Lawley family of Birmingham

An X chromosome match on 23 and Me with an email from the match looks at the Lawley family of Birmingham. My maternal grandmother's mother is known to me as Ellen Taylor. She appears in the 1891 census with her husband Edwin Denner Buller and three of their children including my grandmother Ellen Rosina Buller, their eldest child. As I dug back, I learned that Ellen Taylor had had an illegitimate daughter Florence Elizabeth Taylor in 1879. Ellen and Florence appear to be on the 1881 census at the Aston Workhouse. Her age there is listed as 19 years of age. Taylor is such a common name though and to attribute this is my Ellen is just an unproven thought. Florence is two and that would be her correct age. I know that Florence was with Ellen after her marriage to Edwin Buller. Ellen Buller has written a letter to the Birmingham Union in November 1887 asking that they take Florence as she can not manage her with one child and another due very soon.

I have spent a lot of time looking at Ellen Taylor including purchase of a number of birth registrations for Ellen Taylor born in Birmingham between 1858 and 1862. On the 1891 census Ellen's age is listed as 30 years of age and on her burial registration in 1897 she is listed as 37 years of age on March 5 (death registration 27 Feb 1897). My grandmother mentioned that her mother was 37 years of age when she died (my grandmother was 11 years of age at that time). The census was taken on the 5th April 1891.

I have a birth registration for an Ellen Taylor that best fits this known information the 9th October 1859 daughter of Thomas Taylor and his wife Ellen (Roberts) Taylor. At her death in 1897 she is listed as 37 years of age and a child born 9th October 1859 would be 37 years 4 months and 18 days on the 27th February 1897. However the census which was taken on the 5th April 1891 shows her as 30 years of age but she should be listed as 31 years of age (31 years and almost 5 months). If the Ellen Taylor on the 1881 census is her then this census was taken 3rd April and the stated age was 19 but if she was born 9th October 1859 then she should have been 21 years of age (21 years and 6th months). She could have lied about her age in the Workhouse. Her parents (if this is the daughter of Thomas Taylor and Ellen (Roberts) Taylor) were living at Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire in 1881. This Taylor family had been living in Birmingham and they are on the 1871 census (with the exception of Thomas who is already at Ashton under Lyne) including an Ellen then 11 years of age. The Taylor family had their last child, a daughter, Marion Taylor born September quarter 1880 at Ashton Under Lyne. Ellen is not with them on the 1881 census at Ashton Under Lyne.

Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK, Lancashire County, Ashton under Lyne RD, Audenshaw, Class: RG11; Piece: 4041; Folio: 85; Page: 5; Line: 23; Thomas Taylor household, GSU roll: 1341966.

  Thomas Taylor   Age:52    Estimated birth year:abt 1839    Relation:Head    Spouse's name:Ellen   Gender:Male   Where born:Birmingham, Warwickshire, England     Civil parish:Ashton Under Lyne    County/Island:Lancashire    Country:England      Street address:Guide Lane   Condition as to marriage:Married     Occupation:Shoe Maker     Registration district:Ashton Under Lyne    Sub-registration district:Audenshaw    ED, institution, or vessel:4   Household Members:Name Age  Thomas Taylor  52  Ellen Taylor 39  Kate Taylor 13  Mariane Taylor 1  William Taylor 10

Missing from this 1881 census are four children: Thomas Taylor b 1858 at Birmingham, Ellen Taylor b 1859 at Birmingham and Eliza(beth) Taylor b 1862 at Birmingham. One other child Frank Taylor died Jun quarter 1875 at Birmingham.

Tracing the other children of Thomas Taylor and Ellen (Roberts) Taylor has proven to be difficult but that would be the ideal way to prove the relationship.

Ellen Roberts was the daughter of Thomas Roberts and  Ellen Lawley; hence my interest in the Lawley family. Finding an X chromosome match with a Lawley descendant with ties to Birmingham was most fascinating. This match at 26 centimorgans is long enough to be significant. I do not match her anywhere else and the estimate is 4th cousin.

A match on the X Chromosome is interesting and limited in just which family will be that match with you.

This chart tells me that only the coloured areas can lead to a common match with an X chromosome for me. On my father's side this family was either in Hampshire/Wiltshire and later Essex. This does not appear to overlap with my match. on my mother's side it excludes my paternal grandfather's line. My paternal grandfather's mother's lines were from East Riding of Yorkshire and Cumberland so also appear to be excluded. That left me with my grandmother's father's mother Anne Welch who lived at Birmingham and had ancestry back into Staffordshire and Leicestershire. This overlaps with the match's ancestry. I am tempted to think that it is going to be in this Welch line. It is a coincidence that the surname Lawley is emerging I suspect but will wait on it. The tester's Lawley connection is on her mother's side so she has inherited from her mother a combination of X from both parents with the maternal grandmother being a Lawley. This grandmother inherited from her father but his X chromosome came directly to her from his mother and not the Lawley line itself. This is a surname that I have seen before in my searches and I must rack my brain to see if I can remember in what context I looked at that surname!