Hannaford/Lynch/London/Vale of Health
On 5 Jun 1877, Johanna (also known as Hanna and Anna) Haniford married Thomas Lynch in St John's Roman Catholic Chapel, Gravesend, Kent, England. She had been born in Ireland and the 1901 census gives her place of birth as Macrone. I can't find that such a place exists and I have wondered whether it might have been Macroom in County Cork. Macroom would sound like Macrome when spoken by an Irish person to an English person. It seems that Johanna had been living in Gravesend before the wedding -- though whether as guest, lodger or servant I don't know. She must have had some way to meet Thomas Lynch, who was living in Highgate, London, unless they knew each other from Ireland.
Thomas and Johanna had six children, all born in Islington, London (which included Highgate):
Ellen Lynch born c 1879
John Lynch born 2 Nov 1880 at 10, Alexandra Terrace, Hornsey Rise, Islington
Thomas Lynch born c 1882
Margaret Lynch born c 1884
Henry Lynch (known as Harry) born 31 Jan 1887
Jane Lynch born 2 Aug 1888
They were at first difficult to find in the 1881 census, because the transcriber has them as Lynah instead of Lynch:
PRO Ref RG11Piece 0279Folio 87Page 34
10 Alexandra Terrace, Islington
Thomas LYNAH M 31 M Ireland
Rel: Head
Occ: Bricklayer
Johannah LYNAH M 28 F Ireland
Rel: Wife
Margaret LYNAH W 58 F Ireland
Rel: Mother
Ellen LYNAH 2 F London, London, Middlesex, England
Rel: Daur
John LYNAH 5 m M London, London, Middlesex, England
Rel: Son
Caroline CRANNES W 57 F Tisbury, Wiltshire, England
Rel: Lodger
Occ: Annuitant
Elizabeth FOSTER W 57 F Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England
Occ: School Keeper
In the 1901 census they are at 18 Grovedale Road, Upper Holloway, North Islington (right by Archway and about three streets from Despard Road where John Lynch was
living when he married Gertrude May Dear):
RG13/163
Thomas LynchHeadM50BricklayerBorn Ireland, Cork
Hannah LynchWifeM48Born Ireland, Macrone
Ellen LynchDauS22DressmakerBorn London, Islington
John LynchSonS20CarpenterBorn London, Islington
Thomas LynchSonS19CarpenterBorn London, Islington
Margaret LynchDauS17Born London, Islington
Harry LynchSonS14Born London, Islington
Jane LynchDauS12Born London, Islington
John Lynch was my grandfather. He married Gertrude May Dear (known as May) on 20 Oct 1906 at the Register Office, Barnet. May, who was in the idiom of the time "no better than she should have been" claimed she was pregnant. Perhaps she thought she was, perhaps not -- at any rate, she got the man she wanted. If anyone thinks I'm being hard on her, please bear in mind that I knew her. Well. John was a carpenter.
Ellen Lynch married well (and her father may have been doing well, too, because on Ellen?s wedding certificate he is described as a Builder and no longer as a Bricklayer).
On 6 Jun 1904, Ellen (described as a dressmaker) married Charles Edward William Braun (born 1874 in Newington Butts, Surrey) at St Joseph's Church, Highgate Hill,
London. Charles was the son of Henry Braun, a glassware importer and an immigrant from Westphalia in Germany who had become a British citizen (I have his naturalisation
papers). At the time of the 1881 census, the Brauns were living at the Vale Of Health Hotel in Hampstead and at the 1901 census, when Charles was described as a Fine Art
Traveller (i.e. travelling salesman), they were at Northgate House, High Street, Highgate.
I have more on the Brauns if anyone connects. What I don?t have, and would love to have, is anything on Thomas, Margaret, Harry or Jane Lynch. There was a rift in the
family, and it was probably caused by my grandmother, John Lynch's wife, Gertrude May. Whether because she wasn?t a Catholic, whether because she was seen as having
trapped John into marriage, whether because she had a vicious, trouble-making tongue, whether because she was best described in these politically correct days as "differently sane," or for some other reason I know nothing of, the rest of the Lynches withdrew from
her. I know from my mother that "Uncle Harry" (Henry Lynch, John's younger brother) came to John's funeral in Arlesey, Bedfordshire in January 1940. He arrived by train, went straight from the station to St Peter?s Churchyard, saw his brother planted and left
immediately by train. So, John's family knew then how to contact him -- but as far as I can tell there was never any further communication.
Descendants of Johannah Haniford's parents or of Ellen, Thomas, Margaret, Harry and Jane Lynch. Are you out there?
John Lynch