Mrs William Ellis Clough

 

Subject: Aunt Elinor
Date: 1860-1893
Photographer: Daniel Jones, 66a Bold St, Liverpool
Found: eBay

Today’s photo I have to admit has totally beaten me! Apart from dating the photo to about 1870 to 1880, (my best guess as Daniel Jones was in business from at least 1860 to 1893) I can find nothing further on Aunt Elinor. There is no marriage on FreeBMD for an Elinor/Eleanor/Ellen/Ellena to someone named William Ellis Clough, not even a William E Clough.

I did find a William Ellis Clough who was born in 1901, too late to have been married to Elinor. I did look into him though as I thought it might have been a family name carried down the generations but it turned out his mother’s maiden name was Ellis.

Then I found a William Elliot Clough and thought perhaps the letter T had been left off the name Elliot, the last letter does look like an O. This William Elliot Clough had been born in 1829 in Liverpool:-

I found William & Sarah with son William aged 12 living in Kent St, Liverpool in the 1841 census. Father William was a clerk and born in Lancashire although wife Sarah wasn’t. There was a marriage between William Clough and Sarah Hobson at St Anne’s Church in Liverpool on the 6 Sep 1819, William was listed as an accountant, Sarah a spinster and a witness was John Hobson.

By 1851 father William had died and Sarah had married again to Hugh Flood on the 18 Nov 1845, on this marriage her father is listed as John Hobson. Sarah had been born in Wrexham, Wales, in 1851 she & Hugh are living with son William Clough aged 22 and a book-keeper.

That is the last sighting of William, although his mother & step-father are living in Toxteth Park in 1861 I can find no sign of William. He doesn’t seem to be in any further census in the UK, there is no marriage, no death or burial, no sign of him in the US census or anywhere else I can think of.

I can’t really tell how old Aunt Elinor might be but to me she looks to be at least 40 and perhaps even 50 or older, her clothes are quite matronly to my eyes.

Of course he may very well be one of the many William Clough deaths registered after 1851 and there are at least seven marriages between a William Clough and an Ellen someone which are in the right time frame but without any further clues it’s terribly hard to say if he is any of them.

Let’s hope someone connected to the family finds this one day, in the meantime if anyone has any other suggestions I’d love to hear from you.

References: FreeBMD; ancestry.com.au; familysearch.org

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Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz