Sunday, December 10, 2006

Marion Houghton Pask

Several months ago Sharen Gill wrote and sent me the very unusual birth certificate of her grandmother Marion Houghton Pask.

Marion was born on 13 September 1894 in Northorpe, Lincolnshire. Her birth was registered on 13 October 1894 and lists that she was the daughter of William Haigh & Mary Hannah Houghton née Pask.

However, all this information was corrected by a Statutory Declaration that was made on 19 November 1894 by Mary Hannah Pask and her father James Pask to Joseph Jackson Oates, the Register.

The events, as related by Sharen Gill née Whardle, were:

Mary Hannah Pask my great grandmother went to work as a maid in West Yorkshire and at that point we all thought it was Dewsbury she was working at, ie as that was where Marion was born, but as it transpires it was a villiage called Almondbury Huddersfield ... Mary Hannah Pask had not been in touch with her family in Prestwich for some time, a number of months, and the family became worried and sent her brother Noah to check on her, Noah found his sister Mary Hannah Pask living in a cottage in the grounds of the Houghton family home with a baby girl who was a few weeks old, this ofcourse being my grandmother. We know that Mary Hannah Pask returned home to Prestwich with Marion with the help of her brother Noah, hence now the story as we knew it unfolded, we were always lead to believe that William Haigh Houghton ( Marion's father) had intended to marry Mary Hannah Pask but his family had said if he did they would cut him off from the family and all inheritance, and at this point Mary Hannah Pask always said she would never allow that to happen, we were told that William Haigh Houghton was well to do maybe a Lord or son of a Lord. My grandmother was told she was paid for until she was 16 years old.I grew up knowing the story and listening to my Mother talk about how Polly ( Mary Hannah Pask's nickname) liked a drink in her later years and would talk about the Houghtons and who did his Lordship think he was sort of thing!

The certificate, together with the information that Sharen has extensively researched is included in the database, and will be updated in the next website update.

In my 20+ years of family history research I have never seen such a certificate. Sincere thanks to Sharen for sharing this fascinating information.