Family Matters - 19.The Saga of Mary Ann Tippett
My Cornish Grandfather had a saying with which I have always interpreted as warning us against trying to make a case or construct a theory which relied too heavily on assumptions or guesses , i.e. ifs and ands – the saying went - ‘if ifs and ands were pots and pans you could get Paris in a bottle’ – completely nonsensical but true all the same. We should perhaps keep this saying in mind as the saga of Mary Annie Tippett unfolds although it all comes good in the end.
Mary Annie Tippett was born around 1865 in Cornwall. Her parents were William Tippett and Eliza Ann Goninan. Eliza Ann was a daughter of Edward and Catherine Goninan and thus Eliza was a niece of Henry who settled in Tasmania and Matthew (Wisconsin) and Jennifer (Upper Michigan). At the time of the 1871 census Mary Annie was living with her parents in Camborne. Her place of birth is shown as the Parish of Gwithian. In 1881 she is still with her parents, living in Tolcarne Street in Camborne. Her birthplace is still given as Gwithian Parish although her name is recorded as just Annie.
There is no Mary Annie Tippett to be found on the 1891 census so she may have got married or died. There is no death registered for a Mary or Annie Tippett between 1881 and 1891 and therefore we can assume that she got married. The only marriage to be found on the register index however is of a Annie Teppitt in 1886 (we could be more confident about it if it was shown as Mary or Mary Annie). The marriage register has two entries per page so all the index tells us is that this Annie married either an Albert Ivey or a Samuel Pascoe.
Proceeding in the hope that we have the right marriage, the next step was to search the 1891 census for an Albert Ivey married to a Mary or Annie or a Samuel Pascoe married to a Mary or Annie. This proved fruitless. However there is an Arthur Ivey, wife Annie, living in Tolcarne Street, Camborne and they have a son William John. Annie gives her birthplace as Gwithian Parish. Could this be ‘our’ Annie which would imply that Albert, by some clerical mishap, has been recorded as Arthur.
Perhaps the 1901 census will help. Unfortunately though by then Annie has been widowed and I can’t find a death for an Albert or Arthur Ivey. Annie is still in Tolcarne Street, Camborne and there are two children, William (aged 10) and Thomas (aged 5). This doesn’t help us much
What have we got so far:-
IF the Annie that married in 1886 is ‘our’ Mary Annie AND
IF this Annie married an Albert Ivey AND
IF Albert’s name was inadvertently recorded as Arthur in the 1891 census well then we are making progress.
I can almost hear my grandfather whispering in my ear, ‘there are far too many ifs and ands here my boy’. I agree but press on regardless.
Perhaps the thing to do is to follow up on the first child, William John. If he got married then perhaps this will give us his father’s name. He is not to be found on the 1911 census. But this is Cornwall we are talking about, maybe he went to the States.
A search of the US records came up trumps:-
William J Ivey married Loveday E Keast on the 12th Feb 1916 in Allouez in the Keweenaw in the Upper Michigan. His parents are recorded as Albert Ivey and Mary A Tippett.
This is most promising because it means we can forget Alfred and we have confirmation that his mother’s first name was Mary. William and Loveday were living in Detroit in 1920 and again in 1930 (with two children, Doris and William).
It would be nice to have just one more bit of information that will confirm that the Mary Annie Tippett that married Albert Ivey is ‘our’ Mary Annie and the Ellis Island records gave me just that:-
A Mary Annie Ivey arrived in New York from Southampton on the 16th April 1920. She gave her home contact as her sister, Mrs B.J. Bosence, 21 Tolcarne Street, Camborne. She was going to Detroit, Michigan to visit her son, W.J. Ivey living at 284 Milwaukee Ave, Detroit. She gave her place of birth as Connor Downs (which is in the Gwithian Parish).
But who is this sister, Mrs B.J.Bosence ? Well her sister, Bessie Jane Tippett married a William Henry Bosence. Game, set and match!
So was Grandad wrong with his golden rule about pots and pans; not at all, we just followed a hunch and got lucky. There is however a sting in the tale. Emboldened by having cracked the puzzle and knowing that Mary Annie must have been alive in 1911, I looked again at the 1911 census. I found her again in Tolcarne Street but she has two children who have appeared from nowhere – Herbert (age 18) and Albert (age 16). Both note are more than 10 years old but they did not appear on the 1901 census. Is Mary Annie going to have the last laugh. In the end my curiosity got the better of me and I splashed out on the copy birth certificate for Herbert. He was indeed the son of Albert Ivey and Annie Ivey (formerly Tippett). So Albert and Annie had four children – Herbert, Albert, William and Thomas (although I am not sure about Thomas)
In 1921 Herbert Ivey arrived in New York from Southampton on board the Olympic. He was joining his mother in Detroit. He was a milkman and he gave his home contact as his wife, B. May Ivey.
The attraction of Detroit was of course the booming motor industry and it became the preferred destination for the Cornish as opportunities in mining declined. The Cornish went back and forth to Detroit like it was just down the road.
Postscript:- Later I found that in 1923 Loveday applied for a passport for herself and Doris to enable them to visit Loveday’s mother in Cornwall. By then they were American citizens. There is a copy of this application on Ancestry.Com. This tells us that Doris (daughter of William and Loveday) was born in Ironwood, Michigan in 1917 and that Loveday had been born in Camborne. There is a photo of Loveday and Doris with the application
for more information on the Goninan family contact John Saunders email zgoninan1695 followed by @btinternet