William and Sarah GREENHAM - Death Certs

Well death certificates arrived for William GREENHAM and Sarah GREENHAM today.

Sarah died in Stapleton Workhouse Infirmary, Bristol on 8 March 1918 aged 93 years. The informant was Henry John POOLMAN, her son in law. A quick check on FreeBMD uncovers that he married Mary Elizabeth GREENHAM Oct-Dec 1892. Sarah is shown as being the widow of William Greenham, tailor (Journeyman) so we are sure this is the correct certificate.

Not so lucky with William though. His occupation was shown as Boot Finisher. Informant was son, Augustus. Checking the 1881 census gives a William and Charlotte GREENHAM, who had a son Augustus. This bunch hail from Bridport, Dorset although they were living in St Pauls, Bristol in 1881. By the time of William's death they are living in Mina Road area, which is where Olive MATTHEWS lived who married Harold GREENHAM three generations later.

Anyway, as this William is the wrong one I checked my two backup death certificate possibilities. One of these was Sep 1908, Wincanton. Now Henstridge is in the Wincanton district and three of William's children were born there. So we have a link and I've sent for the certificate...

William and Sarah GREENHAM

I've taken out a subscription to Ancestry.com and been trying to trace Greenhams through the census listings. William and Sarah Greenham (my 3x Great Grandparents) seem to have had an interesting life. I have tracked them on every census from 1851 to 1901.

William and Sarah were married on 2 April 1850 at the Independent Chapel, Yeovil and at that time were living in Norton Sub Hamdon, Somerset. Aged 25, William was a Tailor like his father George.

It's interesting that in censuses from 1861 William and Sarah were living apart - although they managed to keep having children!

By 1871 they had moved to Bristol, albeit without the children, who were staying with Elizabeth Hodges, Sarah's mother. They may well have been looking for somewhere to move the family to, because Lucy Emily was born in Bristol in 1872.

In 1881 Sarah and the children are living in Bristol St Philip and Jacob, while William is lodging elsewhere. This seems to have been a major parting of the ways. By 1891 daughter Annie has married John Rastall and Sarah and her two youngest children (Mary and Lucy) are living with them. The household has a servant so they must have been fairly well off.

I've not been able to find William in the 1891 Census (on ancestry.com) but he does turn up again, aged 78 living as a pauper in Bath Union Workhouse. Meanwhile Sarah and youngest daughter Lucy are living "on her own means" in Eastville, Bristol. So she is doing OK while he is rotting in the workhouse ... well they say hell hath no fury, but I wonder what he did (and when) to be ostracised by his family?

The final chapter will be to obtain the death certificates for William and Sarah and see what they have to say about the other.