Christmas is a time for family games and puzzles. Mine centred on William Cooksey, the second husband of Hannah Miller (nee Mallin), who himself was a widow. 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?

Tidying the desk for Christmas, I came upon a folder of miscellaneous documents. One of the these was a record of the Monumental Inscription on a headstone in the graveyard of Christchurch, West Bromwich, Staffordshire. Listed are Sarah (died 1836 aged 45), wife of William Cooksey, their son, William Mallin (died 1845 aged 30) and a daughter, Marie Louisa (died 1850 aged 35).

Sarah’s maiden name was Mallin, hence son William’s second given name. I have often wondered at the relationship between William’s first wife, Sarah Mallin, and his second wife, Hannah Mallin. I have researched, so far without success.

Coming upon the MI set me thinking again about William’s first wife and family. I knew that in 1841, by which time William had married Hannah and had a 2 year-old child, that the three children from his first marriage were not living with them. Where were they?  Living together, is the answer, in Great Bridge, West Bromwich, with two other men (whose occupations are too faint to read) and a female servant. 

The census entry produced a surprise: a fourth Cooksey, a Sarah, aged 20 - born apparently about 1820.

I have now added William and Sarah’s children to the family tree.

An important task yet to be undertaken is to indicate here on the family tree, the sources of all the data. That is a mammoth task, but one that must be undertake if others are to place any reliance on the accuracy of it all.

I do, of course, have sources of most of the data, listed as footnotes in the written ’stories’ of the various branches.

As always, small steps must be the start of that long journey.

For the time being, I must leave Hannah Mallin and her family. Hannah’s christening (her birth was in 1804) remains to be discovered and her parents elusive. There is a wealth of Mallin data in West Bromwich and the surrounding area. Indeed, everything points to Mallin (perhaps with this spelling) being a west midlands surname. However, I have not yet found a ‘key’ that ‘unlocks’ the data. More research. Another day.

Just now added Hannah Mallin’s brother William to the family. Had to do it by creating an “Unknown Mallin” father for Hannah and then entering William as his son; which is a rather cumbersome way about it, though I could see no other way of adding William, otherwise. I also added two marriages for William - to Susannah Smith in 1829 and to Miriam Briscoe in 1833. I’m taking a chance on these two - deductions from marriage records, rather than proven. From the same source, there is some suggestion of other brothers and sisters - but no clear evidence. Nor of parents. Nor of Hannah’s christening.