I was contacted by a fellow researcher in May 2023, because he had a brick wall that had been bugging him for 35 years in his family tree. He had read my blog pages and was interested to know whether Ann Maria Backler (née Smith) had ever lived at 77 Princes Street, Walsall, Staffordshire, UK. He had noted that Ann Maria was having children in Warrington and wondered if I knew of a Walsall connection. His great grandfather was the above named Edward Edwards, who married his first wife Elizabeth Hawkins on 26th February 1898. They had a son together Thomas Elias William Edwards on 20th November 1898. Tragically, Elizabeth died five days later at 67 Princes Street.

Edward was in need of support and this seems to have come from Ann Maria Backler. She was married to William Backler, a baker, and they had already had six children, two of whom had died in infancy – see the blog pages “Backlers in Birmingham and Walsall” and “My line of Backlers in Warrington”. Ann Maria still had enough energy to take on the care of the young Thomas Edwards. A further tragedy took place though, when the poor boy also succumbed at the age of eight months on 21st July 1899. Ann Maria was noted on his death certificate as having been in attendance at 77 Princes Street, which was presumably her home address a few doors away from Edward. Ann Maria had just become pregnant and may not have been aware of it at the time, but she was to bear my grandfather about nine months later – Frederick John Edwin Backler. He was born on 16th March 1900, with William Backler shown as his father on his birth certificate. The family were living at 77 Princes Street, Walsall.

Edward chose to move to Warrington, where his sister Nancy Keating (née Edwards) was living with her family according to the 1901 and 1911 censuses. Edward met Sarah Ann Bates, a widow, who had four daughters and a son living with her. She had lost her husband George Bates and also, more recently, had just seen another daughter Henrietta Bates pass away too. Sarah became pregnant with Jon’s grandfather Frank Bates, who was born on 5th September 1900. Jon could not be sure that Edward was the father. On 13th December 1900 in Warrington, Edward and Sarah Ann entered into their second marriages. It seems likely that Edward would not have wanted, so soon, to take on the responsibility of five Bates children, if he wasn’t Frank’s father.

Ann Maria Backler found herself pregnant again in July 1901 and on 8th April 1902, my grandfather Frederick’s sister Isabel Beatrice Backler entered this world, with her father recorded as William Backler, journeyman baker, on her birth certificate. The family were then living at 8 Key Fold, Bank Quay, Warrington.

Things had begun to get murky in 1901. It was reported in local newspapers that Ann Maria had broken windows at Edward’s and Sarah Ann’s house at 79 Bank View, Fox Street, Warrington on several occasions. This came to a head in a prosecution at Warrington Magistrates Court, reported on 15th November 1901 in the Runcorn Examiner. Ann Maria was fined 40 shillings. She did not appear in court and the prosecution case was presented by Mr Browne. He stated that Edward had formerly lived at Walsall and when his wife died, he engaged Ann Maria to nurse his young child, who died later in Walsall. He continued that Edward had relocated to Warrington and that Ann Maria had followed him there, breaking up her family home, continually harassing him and arguing that he was not really married to Sarah Ann.

Edward’s marriage in December 1900 to Sarah Ann may have prompted the start of Ann Maria’s bad behaviour in early 1901, but it seems likely that the escalation in her bad behaviour was after she became pregnant with Isabel in July 1901. I am not quite sure what her reaction was when Sarah Ann again became pregnant in January 1902, once more overlapping her confinement with Ann Maria. Edward’s and Sarah Ann’s daughter Frances Edwards was born on 3rd September 1902.

In my blog page “Backlers in Birmingham and Walsall”, I wrote that William appeared to have been recorded in the 1901 census twice. This census was taken on 31st March 1901.  The first entry records him along with the rest of his family at 13 Mill Street, St Helens, Lancashire; wife (Ann) Maria 30, William 13, Charles 11, Thomas 7, Elizabeth 4 and Frederick 1. The second entry has him, along with son Thomas 6 and daughter Elizabeth 5, at the home of George H. Francis at 48 Providence Lane, Walsall. George H. Francis, was one of the witnesses at William’s and Ann’s marriage. I originally thought that the census form at St. Helens was pre-completed before William left for Walsall, but armed with the above information, I now believe that Ann Maria was in the process of breaking up the family home at the time of the census – as outlined by Mr Browne above.

At this stage there was no way of knowing whether Edward Edwards or William Backler had fathered Frederick or Isabel or both, plus it was also possible that either of them had fathered Frank or Frances or both. I had a strong mutual DNA connection to a confirmed second cousin, whose grandmother was Isabel. Our new researcher confirmed a half second cousin relationship to me and to Isabel’s grandson, so we shared one great grandparent with him. This couldn’t be Ann Maria Backler or Sarah Ann Edwards, because they had overlapped during two pregnancies each. The results did not prove whether the common great grand parent was Edward or William, but it was leaning towards Edward, because of the other information we had above. What was needed was a further examination of our DNA results to see if there were any links to Edward’s parents that by-passed him.

First we needed to understand a bit about Edward’s parents and his siblings. Thomas Edwards was born in Darlaston, Staffordshire in 1817 or 18. He married Nancy Wilkes, who was born in Darlaston in 1819 or 1820 on 14th August 1836. Thomas and Nancy had eleven children, five of whom died very young. Edward had two brothers Daniel Edwards and Samuel Richard Edwards, plus three sisters: Ann Maria Edwards who married Mark Dixon, Rosanna Edwards who married Thomas Aston and Nancy Edwards who married Thomas Keating. A DNA connection through any of these brothers and sisters would mean that Edward Edwards was our common great grandparent. This is a brief summary of their family for the purposes of this blog page. No doubt there will be further information for me to write up in later blog pages on the Edwards family.

The DNA results from the three of us and other available results confirmed the above chart.

I have conducted a large amount of research into the Backlers and failed to find any DNA connections to any but those of William Backler. As to tree connections those have failed to find a link to other branches of the Backlers and in our own ancestry, we have to erase the Backler connections to earlier generations that were based on documentation alone that has proven to be wrong. It seems that our branch of the Backlers is akin to Frederick and Isabel being adopted without their knowledge, or ours, come to that. In my own branch there are many Backler descendants from Frederick’s move to East Sussex and I am sure we will all continue to be known by the surname Backler. There is much research to amend in my blog pages and my Ancestry tree. There is also much to add with all our new Edwards cousins.

UPDATE Sunday 3rd November 2024: I visited Walsall and Darlaston in September, whilst returning from holiday, and took these pictures of 67 and 77 Prince Street, Pleck, Walsall, where Edward Edwards and Ann Marie Smith lived and met.

I also took pictures of Darlaston Town Hall and the War Memorial across the road. There is an Edward Edwards on the war memorial, thirteenth up from bottom left, but I don’t think it is my Edward Edwards, because there was another living in the area at the time. I can’t be sure for the moment, but there is a military record that suggests it is not our man. More research needed.