I have completed entering years of death and burials (except Elizabeth,  together with marriages, know to me at this time. I have not yet entered any subsequent children from these marriages.

In the possession of my cousin Hilary is a “sampler”,  embroidered by Ruth Spooner in 1838 with the names and dates of birth of her brothers and sisters, the children of my Great-Great-Great Grandparents Elizabeth (nee Murkin) and Robert Spooner.

On the reverse, handwritten, is a list of names and dates of birth of Ruth’s aunts and uncles, the brothers and sisters of her mother Elizabeth Murkin. It is a most unusual and remarkable record.

These aunts and uncles,  brothers and sisters of Elizabeth Murkin, were, all but one, the last born, Susan, christened in St Mary’s church, Henham, Essex. From the church record we learn the names, Peter and Ann, of their parents.

I have tonight added the names and birthdates of these Murkin children of Peter and Ann Murkin, my Great-Great-Great-Great Grandparents.

Christmas is a time for family games and puzzles. Mine centred on William Cooksey, the second husband of Hannah Miller (nee Mallin), who was himself a widower. Having trawled trade directories for Staffordshire (concentrating on West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Dudley and Tipton), I had begun to develop a theory about William’s business activity as, at first, a Nail Ironmonger and, later, a Grocer and Tea Dealer.  There were other Cooksey businesses, too: Samuel Cooksey and Joseph Cooksey. Were they all three related?

Yet William’s family – his parents and siblings – remain a mystery.  So too does the central question: were his first wife, Sarah Mallin and his second wife, Hannah Miller (nee Mallin) related and if so how?

So, the Christmas puzzle I set myself was to compile as much evidence as I could and, by inspecting it, to see what I could learn.  To that end, I listed all the Staffordshire-born, males by the name of Cooksey in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. This I cross-referenced to likely births and marriages in the IGI (all the while recognising the risk, even the inevitability of error.) Building this database turned into a mammoth task, just completed the day before the end of the holiday. As yet, I have not properly inspected the data for any emerging ‘pictures’. However, first indications are that the work has drawn a blank; I am no wiser about who William Cooksey was. 

Perhaps I should return to Mallin and undertake the same task?