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As noted earlier, Sarah McComb (the daughter of Stewart (Edward) McComb and his wife Sarah) had four known siblings, the oldest of which was named Jane.  She was born in Ireland, as were all of her siblings, so I only have the census records and her marriage and death certificates to ascertain her year of birth.  She is listed in the 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, and 1901 England census records as being aged 30, 42, 48, 60, and 71  respectively.  Jane’s marriage to Joseph Hough (pronounced – and sometimes spelled – Hoff) took place on August 29, 1857 in Bentham, Yorkshire, England.  Both their ages are listed simply as “of full age” meaning at least 21 years.  Jane died at age 83 on June 18, 1913 in Burnley, Lancashire.  So she was born sometime between 1829 and 1833, but most likely in 1829 or 1830.  By 1871 Jane was a widow with six children.  Her husband Joseph Hough died on January 16, 1870 in Bentham of consumption.  Jane never remarried, and was the only child of Stewart and Sarah who did not emigrate to the United States, but remained in England.

Jane and Joseph’s oldest child was Alexander Hough.  He was born on October 3, 1858 in Bentham, Yorkshire.  Alexander married Annie Banks on February 18, 1883 in Habergham Eaves, Lancashire, and they had 7 children.   Alexander died on March 11, 1916 in Burnley, Lancashire.  Minnie I. Hoff (sp.) was Alexander and Annie’s first child.  She was born on November 9, 1884 in Burnley, Lancashire.  She died on May 23, 1897 at the age of 12 years.  Alexander’s next child was James Hough.  James was born on February 16, 1889 in Burnley and christened on April 14, 1889 in Habergham Eaves, Lancashire.  James joined the military (in which records I found his birth date) and was killed in action on May 6, 1915 in Dardanelles, Turkey during the Battle of Gallipoli.  Alexander and Annie’s third child was William Hough.  William was born in Burnley on February 24, 1891, christened in Habergham Eaves on May 10, 1891, and died in Burnley on May 23 of that same year.  Next born was Alexander Hough.  He was born on September 17, 1892 in Burnley, Lancashire.  Alexander, Jr. died before his fourth birthday, on June 23, 1896 in Burnley.  The fifth child was Edwin Hough, who was born on February 21, 1895 in Burnley.  On December 13, 1919 he married Barbara Turnbull in Burnley.  Barbara was born on January 20, 1894 in Todmorden, Yorkshire.  Edwin died in Burnley in early 1979 and Barbara died in early 1968 also in Burnley.  I have no record of children for Edwin and Barbara.  Joseph Hough was the sixth child of Alexander and Annie.  Joseph was born on December 31, 1896 in Burnley.  On October 14, 1919 he married Isabel Watson Whitfield in Liverpool, Lancashire.  She was born on November 22, 1896 in West Derby, Lancashire.  They had at least two children: Clifford Hough, born on December 12, 1920 in Burnley; and James Arthur Hough born on March 22, 1924 also in Burnley.  Clifford married and had at least one son.  Clifford died in 1975 in Burnley.  Joseph and Isabel must have divorced at some point, as they remarried on October 17, 1934 in Burnley.  Joseph died in Chorley, Lancashire in 1948.  The last child born to Alexander and Annie Hough was named Hilda.  Hilda was born in the summer of 1899 in Burnley, Lancashire.  On April 15, 1922 she married Thomas Edward Highway, who had himself been born in Burnley in the spring of 1896.  Both died in Burnley, Thomas in the fall of 1955 and Hilda in the winter of 1962.

The second child of Joseph and Jane Hough was Sarah, who was born on August 1, 1860 in Bentham, Settle, Yorkshire, England.  Sarah gave birth to Joseph Hough on January 30, 1883 in Habergham Eaves, Lancashire.  No father is listed on Joseph’s birth certificate.  In 1891 Joseph is living with Sarah’s widowed mother Jane in Burnley.  Joseph married Amy Florence Wilson in Burnley on May 15, 1909 and on December 28, 1909 they had a daughter who they named Amy Florence, for her mother.  The marriage records list Sarah’s father Joseph as her son Joseph’s father, so it’s possible that Sarah’s mother Jane ‘adopted’ little Joseph to raise as her own.  Joseph, Sr. had died more than 12 years before little Joseph was born, and little Joseph appears to have lived with his grandmother Jane for his entire childhood, even after his mother Sarah married.  Little Joseph’s daughter Amy died at the age of 9 years in Burnley on April 15, 1919.  I have no further information on Joseph and his wife Amy.  Sarah married Nicholas Stevenson (sometimes spelled Stephenson) in Habergham Eaves, Lancashire on July 30, 1887.   They had at least three children: twins Edwin, born first on June 18, 1889 and christened July 21, 1889 in Habergham Eaves, who died June 6, 1892, and Harold, born 10 minutes after Edwin and christened in Habergham Eaves on June 20, 1889 who died on June 21 1889, and a daughter Flossy (also called Florrie) Hough who was born on November 30, 1891 in Burnley.  Sarah died on July 10, 1914 in Burnley.

