On the face of it, the Shared Tree has given us a woman who had her first child at the age of 49 and the third and last seven years later.

Ann CHAPMAN was John STORK’s second wife and had avoided marriage for over forty years. Reliance on the veracity of the 1881 Census has led to this unlikely scenario. Ten years later, Anne and Harriet are the granddaughters of John and Ann.

Another look at the transcription of the misleading census shows lodger Fanny CHAPMAN, 12, below Harriet.

With the second Mrs John Stork being only 46 when Fanny was born, one might reasonably wonder if she was the girl’s mother. But the child’s baptism record shows that her parents are John Chapman and Susannah WATKINSON and you can find her here. Her grandfather is Robert Chapman, who has a younger sister, Ann – the second Mrs John Stork.

Kath put this note about Ann on Filey Genealogy & Connections –

1861;  a Servant at Church Cliff Farm for Elisha & Mary Elders. 1851; house servant for John/Fanny Barnet, a butcher in Queen St.1871; a nurse living away from home temporarily – I can’t remember which family she was with but I do remember there was a young baby.

Ann was with the WILLIS family in Spring Row on census night 1871, where Joseph William is the baby aforementioned. Just around the corner in King Street, Ann’s husband John is looking after five of his children, and “Child Nurse” Frances Chapman, aged 2.

I think the questionable children, Sarah Jane, Anne, and Harriet should be allocated to their more likely mothers.

Birthday girl Sarah Jane married William Edward CALLIS in Leeds in 1890. The couple lost three daughters before 1911 and Ruth, the only survivor at that census, died in 1921, aged 26.

Found Object 68 · Dummy