The Wife of John Mellow Job

Research note by Wesley Johnston, begun 4 Nov 2014, last update 5 Nov 2014

Background: The Problem

The marriage record of John Mellow Job and Caroline Keam at St Mewan, Cornwall, 2 Jul 1859 can be seen at:

https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/DGS-004764191_00075?cc=1769414&wc=M6NJ-HNL:138123201,141916901,138491401

He signed his name, and she made her mark, as did witness James Keam. He was under age and married with the consent of his parents. She was shown as age 21, which would have put her birth in 1838, daughter of miner James Keam.

And indeed, James Keam had a daughter Caroline, born in the St Austell Registration District in the April-June quarter of 1838 (volume 9, page 21). But in the 1861 census, John Job's wife is shown as Catherine, daughter of James and Loveday Keam, and her age is shown as 21, thus born about 1840.

So did John Job first marry Caroline and then Catherine? Or was the census taker wrong about her given name and age?

The Oldest Daughters of James and Loveday Keam

The bottom line is that James and Loveday Keam had no daughters named Catherine, so that the 1861 census taker was wrong. John Job married only once, and that was with Caroline Keam, and she was born 28 Mar 1838 at St Mewan.

She was the second child of her parents (James and Loveday (Thomas) Keam) named Caroline. The first was baptized in 1836 and buried in 1837. John Job's wife Caroline was born 28 Mar 1838, which is known from her 1846 baptism at St Mewan (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-12115-130714-9).

So John Job's wife in the 1861 census should have been recorded as Caroline age 23 and not Catherine age 21.

All of the other census records show John's wife as Caroline. (The couple had no known children, so that no baptisms have been found.) There simply was no Catherine Keam, other than in the mind of the 1861 census taker.

- 1871 census: http://interactive.ancestry.com/7619/CONRG10_2261_2265-0197/15226690

- 1881 census: http://interactive.ancestry.com/7572/CONRG11_2299_2303-0477/1958873

- 1891 census: http://interactive.ancestry.com/6598/CONRG12_1821_1823-0186/24447094

- 1901 census: http://interactive.ancestry.com/7814/CONRG13_2211_2212-0386/12062326