Mary Jane Hough was born third.  She was born in Bentham, Settle, Yorkshire on August 9, 1862.  Mary Jane married John James Holden in Habergham, Lancashire on December 10, 1887.  The wedding was witnessed by Mary’s brother Joseph and his future wife Ellen Hunter.  John was christened on January 5, 1862 in Habergham Eaves, Lancashire, and died in Haslingden, Lancashire at the age of 52 on December 31, 1912.  They had at least four children:  Mabel, born November 4, 1889 and christened December 1, 1889 in Habergham Eaves; Florence Ada, born May 7, 1890 in Burnley; Ida, who was born in Burnley on September 30, 1898 and christened on November 13, 1898 in Habergham Eaves; and Sarah, who was born in Burnley on March 28, 1902 and who married and had at least 5 children.  Mabel married Edwin Fletcher in Habergham, Lancashire on February 19, 1910 when she was 20.  Mary Jane remarried after her first husband died and herself died in Burnley in 1945.

Joseph Jr. was born next.  Joseph was born in Boston Spa, Yorkshire on May 13, 1865.  He and Ellen Hunter were married on July 12, 1890 in Burnley, Lancashire.  They had no children in the 1891, 1901, or 1911 census records, but it’s possible they had children that didn’t survive long enough to be recorded on the census.  Ellen died in Ormskirk, Lancashire on May 6, 1914.  Joseph later married his younger brother’s widow.

William James Hough was the fifth child born.  He was born in Clifford, Yorkshire on April 28, 1867 and married Isabella Watson Nicholson in Marylebone, London, England on August 12, 1901.  Isabella was born in Pancras, London on February 23, 1872.  They had a daughter, Eleanor Madeline Hough, who was born in Burnley, Lancashire on February 16, 1906.  William James died on January 26, 1914 in Burnley.  Isabella then married William’s widowed brother Joseph in Ormskirk, Lancashire on April 6, 1916.  I have no record of children for Joseph and Isabella, and no record of their deaths.

Jane and Joseph Hough’s last child was named Margaret.  She was born on October 9, 1869 in Bentham, Settle, Yorkshire.  On Christmas Day of 1889 she married William Stevenson, the brother of Nicholas Stevenson who was married to her sister Sarah, in Habergham Eaves, Lancashire.  She and William had at least two children:  Flossie Stevenson, born on March 27, 1890 in Burnley; and Beatrice Stevenson, born in Burnley on March 13, 1899 and who died there four and a half months later on July 30, 1899.  William Stevenson died in Burnley on January 21, 1901.  I have no further information for Margaret.

© Deborah Ray and archivecookie.com, 2010.

Returning to Sarah McComb, you will recall that her marriage certificate to Thomas Bready gives her father’s name as Stuart McComb.  How to find the rest of her family though?  Well, I have several clues.  The marriage took place in 1861 after the census, and Stuart is not listed as deceased on the marriage certificate.  So, it’s possible I might find him in the 1861 census, also.  Knowing how names can evolve, I looked for Stuart, Stewart, or Steward McComb, McCombe, or McCoomb and came up empty.  So having nothing to lose and everything to gain, I looked in the 1871 England census.  After all, you just never know.  And I found him!  Stuart McCombe, living with his wife Sarah, son William and his wife Mary, and Stuart’s widowed daughter Jane Hough and her six children were living in Burnley, Lancashire in 1871.  I also discovered that Stuart, Sarah, William, and Jane were from County Down, Ireland.  Then I backtracked to locate Stuart in 1861.  I now knew that Stuart’s wife’s name was Sarah, as well as that he had a son William and a daughter Jane, who by the ages of her children was Jane Hough in 1861 as well.  Great!   But – still no luck.  I wasn’t able to find Stuart, Sarah, or William McComb under any variation of the first or last names.  So I moved on to Jane Hough – and I found them!  It turned out that the index I was searching had mis-transcribed the last name McComb as McCanb, and that Stuart was listed as Edward – my first clue that his full name might be either Stuart Edward McComb or Edward Stuart McComb.  But there they all were in 1861, living in Livesey, Lancashire.  Edward, his wife Sarah, son William, another son James, and Joseph and Jane Hough (all born in Ireland) and their two oldest children who were both born in Bentham, Yorkshire had been found.

So now I knew that Sarah McComb, who married Thomas Bready, was the daughter of Stewart (Stuart, Steward, Edward) McComb and his wife Sarah, and that she had a sister Jane who married Joseph Hough with whom she had six children, a brother William who married Mary, and a brother James.

Next, I looked for Stuart’s and his wife Sarah’s death certificates.  I discovered that Steward’s (sic.) death certificate was signed by his son-in-law Bernard Rooke, and that Steward died on June 4, 1877 at the age of 73 in Burnley, Lancashire.  Immediately, I wondered if Jane Hough had remarried to Bernard Rooke!  Then I looked at Sarah McComb’s death certificate.  She died aged 83 on May 7, 1881 also in Burnley.  Her death certificate was signed by her daughter Mary Ann Rook.  Unfortunately, death certificates in England do not give a married woman’s maiden name or the names of her parents as do Scotland death certificates from 1855 on.  To discover Sarah’s maiden name I would have to locate her marriage to Stewart McComb, and given the birth location of their children it would most likely be somewhere in County Down, Ireland.  So now I had Stewart and Sarah McComb, and their children William, Jane, James, Sarah, and Mary Ann.  I then looked for Bernard and Mary Ann Rooke in the 1861 census, and found them in Dalton, Lancashire where I also learned Mary Ann was born in County Down, Ireland.

© Deborah Ray and archivecookie.com, 2010.