Mary Snowden 1815-1888

So far I haven’t been able to ascertain Mary’s maiden name. The cemetery is unknown to me but possibly in Diddington or Cuckney where Mary was born, this is the information on her headstone:-

• ILMO Mary the beloved wife of James Snowden who died April 5th
• 1888 aged 72 years. Beloved in life, lamented in death.
• Also of Alfred son of the above who died Oct 7th 1882 aged 30 years.
• His end was peace. And interred at Laughton.
• Also Harry son of Alfred & Sarah Ann Parker, who died Nov 30th
• 1885 aged 13 years. Not lost but gone before.

Deaths Jun 1888
SNOWDEN  Mary  72  Worksop  7b 23

Deaths Dec 1882
Snowden  Alfred  30  Sheffield  9c 284

I’ve followed Mary & James through all the census from 1881 going back to 1841, they were living in Dinnington Yorkshire in all of them. I found the following children for them:-

Walter, Harriet, John, Sarah Ann, Henry, Alfred, James, Mary E & Maria.

Walter was 8 mths old in the 1841 census (taken 6 Jun) so that puts his birthdate sometime in Sep/Oct 1840.

Births Dec 1840
Snowden  Walter     Worksop  15 633

Mary was born in Cuckney, Nottinghamshire and the Worksop registration district includes Cuckney & Diddington. I then looked for a marriage for Mary & James and came up with this one, also in Worksop:-

Marriages Dec 1839
BLAND  Mary    Worksop  15 1215   
SNOWDEN  James     Worksop  15 1215   
WALTERS  Mary     Worksop  15 1215

Unfortunately there were two Marys getting married in that quarter so I can’t say which one might be her. I’m not even sure that this marriage is theirs although it fits the criteria perfectly ie marriage in the parish of the bride and one year before their eldest child is born.

Why I’m not sure is that I have found quite a few family trees on ancestry.com that all give Mary’s maiden name as TURNER, however, none of them give a source and I’ve been unable to find a marriage between a James Snowden and a Mary Turner.

The Cuckney parish record baptisms have been extracted to the IGI from 1813 only. There is a Mary Ann Turner bap in 1818 but Mary does not give her name as Mary Ann in any of the census, nor is the Ann on her headstone.

It now remains for someone to purchase the above marriage certificate to see if it’s the right one. If anyone does or can give me a source for the Snowden/Turner marriage please contact me.

James Snowden gives his birthplace variously as Haxey, Westwoodside or Isle of Axholme, all in Lincolnshire, this from Wikipedia:-

The village of Haxey lies between the villages of Westwoodside and Owston Ferry, forms part of the Isle of Axholme.

James was baptised on 25 Apr 1813 at Haxey, son of John Snowden and Sarah née Jennings. He died in the 4qtr of 1906 aged 93, his death is registered in the Eccleshall Bierlow RD.

References:
ancestry.com
FreeBMD
IGI
Wikipedia

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the Snowden family please do contact me, I would love to pass this photo onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

All the information I’ve found on this family may also be seen on the next update at WorldConnect here.

Dawn Scotting
pandora@kc.net.nz