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I have little information on my Great Grandmother, Catherine Blackler, born in Alderney, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands in 1855. In various documents she is cited as Katherine and Kathaline as a first name and Blacker, Blacklar, Quinlan as a last name. Her married name was Adams, spouse, Nathaniel Adams and they lived in Plymouth, Devon, England.
Any suggestions on how to search for birth records in Alderney Bailiwick of Guernsey. I am in the States. Thanks!
Her ID is G711-482.
If you look at the resource links under the announcements section, you will see that there are links to Guernsey records.
It will be helpful to establish her maiden name first. It looks to me that Quinlan is correct and that Blackler was a married name from an earlier marriage.
For evidence, the GRO record for Nathaniel Adams in 1887 lists her maiden name as Quinlan.
Also, there is an Arthur Adams listed in the 1891 census born about 1877. I cannot locate a birth of an Arthur Adams or Quinlan but did find Arthur Richard Blackler as follows.
Might be worth obtaining a copy of Arthur's birth certificate to find out Arthur's father's name with a view to trying to locate his marriage to Catherine.
This can be ordered via the GRO website at
I wish you success.
Feel free to post again if you get stuck.
Regards
Graham Buckell
As with Graham, I do like a challenge - and this certainly seems to present one!
The fact that BLACKLER appears to be a a Devon surname does seem to indicate that QUINLAN was Catherine's maiden name, although that appears to be an Irish name. I have come across a similar situation previously - where the "maiden name" shown in the GRO index has been inconsistent - sometimes representing the true maiden name, but also being shown (against certain children) as being the name of a first / previous spouse.
Nathaniel Adams appears to have been a seaman, so he could have met Catherine in Alderney and married there, I suppose. Like Graham, I could not find a marriage to match in England. There were two Nathaniel Adams births in Devon in the mid-1850s and one of these individuals probably married at Plymouth in 1875, but the FreeBMD record suggests the bride was either Margaret Buckley or Barbara Oliver.
Regarding obtaining birth records, this link might be of help. I found it via the National Archives website.
It might be worth sending them an email to see how they can help.
Update - I just found this, from an article on the Priaulx Library website:
Alderney
Finally, the Priaulx Library also holds transcripts of some of the Alderney Civil Records. As stated above, registration did not become compulsory until 1924, so some records may be missing. The records held are:
Births: 1850-1885 and 1962-1997
Deaths: 1925-1968
I just found this 1881 census record in FamilySearch:
See https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27X-3W39?treeref=L191-73K As you will see, it shows Arthur Blackler (see Graham's screenshot) in the household of grandfather James KELLY and a MARGARET Kelly, aged 19 - born at Alderney!
See also what appears to be Nathaniel Adams' 1881 census record, at
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27X-9ZKS which shows him to be a married man, merchant seaman, but in the household of his widowed mother.
Both his 1861 & 1891 census records are found (on the FreeCEN website) via the link at https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_queries/623866d1f4040b644f5364fd?locale=en The birth location in both is CATTEDOWN, which is in the Plymouth area.
These records give further clues about his identity and confirms a son named Arthur ADAMS - must be aka Arthur BLACKLER, as no Arthur Adams birth at Plymouth for this (mid-1850s) period.
Sorry, but I just can't leave this conundrum alone!
Now I think I've found Catherine Blackler in the 1881 census, but only some of the detail matches. As you can see from the record, Catherine is shown as a married woman, aged 24 (i.e. born c1857), in Plymouth but showing a birthplace of "Redruth, Cornwall". I might have dismissed this record as coincidence and relating to another person of that name. However: (1) Nathaniel Adams is also shown as married in the 1881 census (see comments / link in my earlier post and (2) Another person in the same household as Catherine in 1881 is a Jane Butler - born ALDERNEY! As Jane is shown as single, she might not have a direct connection to Catherine, but all of this is very intriguing.
One has to ask: (1) If Catherine actually married Nathaniel Adams. (2) Was James Kelly (Arthur's grandfather) and father of Margaret Kelly, born Alderney, also Catherine's father? (3) Was she married to a man named Blackler (and Nathaniel Adams married to another woman) in 1881? (4) Were the birthplaces of Jane Butler and Catherine Blackler merely transposed in the recording of the 1881 census detail for their household? (5) If her father was named KELLY, where does the name QUINLAN come from?
Please update us if you eventually make any firm conclusions over this whole, confusing saga!
Link to 1881 census for (a) Catherine Blackler at Plymouth:
I have found some other detail, and have further ideas on this family - particularly relating to Catherine. However, I will not record them here until you return to acknowledge you are aware Graham and I have already made a number of comments / suggestions here and: (1) whether you think these might be of use in your further research and (2) if, indeed you would wish to receive any further information / ideas, for the time being.
I have been researching English records for over 35 years and have found my head in a spin over some of the possible relationships involved here, so would not wish you to feel overwhelmed by having too much thrust upon you at one time!
If I would recommend one point, however, it would be to contact the Priaulx Library in Guernsey about Catherine's birth records - bearing in mind she was possibly recorded with a surname of QUINLAN, or KELLY- BLACKLER being more likely to have been the name of a spouse.
Incidentally, there appears to have been a major (later aborted) port development at Alderney in the 1850s, which involved the use of a lot of Irish and English labour. Otherwise, there could be a Royal Navy connection attached to "outsider" births in Alderney around this time.
