Family Matters
Family Matters - 2. Mary Goninan
Mary Goninan was one of three surviving daughters of Edward Goninan and Margaret Rodda. She was baptised at Crowan Church on the 30th September 1785. Her sisters were Mary and Ann (see items 1 & 3)
In 1804 she had an illegitimate child called Patience. Patience went on to marry John Jewell in 1825. Mary herself married Jacob Holman on the 23rd March 1815. They had a number of children but there is no sign of Mary in the 1841 census. There is a death of a Mary Holman registered in 1839 and this may be her. On the 1841 census we find Jacob living at a place called Tremayne in Crowan Parish. He is a farmer and living with him are their surviving children, John, Francis, William and Mary. Jacob remarried and in 1851 was living with his second wife, Elizabeth, in Poldrouse in Crowan Parish. Nearby was his son John who is now married with a family. John was a copper miner. He married Ann Oatey and in 1851 they have four children. John, Jacob, Francis and Zekias.
Meanwhile Francis had also married and was living with his wife, Jane, in Tremayne in Crowan Parish. He was a stonemason and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Susan Jane. Finding William is more difficult. Where he was born is unclear because his baptism has not been found and there are at least six William Holmans on the 1851 Cornwall census that are of the right sort of age to be him. Similarly Mary has not been found but of course she may have married. For now I will concentrate on John and Francis.
In 1861 John is still in Crowan Parish with his wife, Ann. He is described as a tin miner as are their three eldest sons, John, Jacob and Francis. They have five other children, Mary Ann, Ann, William, Samuel and Charles but there is no sign of Zekias.
Francis is also still in Crowan with his wife Jane and they now have five more children, Ann, Mary, Frances, William and Jacob.
So far so good but then at the next census (1871) it starts to get more difficult not helped by the fact that in Cornwall Holman is a common name. Francis and family are still in Crowan but, other than Jacob, there is no sign of John and Ann and their family. Their son Jacob is married. His wife’s name is Ann and they have two children, Jacob John and Mary Ann. But where are the rest? There are various possible explanations – missed at the census; wrongly recorded on the census; deaths and/or marriages or perhaps the whole family has gone overseas. Samuel however reappears in 1881, married and living in Wendron Parish although I am not sure whether this is the same Samuel.
I decided to have another look for Samuel in 1871 following a hunch that he was still in Crowan. I just looked at all the Samuels and by doing this found him - the family had been recorded as ‘Holmes’ and this was why I was having so much trouble finding them. Ann is widowed now. Before John died though they had three more children, Bessie, James Oatey and Jonathan. Note the custom of giving a child the mother’s maiden name as a forename, Ann having been an Oatey.
From here I have been able to trace many of the extended family in the 1881 and 1891 census with several of the family members then living in Camborne. The predominate occupation was still mining. I have not yet found any evidence of Holmans going overseas but I wouldn’t rule it out.
It is difficult to take this branch any further at this stage but clearly there must be many Holmans out there with a strong Goninan connection proving yet again that we have only scratched the surface with the extended family tree.
Postscript - Having put an item about the Holmans on the website, I was delighted to hear from family member Dee Vredenburg who lives in South African. Dee is descended from Mary Goninan via her son Francis Holman, grandson Jacob and great grandson, Francis. I have always felt there must be Goninans in South Africa so it was great to have this confirmed.