Last Sunday was Mother’s Day here in Canada. Of course, I was remembering my own mother, Agnes Irvine MacMillan Perkins, who died in 1996. But I was also thinking of those other women who married into the Perkins Family and who I have discovered through my research, Ann Mason, Clara Benford, and Sarah Jane Sleath. I wondered how the lives of these women differed from that of my mother.
Ann Mason Sutton Perkins was my Great Grandmother. She was the farthest I had gone back in my Paternal line. She was born in 1790 in Withybrook, WAR and christened at the Independent Chapel in Stretton Under Fosse in 1791. Her parents were John Mason and Esther Iliffe. I knew they were Dissenters and that I might not find family records through the regular channels. I would likely need Non Conformist records.
A week ago as I was surfing the net looking for nothing in particular, I discovered that one of the paid sites had posted the Parish Register for Withybrook. As I was a member, I started searching. Suddenly I had Mason’s back to a Thomas Mason who was buried at Withybrook, January 13, 1691 and listed as “age near 90”. This would mean that he was born circa 1601. I have not yet connected all the dots, but I have discovered a number of Thomas and John Mason’s born at Wolvey and Withybrook that could be likely contenders for Ann’s ancestors. I discovered that in 1745 John Mason married an Ann Spencer and that this name was carried on as a middle name. John Mason and Esther Iliffe, Ann’s parents, were married in 1789 and one of Ann’s brother was called William Spencer Mason. More work needs to be done, but I have just made a 200 year leap backwards in the Mason Family.
Now back to my original thoughts about Ann’s life in comparison to my mother’s…… just as a starter, I have a woman whose family seemed to live in one area forever! Ann, as an older woman widowed for the second time at age 48 when Joseph Perkins died (1838), eventually crossed the border into Leicestershire, to live near her son, John Perkins, Blacksmith at Claybrooke Magna and to die at the Frolesworth Alm Houses in 1861 at the age of 70.
My mother lived on 3 continents before the age of 15 years. She was born in Chile, South America, passed through Maidstone/Chatham, Kent, England and ended up in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.
Much more to say, but this is the Victoria Day Holiday Weekend, celebrated here in Canada long before Canada even existed, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Birthday. Time to go out and enjoy!
A Genealogist goes Wandering 