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Jane Pearce, Samuel Tadd and Thomas Turvey: Polruan,Cornwall and Liverpool

Jane Pearce, Samuel Tadd and Thomas Turvey: Polruan,Cornwall and Liverpool

Posted: 6 Aug 2014 1:26PM GMT
Classification: Query
Surnames: Tadd, Pearce, Turvey
The 1972 book on Elizabeth Arden’s life by Alfred Allan Lewis and Constance Woodworth contains a family photograph with a caption indicating the individuals are Elizabeth’s maternal grandparents Samuel and Jane (Pearce) Tadd, her mother Susan Pearce Tadd [later Graham], and her aunts and uncle Jane, Emma, and James Liberty Tadd. While seven individuals are pictured, only six names are given in the book.

This picture has been reproduced by several researchers and attached to several family trees in other parts of Ancestry.com. Some of these researchers have attempted to redefine the individuals, and/or suggest the identity of the seventh person.

With the improved abilities to find source birth and death information now existing in 2014, I have formed a view that the photo caption in the book is incorrect, in that Samuel Tadd cannot be the adult man pictured. I believe this man is Jane (Pearce) Tadd’s second husband, Thomas Turvey (based upon the presumption this is the family of Jane [Pearce] [Tadd] Turvey in the first place). My logic is as follows:

Parish records in Lanteglos-by-Fowey show that Samuel Tadd was baptized 1814. From both contemporaneous news accounts in the West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser newspaper, and Samuel’s will that was probated in London in April 1854, it can be ascertained that he perished at sea in about early 1854. If the man pictured is Samuel, the photo would therefore have been taken in 1853 or earlier, when Samuel would have been 39 years old or younger. Simply put, the white-haired (old?) man in the photo does not look like a 39 year old.

Jane Pearce was born in 1818. By about 1853, she would have been about 35. She also looks too old for a 35 year old.

Susan Pearce Tadd, identified as the young woman in the back right, was baptized in 1844, and she would have been about 9 years old in 1853. This is not the picture of a 9 year old. Similar observations can be made for Jane Tadd in the back left (baptized in 1842), and Emma Tadd in the center back (baptized in 1848) who appear much older than the 11 and 5 years of age or younger if the photo was taken in 1853 or earlier. Perhaps most compelling is that it can now be seen in the Liverpool church records that James Liberty Tadd was born in 1853, making it impossible for him to be in the photo since no infant is pictured.

So, when was the photo taken, and who are these individuals? My belief is that the photo was taken in approximately 1862 or 1863, after the second marriage of Jane (Pearce) (Tadd) to Thomas Turvey, and perhaps shortly before they emigrated to Canada. This hypothesis seems to fit the ages of this family group.

Thomas Turvey was born between 1800 and 1805 (a definitive record has not yet been located), so he would have been about 60 years old in in 1862 – and the white hair would befit that age. On his knee would then be his son, Thomas Turvey, Jr., from his prior marriage who was born in 1859 – this boy is the right 3 or 4 years old. The matronly Jane would be about 45. On the right, James Liberty Tadd would be about 10. In the back row, Jane would be about 21, Emma about 15 and Susan about 19. At least to my eye, all of this fits.

What do you think?
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