Elizabeth CUDDEFORD declared her age to five census enumerators between 1851 and 1891, giving calculated birth years ranging from 1817 and 1821. When I wrote about her a few days ago, I was unsure of her date of birth. I know now that she was baptised in 1817 and was almost certainly born that year.

Contributors to the FamilySearch Shared Tree are not only uncertain about when she was born…

Ellen the Younger above married in 1849 and was consistent when giving her age at four censuses. Her calculated birth year is 1829 but she was a “post-census” child and so fits perfectly. And her parents…

The St Andrew’s baptism register between 1809 and 1828 records other Cuddeford butchers – Edward, John and Thomas – and they must surely have been related; cousins at least.

James and Joanna’s firstborn, a son called John Harlow, has been trimmed from the tree illustration above. The older Ellen and her sister Ann Eliza should be returned to Robert and Mary Ann, their places filled by a first James (1813) and Elizabeth (1821).

Curiously, the aforementioned John Harlow married and started a family but died before John Harlow junior was born in 1831. Six years earlier, Ellen’s father Robert had died before his son William Henry arrived.