When Annie Brooks died in 1907 The Gloucester Citizen published some interesting facts and figures and it would appear that Annie came from a line of long lived ladies. Her mother died at the age of 98 and her grandmother at 105. Now of course, I wanted to know more about these women and it would have helped me enormously if someone had thought to insert a few names, but I was up for the challenge!
First I began to pin down Annie’s son George. George had been resident in Swindon since at least 1871 when he appears on the census returns as living at 20 Fleet Street with his first wife Elizabeth and their baby daughter Adelaide.
George was born in Bristol in 1846 the son of Joseph and Annie Brooks. In 1851 the Brooks family were living in Berkley Square, Bedminster and continued to live at various addresses in Bedminster through the 1850s, to the 90s when Joseph died. Annie moved to Swindon to live with George and his family and appears with them on the 1901 census returns. So now I needed to find Annie and Joseph’s marriage to discover her maiden name and possibly access her mother’s name.
Joseph and Annie were married in Bristol at the church of St. Philip and St. Jacob on September 4, 1842. Annie’s maiden name was Stock and when George gave her details to the enumerator at the time of the 1901 census he said his mother’s birthplace was Tidenham, Gloucester. It was here that I found her baptismal record on 29th December 1811. Her parents were Nicholas and Joan Stock so now I needed to find their marriage. This took place on April 4, 1795 at Kenn Juxta Yatton when Nicholas Stock married Joan Taylor.
Now you’d be surprised at just how many Joan [Joanna] Taylors there were living in Somerset/Gloucestershire in the second half of the 18th century (and we know this family moved about a bit) which rather put the kibosh on tracing the last lady in this trio of long lived lovelies. And I was beginning to wonder about the great ages too.
On May 24, 1841 the widowed Joan Stock (Annie’s mother) married William Rawling at Kenn. Widowed for a second time, Joan Rawling formerly Stock nee Taylor was living with Annie and Joseph Brooks in Bedminster at the time of the 1851 census when she was 85 years old. She died six years later, which would have made her 91 so not quite the legendary 98, but an impressive age nonetheless, don’t you think? And as to her mother, well I’ve had to give up on that lady for the time being, but I’d like to think she did make it to her 105th birthday!
Remarkable Family Longevity
There were laid to rest in Swindon Cemetery this week the mortal remains of the late Mrs Anne Brooks, mother of Mr George Brooks, a Great Western Railway official, of Park-lane, Swindon, who passed away at her son’s residence at the ripe age of 96 years. It is interesting to recall the fact that the deceased old lady’s mother died at the advanced age of 98 years, that that lady’s mother, Mrs. Brooks’s grandmother, lived to be 105 years old, so that the united ages of mother, daughter, and granddaughter totalled 298 years.
The Citizen, Friday April 5, 1907.
Burial Registers
Brooks, Annie 97 years 22 Park Lane burial 30th March 1907 grave plot E8522
Radnor Street Cemetery 