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Coleman Family History

Genealogy is ... a "Breeze"

I wanted to find out more about Rose and Maria Breeze, so I posted a query on Genes Reunited, asking for a look-up on the 1861 Norfolk or Cambridge Census.
T. found a possible Breeze family on the 1851 Norfolk census, but I had no way of making a connection between this family and "our" Breezes.

The next step was another request, this time on RootsChat.
B. found the family on the 1861 Cambridgeshire census. And there were enough details on this to tie-in with the Norfolk 1851 census. When he heard this B. had another look and found the family on the 1841 Norfolk census !

So now we have the following information for the Breeze family:

1841 Census: HO107/78/22 folio 4B

Upwell, Norfolk

Name RelationAge(Born)Born in CountyOccupation
Breeze John Head 40(1801)YAg Lab
Breeze Maria Wife 24(1817)YAg Lab
Breeze John Jnr. Son 4 (1837)Y
Breeze Elizabeth Daughter1 (1840)Y

1851 Census: HO/107/1767 Folio: 538 Page: 22
Address: Town Street, Wisbech
Census Place: Upwell Wisbech,

Name RelationAge(Born)BirthplaceOccupation
Breeze Maria Head 34(1817)Cambs. Upwell
Breeze Elizabeth Daughter10(1841)Cambs. Upwell
Breeze Anna MariaDaughter8 (1843)Cambs. Upwell
Breeze William Son 6 (1845)Cambs. Upwell
Breeze John Son 4 (1847)Cambs. Upwell

1861 Census:

Census Place: Cambridgeshire

Name RelationAge(Born)BirthplaceOccupation
Breeze Maria Head widow 41(1820)Upwell Farm lab
Breeze Anna M dau unm. 18(1843)Upwell
Breeze William Son 16(1845)Upwell
Breeze John Son 14(1847)Upwell
Breeze Rose AlvinaDaughter 2 (1859)Upwell
Smith Elizabeth Mother Widow97(1764)Bealer Nfk
Rose Alvine = Rose Elvina ?? Hopefully, or I'll have to start all over again !

And did you see this ?

The mother of Maria Breese =  Elizabeth SMITH  

    Oh, No - Not a Smith !!!

According to this web-site: www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/search.php ,
there are 4,058 people called Breeze in Britain, and 652,563 Smiths !



10 years later ....

C. from RootsChat, discovered this interesting possibilty in the 1871 Norfolk Census:
1871 Census: RG10/1867 ED12, F36, Pg26, Sch121
Address: Tips End, Welney, Norfolk.


Name RelationAge(Born)BirthplaceOccupation
Brown Thomas Head 60(1811)Norwich Ag lab
Brown Maria Wife 52(1819)Upwell Isle
Brown Rose Daughter10(1861)Upwell IsleScholar

A story .... possibly true ??:
It's 10 years after 1861, all the other children, now between 24 and 28 have left home, and Maria, who needs to support Rose, has re-married. Rose is referred to by her step-father's name and when she leaves home, she then reverts to her baptismal name of Breeze.

(OK, so the ages are a couple of years off, but one or two years, even five years, is nothing on a census, it still remains a possibility !

It is also suspicious, that Rose is listed as the "daughter" of Thomas Brown and not the "Stepdaughter"
- Perhaps he really was her father ....

... which means that we would then have "Brown" in our tree, too !
('Brown' is the 5th. 'most common name' in Britain !, see web-site quoted above)

But then again, maybe Mr. Brown wasn't Maria's father ! Have a look at this new information ...


Update: July 2006.
New data on FreeBMD  shows a marriage for a Maria Breeze in Wisbeach in 1864 !
This is not conclusive, but there are three other people on that page,
and one of them is ..... a Thomas Brown !!



And here, on the 1881 Census is a possible entry for Rose Elvina Breeze:
1881 Census: RG11 Piece 1695 / Folio 24 / Page Number: 2
Institution: Glan Dyfi House 33 Old Market
Census Place: Cambridgeshire

Name RelationAge(Born)BirthplaceOccupation
Humphrey Florence A.Pupil U11(1870)West Walton, Cambs. Scholar
Humphrey Ethel M. Pupil U10(1871)West Walton, Cambs. Scholar
Atkins Emma Pupil U11(1870)Whittlesea, Cambs. Scholar
Vawser Emily Pupil U12(1869)March, Cambridge Scholar
Breeze Rose AlbinaServ U25(1856)Upwell, Cambridge, Cook Domestic
Dack Jemima Serv U23(1858)Walpole St Peter, Nfk Housemaid Domestic
George Annie Serv U17(1864)Wisbech, Cambridge Under Housemaid Domestic

Albina ? - This could be a mis-dated, mis-spelled Rose Elvina, as the details sound plausible, otherwise.

The "Institution" seems to be a school, and no Head of the Household is listed.

An Internet search for Glan Dyfi House finds a short architectural description at
www.british-history.ac.uk, but does not tell us what is was used for.


I thought of posting a query on RootsChat, to see if anybody had an explanation, when - in the middle of writing it up - I suddenly thought "previous household" ! (The LDS - Latter Day Saints website, with the 1881 Census, www.familysearch.org, has the possibility of looking at the "previous" and "next" households). So I clicked it, and got a list of 16 pupils, 3 governesses and a visitor at the same address, on page 1 of the census form !. I then clicked previous household again and got a Household with one entry, at the same address, again on page 1 :

1881 Census: RG11 Piece 1695 / Folio 24 / Page Number: 1
Institution: Glan Dyfi House 33 Old Market
Census Place: Cambridgeshire

Name RelationAge(Born)BirthplaceOccupation
Lewis Eliza Head 47(1834)Wisbech, Cambridge Schoolmistress
It looks as if one Household, Glan Dyfi House, was entered on two census pages, and the transcriber (or LDS) made three seperate households out of the entries.

So in 1881 it looks like Rose Breeze was a domestic servant, a cook, in a school !
The couple of years difference in expected age and census age could be for a variety of reasons:
. whoever filled in the census form didn't know any differently, or
. she had lied about her age.
It was apparently quite common for younger servants to add a year or few to their age, in order to get more money, just as older servants would subtract a few years, to stay employed longer.


From 1887 onwards, Rose is almost "fully" documented
- marriage certificate, 1891 and 1901 census (see Coleman), but no death certificate).

So, as B. says:
Genealogy is ... a Breeze !
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