Which Peter Keam married Jennifer Crossman 1813 at St Mewan, Cornwall?

Research Note by Wesley Johnston, begun 22 Nov 2014, last updated 25 Nov 2014

The Problem

At St Mewan, Cornwall, 2 Sep 1813, Peter Keam married Jennifer Crossman. This is known only through indexes, since FamilySearch does not have the St Mewan marriages for that period online. Three different indexes include the marriage, and they do not agree on the month:

1 - Cornwall Family History Society's Research Database (CFHS DB): Peter KEAME -- Jennifer CROSSMAN -- St Mewan -- 2 Oct 1813

2 - Cornwall OPC: 2 Sep 1813 -- Pete KEAME, OTP, Miner, signed - Jennifer CROSSMAN, OTP, marked - witnesses: Thomas RICKARD, Henry HAMMER

3 - FamilySearch: Peter Keame - Jennifer Crossman - 12 Sep 1813 - St Mewan - FHL film 1596066 item 14 p 52

Until I can view the image of the original record, I am carrying the month as September, since two of the three indexes carry it as September.

There are multiple candidates (per the CFHS DB) who could have been the Peter Keam in this marriage, which are listed by baptismal date:

1765 Dec 26 (St Mewan) - son of Thomas and Grace - This Peter married Mary Harris, who was buried 11 Mar 1809 at St Mewan, so that Peter was available in 1813. Prior to beginning this research note, I have been carrying this Peter as the one who marred Jennifer Crossman, until I could research it further.

1789 Jan 4 (St Mewan) - son of Thomas and Rachell

1790 May 9 (St Mewan) - son of Samuel and Mary

1791 Mar 13 (St Mewan) - son of James and Hannah

So which one was the groom in the 1813 marriage?

NOTE: There was also a Richard Keam baptized 14 Aug 1796 at St Mewan, son of Peter & Mary. And it is known that he actually went by the name Peter Keam. At 17, it is possible that he might have married in 1813, but he is believed to have married Emma Geach 15 Nov 1824 at St Austell.

Helen Sage's Observations

I had left things hanging and not researched this further. Helen (Keam) Sage of Australia sent the following observations and conclusion, which are the inspiration for this research note.

Are you saying that Jenefer Jane Crossman was a second wife to Peter 1765? I don't think so.

Children of the Family

The CFHS DB has the following baptisms for children of the couple. These are the only baptisms for any date in all of Cornwall for children of Peter K*m* and wife J*n*. And there is only one marriage of a Peter and Jennifer/Jane/Joan in this time period (1813-1830). So all of these children belong to the same family. Since the spelling varied, it is likely that Peter was illiterate, so that the vicar or rector or whoever recorded the births simply spelled the name as he chose. The images for the 1816-1827 St Mewan baptims are not online.

1814 Jul 31 - St Mewan - William - Peter & Jane Keame -- Often the first son is named for his father's father, but none of the four candidates had a father named William. Jane's baptism has not yet been found, among many possible baptisms, but none of the candidate baptisms for her were for a father named William. So it is a mystery where this first-born son's name originated.

1816 Apr 15 - St Mewan - Peter - Peter & Jane Keame

1819 Jan 24 - St Mewan - Jane - Peter & Jennifer Keame

1821 Mar 4 - St Mewan - Maria - Peter & Jane Keame

1824 Dec 25 - St Mewan - Thomas - Peter & Jane Keame

1827 Nov 19 - St Mewan - Grace - Peter & Jane Keame

1830 May 2 - St Austell - Reuben - Peter & Jane Keam - abode Mt Charles - father Miner == https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1951-22978-129613-66

There is also this baptism:

1841 Feb 27 - St Austell - Mary - Peter & Jane Keam - This is the child of the 1816 Peter and his wife (married St Austell 24 Aub 1839) Jane TANK,

Peter Keam Burials Before 1837

The only pre-1837 burial of a Peter Keam among the four is the 3 Apr 1823 burial at St Mewan. His abode was given as Trewoon and his age as 48. However his headstone, which shows his date of death as 1 Apr 1823, shows his age as 57 -- thus born about 1766. The stone also has his wife, Mary, who died age 35 on 11 Mar 1809 and their child David. This is the 1765 Peter and his wife Mary Harris.

So Helen Sage was right: this and the 1841 census (next section) rule him out as the husband of Jennifer Crossman. So we are now left with just three candidates:

1789 Jan 4 (St Mewan) - son of Thomas and Rachell

1790 May 9 (St Mewan) - son of Samuel and Mary

1791 Mar 13 (St Mewan) - son of James and Hannah

1841 Census

By 1941, there were two Peter-Jane Keam families in Cornwall, and they are living next to each other in the census of Mt Charles Village in St Austell parish.

