The story of Ann Sibbick through the England Census records

History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all.

Laurence Overmire

While Christopher Wedderburn and his family were making a new life in the Eastern Cape in South Africa, on the Isle of Wight a little girl called Ann is born to Edward and Hannah Sibbick.

She was born in Brading, on the east coast of the Isle, sometime in 1831.

Nolene Lossau looked at the Census records with me to find out more about the young Ann.

She is 10 in 1841 and with her family in Brading.

1841 Census Data, Ann Sibbick with her family in Brading.

1851 Census Data, London House in Ventnor, Ann is a Housemaid.

Her father, Edward, is 55 and registered as an agricultural labourer. Her mother, Hannah is 50 and has no occupation indicated on the form.

She has 2 older brothers, John, Isaac and little Henry is only 3 years old.

In 1851 she was now 20 and had moved from Brading to Ventnor in the district of Godshill, in the south east of the Isle of Wight.

The census record is a delight to look at.

Ann Sibbick is working at London House in Ventnor as one of 4 servants to an Elizabeth Briant, a Wine Merchant.

Feels to me like an early version of Downton Abbey, a Cook, a Housekeeper and 2 Housemaids. The census data also records 2 female lodgers at London House, both from Ireland.

I googled London House in Ventnor and it seems to still exist with a wonderful Facebook page and is a bakery and deli. A must on my itinerary for when I visit the Isle of Wight.

A decade later, life has moved on for Ann.

She is 30. Still living in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight but she is now married.

1861 Census Data, Ann is now married and living at 54 St Catherine Street, Ventnor.

Her husband is John Argyle. He is also 30.

The Census data records him as born in Fordington, Dorset, which is part of the town of Dorchester in the south-west of the UK.

John's occupation is given as a Labourer and Ann is now a Charwoman.

They are living in St. Catherine Street, at number 54 which seems to remain the family home over the decades.

1871 Census data, Ann is a mother to Annie and William

By 1871 Ann is 40, still married and a mother of two.

They have 2 lodgers registered with them at 54 St Catherine Street, a James and Frederick. I cannot make out James occupation but Frederick is a Bakers Assistant.

John, Ann's husband is now a Gardener and she is a Laundress.

From the Census data her children are a daughter Annie, who is 9 and a scholar.

And little William who is a year old in 1871. My Nan's father.





Post script: 
A FreeBMD search shows that Ann Argyle died in the last quarter of 1894, on the Isle of Wight, at the age of 64.