Davison – Howell marriage in London, England
Another small mystery solved! Nellie Davison and Henry Howell were indeed married in London, England – just as dad remembers.
I found an entry in “The England and Wales Civil Registration Index” which shows they were married in the quarter ending June 1900 – “Pancras District, London, Middlesex, England.” She appears by her full name in the index as Ellen Minora Davison, and he appears as Henry Howell. This further confirms the family stories that they were married in England and also confirms the entry in the Clopton Family Association Genealogy which says married “London”.
Researching the Pancras Civil Registration District in London shows it was abolished in 1903, and is now part of the Camden District. Sub-districts included: Camden Town; Gray’s Inn Lane; Kentish Town; Regent’s Park; Somers Town; Tottenham Court. (The same districts were used to compile the census returns for the years 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901)
St. Pancras Church is believed to be one of the oldest sites for Christian worship in England – (No details yet of where exactly Henry and Nellie were married within the Pancras District – this would be an interesting place to research however)
Today, according to Wikipedia:
St. Pancras is the name of a place in London. However, it is no longer very much used as a name for the district, having been largely superseded by several other terms for overlapping places.St Pancras was originally a medieval parish which ran from close to what is now Oxford Street north as far as Highgate, and from what is now Regent’s Park in the west to the road now known as York Way in the east, boundaries which take in much of the current London Borough of Camden, including the central part of it. However, as the choice of name for the borough suggests, St Pancras has lost its status at the central settlement in the area. The district now encompassed by the term “St Pancras” is not easy to define, and usage of St Pancras as a place name is fairly limited.
Old St Pancras Church and its graveyard have links to Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and the Wollstonecraft circle. Immediately to the north of the churchyard is St Pancras Hospital, formerly the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases. St Pancras is one of the best known railway stations in England. It is currently being extended and is due to become the new terminus for the Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel in 2007.
Since Nellie and Henry appear in the US Census taken June 15, 1900 living in Marietta, GA “married for 0 years”, they must have departed for America by ship shortly after their marriage.