The family is split across two images:

http://interactive.ancestry.com/8978/CONHO107_145_146-0443

http://interactive.ancestry.com/8978/CONHO107_145_146-0444

The younger Peter is on the last line of the first image, and his wife Jane (nee TANK) is on the first line of the second image. Keep in mind that adult ages are rounded to the nearest 5 years in the 1841 census, so that they are not exact ages.

- Peter age 25, Miner, born Cornwall

- Jane, age 20, born Cornwall

- Mary, age 4 months, born Cornwall

His parents' family is listed next.

- Peter, age 50, Miner, born Cornwall

- Jane, age 50, born Cornwall

- Thomas 14, born Cornwall

- Grace, 12, born Cornwall

- Reuben, 10, born Cornwall

Allowing for rounding, the Peter Keam who married Jennifer/Jane Crossman was born about 1788-1794, Unfortunately, while this further rules out the 1765 Peter Keam, it includes all three remaining candidates.

Burial of the St Austell Peter Keam

Most common people were illiterate and innumerate at this time. Thus they could not write their names nor accurately write and calculate from their birth date. In addition, age at death of older people was almost always given by someone who had not been there when the deceased was born. So ages at death must always be considered as estimates in the absence of any corroborating evidence.

Peter Keam was buried 11 Jun 1850 at St Austell. His abode was still at Mount Charles, and his age was given as 60 years. The image of the record is at:

  https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-13029-76779-47

His age calculates to birth about 1790. So once again, any of the three candidates could be him, since they were baptized 1789, 1790, and 1791. So a second record fails to either rule out any of the candidates or confim one of them.

If we could believe that the age 60 was precisely correct, then it would eliminate the 4 Jan 1789 Peter Keam who would have been 61 in June 1850. But since people were often illiterate and innumerate at that time, the age 60 might be only an approximation.

Other Peter Keam Burials after 1837

The 1823 St Mewan burial (first burial section, above) of the 1765 Peter Keam is the only one in the CFHS DB (searched for Peter K*m*), which tends to be weak on burials and mostly not including post -1837 (the year in which civil BMD registration began) burials at all.

Cornwall OPC has four Peter KEAM burials after the 1823 burials of the 1765 Peter at St Mewan. The first is the above 1850 burial at St Austell. The others are as follows. (The search was for Peter KEA.)

1856 Aug 24 - St Mewan - abode St Mewan, age 4 months [thus born c Apr 1856]

1869 Dec 23 - St Austell - abode Sandy Bottom, age 53 [thus born c 1816]

1883 Oct 17 - St Mewan - abode Sticker, age 65 [thus born c 1818]

Clearly none of these are the 1789-1791 Peter Keams.

FreeBMD's death index, searched on Ancestry for Peter K*am*, has all four of the OPC records (1850, 1856, 1869, 1883) and no more. So all of the Peter Keam burial in Cornwall after 1837 were in the church.

So either two of the three 1789-1791 Peter Keams emigrated from Cornwall or their deaths were not recorded and indexed. The only one who was recorded and indexed in Cornwall was the husband of Jennifer/Jane Crossman, but we still do not know enough to say which of the three he is.

Did the Peter Keam who died in 1850 leave a will?

Searching FindMyPast.com (not .uk) for Keam* in the UK and then filtering on the collection to Wills and Probate finds 24 hits. Only one of them is a Peter Keam, the 1765 Peter at St Mewan whose 1823 burial and grave stone are considered in the first burial section. His executor was his son Peter Keam, baptized as Richard Keam. Foir the record, the Court was Ars Cornwall, register 3, page 1131. There is no will for Jennier or Jane Keam either. So the wills are not going to tell us which Peter Keam married Jennifer/Jane Crossman.

Was there a newspaper report of Peter Keam's death in June 1850?

While not likely to help discriminate among the three candidates, I searched the June and July 1850 "West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser" death notices (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wbritonad/cornwall/1850/deaths/jun.html AND http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wbritonad/cornwall/1850/deaths/jul.html). There were no reports. I also searched FindMyPast's British Newspaper collection index, which was generated by optical character recognition that is quite poor and thus turns Keam into Acam in one case) and found no hits.

Conclusion

It is impossible to tell from the records thus far located which of the three (1789, 1790, 1791) St Mewan baptized Peter Keams married Jennifer Crossman in 1813.

So now I am left with deciding how to carry him in my tree. I could carry him as an unattached Peter, along with this research note. Or I could pick one of the three Peter Keams -perhaps the 1890 one who is in the middle and who fits best with the age 60 at death in June 1850 -- and use him as a tentative stand-in, along with this research note. Both options have problems.

And what other records might be found that could help with this problem? Certainly, I need to look at Peter Keam marriage records to see if any of the three married in Cornwall. Perhaps there is some record of travel. Or perhaps the 1841 and 1851 censuses can shed more light on the other two Peter Keams who did not marry Jennifer Crossman. Some of these searches are very "doable". But for the moment, I need to move on to other priorities and leave these for later work.