1856 in Uckfield. Henry died in 1864 and his wife then married his recently widowed uncle George DAWES (1821-1869) on 19 Aug 1864 in Brighton. George brought 5 children with him into the union and then he and Sophia had 2 more, Elizabeth M. b. 1866 in Brighton whom I'll call Eliza and Charles William b. 1868 in Uckfield.

The census returns provide the following clues to their existance:

Elizabeth 1861 (age 4) born Uckfield
Elizabeth 1871 (age 14) born Uckfield
Eliza 1871 (age 5) born Uckfield (should have been Brighton)
Elizabeth 1881 (age 26) born Uckfield working as a cook
Eliza 1881 (age 14) born Uckfield (should have been Brighton)
Elizabeth 1891 (age 35) born Uckfield working as a cook
Eliza 1891 -- not found
Elizabeth 1901 (age 47) born Uckfield working as a cook
Eliza 1901 -- not found
Elizabeth 1935 (age 78) died in Uckfield

It is clear that there were two Elizabeth's because they are both in the same household with Sophia in 1871 and both identified as her daughters while George's children are identified as in-laws which was used for step children.

There are no deaths registered for either Elizabeth DAWES or Eliza DAWES beween 1881 and 1901 nor is there a marriage so what happened to her?

Check out the updated information posted Friday 18 Sep. 2009

Below is a photo c. 1908 of the first Elizabeth Dawes b. 1856

The George (1) DAWES Line

George Dawes (1821-1869) is the last child born in East Peckfield before the family moved back to Uckfield. George first married Esther COTTINGTON (1831-1863) in 1849 Uckfield and had five children with her. Esther died in 1863 and George married the widow of his nephew Henry who died in 1864. This line connects the COOPER and MUGRIDGE families to the DAWES.

George and Esther had 5 children and all except Fanny married and had families that can be flound in later posts of this blog. George and Sophia has 2 children and I only have additional details for Charles also found later in this blog.