Monday, February 6, 2012

John Clarke, Jr.

John Clarke, Jr., christened on August 8, 1841, was the oldest son of John and Temperance Clarke to grow to adulthood. He married Emma Fellows in 1865 at the age of 31. Emma was born in Thornby, about 5 miles away from John Clarke's home village of West Haddon. The earliest census record available for John and Emma together is from 1871. At the time, they were living in West Haddon and had three children: William H., Harry, and Susan. By the time the 1881 census was taken, they had four more children: Thomas, George, Fred, and Walter J. Apparently all of these children lived to adulthood, although by 1911, according to the census, one of them had died.

John and Emma lived in West Haddon all or most of their married life. John worked as a laborer on farms and then sometime before 1901 opened a Beerhouse and Boardinghouse in West Haddon.

John was about 6 years older than his brother William and married Emma just 6 years before William left for America. Contact between William and John fell off when William left, and we had to learn about John and Emma's family only through research, as we have little record in the family of these cousins.

4 comments:

  1. This photo looks like it might have come from a book. Are you lucky enough to have a book with information about your family?

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  2. Yes. My grandmother published a book about William Clark and his descendants many years ago. This blog contains some of the content that we hope to use in the sequel.

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  3. Do you have more details on that wedding? Why did William go to America?

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  4. It is amazing how much information you can find by just looking through census records. Great research!

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