Earlier in the year, a random search through the Birmingham Directory of 1869 led me to Miles Fitzhenry who was variously a cowkeeper and gardener in Birmingham and Worcestershire.
Debra Harris wrote to us from Boston Massachusetts after seeing the post . She is Miles' great-great-grandaughter through her mother's side of the family. Her great-grandfather was Albert Miles Fitzhenry born in 1874, the thirteenth of fourteen children born to the Irishman Miles and his wife Betsy Young from Worcestershire.
Albert Miles married Mary (also known as Polly) in about 1894 (another of those elusive marriages that aren't in the GRO indexes - estimated to be about 1% of the overall total in England and Wales during the Victorian era). In the 1901 census he was a bicycle polisher - Birmingham having a florishing bicycle manufacturing industry at this time, and the couple had already had 4 of their 8 children. Debra tells me that Albert later owned a pet shop in Birmingham.
So who is the dapper looking chap in the photo with the natty suit? He's Debra's grandfather Percival Albert Fitzhenry (1897- 1995 and known as Henry) the third of the eight children.
He enlisted for army service in WW1 and his service records have recently been released as part of the digitisation of the records badly damaged during bombing in London during WW2. We know he was 18 years old when he enlisted in Birmingham in 1915, was 5 foot 8 inches tall, a machinist by trade and he gave his mother Mary as next of kin.
Thanks to Debra for the photo. If you think that you are descended from this family, then Debra would love to hear from you and she can be contacted be an email to the Blog or via the comments section. Considering Miles and Betsy had 14 children, there's bound to be some of you out there....
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From the Wright's Directory for Birmingham 1869
FITZHENRY Miles, Cowkeeper, 68 Warwick Street
So where was he in the 1871 census?
Firstly in the intervening 2 years he had moved - to King's Norton in Worcestershire.
Secondly, the enumerator had written his name (in beautiful handwriting) as
Miles FITES HENRY, and all the other members of the household as "(Forename) ditto".
Ancestry copied this inaccuracy throughout the family.
When FindMyPast got hold of it, Fites became Miles' middle name so he is found indexed as
Miles Fites HENRY, with all the other members of the family indexed as (Forename) Henry.
So where had this variant spelling come from?
Looking at Miles' marriage to Betsy Young in the 1st quarter of 1859, his surname is correctly spelt as Fitzhenry.
Their eldest daughter was also born in the 1st quarter of 1859 and she is registered as Esther FITESHENRY
The next child is Edward and I can't find him registered under any variant of Fitzhenry, but putting "Edward" and "Aston" as the registration district (which was where all the subsequent children were registered) I found an Edward MILES registered in September 1860 (Aston 6b page 224 if anyone has the certificate and wants to share). The other children were all registered as Fitzhenry (when there is a registration listed for them).
Here's the corrected version of the census entry.
1871 census England
FITZHENRY, Miles
Head M 35 1836 Ireland county Galway milkman
FITZHENRY, Betsy (nee Young)
Wife F 32 1839 Worcestershire Northfield
FITZHENRY, Esther
Daughter F 12 1859 Worcestershire Northfield Scholar
FITZHENRY, Edward
Son M 10 1861 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar
FITZHENRY, William
Son M 9 1862 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar
FITZHENRY, Thomas
Son M 7 1864 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar
FITZHENRY, Jane
Daughter F 4 1867 Warwickshire Birmingham Scholar
FITZHENRY, George
Son M 1 1870 Warwickshire Birmingham
FITZHENRY, Betsy
Daughter F 3 months 1871 Warwickshire Birmingham
RGnumber:RG10 Piece:3080 Folio:118 Page:13
Address: 52 Thomas Street, Kings Norton County:Worcestershire
Missing from this list are 2 children who died in infancy:
Mary Ann Fitzhenry born and died in the 4th quarter 1867
John Fitzhenry born and died in the 1st quarter 1869
Miles Fitzhenry himself died in the 2nd quarter of 1893. His age of death was given as 68 which would have actually made his date of birth 1825 rather than 1836 as was stated in the census.
Are any of these Fitzhenrys your family? Drop us a line and let us know.
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