Margaret (Makin) Cooney (1859)

Born 1859 in Sutton, St Helens, Lancashire, England

Ancestors

Wife of James Cooney — married 14 Jan 1879 in St Luke's, Farnworth near Prescot, Lancashire, England

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Biography

Margaret Makin was born in 1859 in Sutton, the fifth child of Joseph Makin and Margaret (Garner) Makin. Her father was a copper smelter. She was christened October 30th 1859 at St Nicholas' church in Sutton. The christening record gave her father's occupation as labourer, and the family's address as Sutton.

In 1861, her family was living in Taylors Row, Sutton, and the father was working as a copper smelter. There were four children in the household - the eldest daughter had died in 1859, and Margaret was still the youngest.

By 1871, Margaret - aged 11 - was already working as a paid general servant, for a grocer and draper in Packers Hill, Sutton with a wife and five children all aged ten and under. This was unusually young to be in a job, based on census records for the area, but was entirely legal, indeed it wasn't till 1878 that children under the age of 10 were prohibited from working in trades.^[1]

Margaret married James Cooney on January 14th 1879 at St Luke's Church in Farnworth near Prescot. James was a widower, but it was Margaret's first marriage. James was said to be 30, Margaret 20, and both resident in Bold. Both made their mark. The groom was an engine driver. The witnesses were John Palmer and Ellen Young.

By 1881 the couple was living with Margaret's parents in Sutton Moss. James was an engineman for PNN, whatever company that was. As far as I can work out, LNWR was the train company that operated in the area; PNN might have been a colliery, but I haven't yet found a reference to it in colliery lists or elsewhere. Be that as it may, in 1881 James and Margaret had one child, a two-year-old daughter Margaret; and in addition to them and Margaret's parents, there were four unmarried siblings of Margaret in the household, plus a lodger and a visitor.

James and Margaret emigrated to Marion, Iowa.

Sources

• Birth registration listed on https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_search.asp

• Baptism & marriage http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Search/indexp.html

• Death registrations in FreeBMD GRO Index https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

• "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M7BK-5WN : 12 December 2017), Joseph Mateen, Sutton, Lancashire, England; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.

• "England and Wales Census, 1871", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KD6X-KMX : 11 December 2017), Margaret Makin in entry for Thomas Alexander Burke, 1871.

• "England and Wales Census, 1881," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27L-YPZ4 : 13 December 2017), Joseph Makin, Sutton, Lancashire, England; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales Census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. 43, Piece/Folio 3739/91, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm 101,775,077.

The civil registration index, and the England and Wales censuses, are Crown Copyright.

1. ↑ https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/child-labour