Great Gran Burkinshaw

I thought that I'd kick off the family history with a little information about my maternal Gt Gran.

Sarah Ann Briggs was born in 1849 to George and Elizabeth (nee Mallinson). In 1866 at the age of 17 she had her first child, a daughter named Harriet Ann. The father appears to be Samuel Burkinshaw, son of the Burkinshaw family of Gawber Hall who, at that time owned much of the land in the villages around Gawber, Higham, Redbrook and Barugh Green all in Barnsley, Yorkshire. Sarah and Samuel did not live together at that time, and she followed her first daughter with a second - Mary E. Both daughters were christened under the surname Briggs. After a third daughter - Edith - was born in 1870, the couple married in 1872. The reason why they did not marry earlier is not known, but census records for both addresses show no other adult in the property.

Sarah Ann and Samuel had 8 children and the first two were adopted by Samuel, so that they bore the same surname as the other six. Sarah lived to be 90 years old, and was killed in a road accident whilst on her way to deliver a baby.

On a lighter note ... Sarah Ann was the first person that I researched, and
I set off on her trail one Boxing Day to track her down, my research had shown that she lived in Horkstow, East Yorkshire. On this bitterly cold and frosted day I trecked all around the area to find a grave or two, all to no avail. Not until a few months later when another researcher contacted me re Sarah Ann, did I reasise that I had spent a year researching the wrong lady!!