The Elusive Raven Family

 

My great - grandparents, Evelyn Ernest and Mabel Kemp Raven were the last of my ancestors to come from over the seas to settle on Australian shores, when they arrived in Perth on 5th August 1913.

They married in Sheffield in Yorkshire on 1st July 1913 and departed from London on the "Orsova" three days later.

My father, Noel Cavanagh, was their first grandchild, and had very fond memories of his grandparents.

Mabel & Evelyn Ernest  RAVEN, daughter Elsie between them,
grandchildren Noel (standing) and baby Shirley CAVANAGH. 1936

My grandmother, Doreen, was the eldest child of Evelyn and Mabel. Grandma had treasured family photos which included images of people from the Sheffield families, with no identifying details for most of them.

Grandma shared the limited information that she knew about her father's family. She did have Evelyn and Mabel's marriage certificate, and Evelyn's father Richard's will, and a couple of letters from him.  Grandma also knew that her father had a older sister, who had died as a teenager from Scarlet Fever.

Building a family tree seemed to be the first step in trying to identify the people in the photos.

The Raven Family Tree :    (Click on the image to enlarge it)

Richard Raven, born in about 1833, married Ann Atkins at Sheffield on 25 December 1856. The certificate showed his father as Robert Raven, a bricklayer.   The witnesses were Ann's sister Ellen and her husband Thomas Nuttall, and their marriage entry follows in the register on the same day.

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

Image from FindmyPast: Yorkshire Marriages, Sheffield, St Phillip Shalesmoor YKS

    
Richard Raven was a hairdresser when he married, and all later records for him include the same occupation. 

A search was made for earlier census records. 

In 1851, I found a Richard Raven, aged 18, an apprentice hairdresser, living in North Sheffield in Yorkshire.  It is a unique name in the area and an uncommon occupation, and his birth place of Ecclesall is consistent with later records. However, there no family links in the record to allow confirmation that I have found the right person. 

1851 CENSUS - Class: HO107; Piece: 2339; Folio: 70; Page: 2; GSU roll: 87590-87593

A search of the 1841 Census records turned up only one possible entry for a Richard Raven in Sheffield, of the right age. He is in North Sheffield, in the household of Richard and Ann Good.  They are both aged around 50, so could be parents, or possibly grandparents of Richard Raven, aged 8.  

1841 CENSUS - Class: HO107; Piece: 1335; Book: 11; Civil Parish: Sheffield; County: Yorkshire; Enumeration District: 26; Folio: 32; Page: 17; Line: 3; GSU roll: 464281

But is he "my" Richard Raven, born c1833 in Ecclesall ?

DNA results were consulted, with the aim of building the tree further back.

I have access to DNA results from my Dad and 2 of his siblings, and I had asked one of their Raven 1st cousins to test.  

Out of these 4 people, who share grandfather Evelyn Ernest Raven, none have DNA matches with people with the Raven surname, or who have that name in their family trees.   

Anne Atkins was my 3rd great-grandmother, and the wife of Richard Raven. I reviewed the DNA matches for the 3 siblings and their first cousin, and the result was that they do have DNA matches with the Atkins family. 

Hmm..was there a break in the Raven family tree ?  Or, perhaps the Raven family was so small that there is little chance that living descendants exist who may do a DNA test ?