People   (Re-unions, trace old friends and relatives.)

The 1881 census shows Joseph Knowles (37) living with wife Ann (Mary has been dropped) and the children Richard (11), Isabella (9), Joseph (5) and Mary Jane (4 months). The interesting thing is that Lancashire births and also the records on ancestry show no birth of a Joseph to a mother named Wood(s). The two born in the Hindley district have mothers named Jackson and Seddon respectively. VERY STRANGE!!
But Joseph and (Mary) Ann had had more children Peter, b. 1868,died at 8 weeks in August of that year and Mary Ann, b. 1978, died aged 5 minutes in October 1878. There were at least two more - John, b. 1883, died aged 5 months and Catherine, b. 1888, who died aged 15 months. All these children are buried at Ince Cemetery.
What is really peculiar is that the family seem to disappear in the 1891 and 1901 censuses. There is another Joseph of a similar age who married Margaret Jackson as a widower in 1872. At first I was really confused since the maiden name of the mother of little Joseph in the 1881 census was also Jackson. But anyway after a lot of crosschecking, it turns out that widower Joseph had previously been married to someone called Ellen. I think the family must still have been in Wigan as someone called Isabella Knowles has a child called Joseph in 1894, who dies when he is one month old. She is living in Broom Street.

In 1911 a widow called Mary Ann Knowles, a servant aged abt. 64 is living at 30 Brook Street, Ince. In the same census Mary Jane and Thomas Pizzey were living at 14 Back Brook Street, Ince. In fact, on examining the next page of the schedule, I discovered that Mary Ann and Thomas and Mary Jane were living next door to each other. I think one can presume that this Mary Ann Knowles was Mary Jane's mother and that Joseph was by then dead.

There is a death in Hindley in 1896. But I think this was the Joseph who married Margaret Jackson.

I need to think about this a bit more and also to try and find out where Joseph and (Mary)Ann were in 1891 and 1901.

LEP1950