Hannah spent most of her early life in Blackburn living with her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Blakemore, until Sarah’s death in 1923. Neither Sarah’s husband (John Thomas Hoghton) nor Hannah’s probable father (Thomas Smith) appear to have been around. According to Bill, she was engaged to her half-cousin Charlie Blakemore, the son of James Manley Blakemore. Charlie was killed in France just days before the end of the First World War. (add family tree showing relationship)

Two years after her mother’s death Hannah had moved to Birmingham and married Ralph Payne. They had two daughters, Irene and Marj, but Ralph left the family before Marj was 4. When Irene married and moved to Tockholes, Hannah returned to Lancashire to live with. Andy remembers Hannah returning to Birmingham, probably around 1964 – she was often at their house in Craythorn Avenue. Hannah died on 14th March 1968 at City Hospital; Gill remembers being taken to visit her in hospital. The cause of death is shown as colon cancer; her home address is given as Tamworth House, Somerset Road, Handsworth – which was then a care home.

(much of this is in Marj’s writing; think there are photos of Hannah too)

The facts:

Her birth certificate lists her mother as Sarah Smith, formerly Blakemore, and her father as Thomas Smith. I haven’t found a marriage certificate for Sarah and Thomas, not surprising as Sarah was actually still married to John Thomas Hoghton. Hannah was baptised in June 1891 at St Thomas’ Church Stockport, again as Hannah Smith with Sarah and Thomas parents.

Marj wrote “my grandmother fell out with her husband and walked form Blackburn to Birmingham with my mother and worked at the Arden temperance hotel she stayed with her sister in City Road” (this must be Amelia – The Arden and the Cobden 1901 were linked; SE’s only other sister had her hands full with step and own children plus a husband.)

However by the 1901 census Tom Smith had disappeared and she was known as Hannah Smith Hoghton for the rest of her life.

• In 1901 she was lodging with her mother at 25 Emma Street, Blackburn.
• In 1911 she was living with her mother and two “boarders” at 32 Griffen Street, Blackburn.
• In 1921 she was living alone at 31, Henry Whalley Street, Blackburn; her mother was in the workhouse/infirmary
• In 1923 she was living 2, James Street, Blackburn and was “present at the death” when her mother died in the workhouse/infirmary.
• Her daughter, Marj, was told that Hannah moved to Birmingham in 1923. Hannah’s Aunt was Amelia Blakemore, who had married Martin David Tovey in 1918. For the 1911 census Martin was just up the street from Ralph Payne at 2 back of 41 Garbett Street.
• On Boxing Day 1925 she married Ralph Payne at St Matthias’ Church in Newtown, Birmingham; he was 22 and she was 34. She was living at 7 Brighton Terrace, Monument Road.
• In 1927 she was living at 2 back 61 Heaton Street, Birmingham with Ralph.
• Their older daughter Irene Mary was born 25th September 1928.
• In 1930 she was living at 4 Court 2, Hanley Street, Birmingham with Ralph.
• Their younger daughter Florence Marjorie was born 30th August 1931.
• In 1935 and early 1939 the electoral roll shows she was still living at 4 Court 2 Hanley Street, but by now without Ralph.

The electoral registers show Hannah that rhad eturned to central Birmingham by 1945 (169 St Martin’s Flats, Leopold St, Deritend) and 1950 (20 Talfourd Street, Small Heath).

add maps / back-to-back photos?

In 1951 her older daughter Irene married Tom Mercer in Blackburn (“the son of one of her mother’s old school friends“); they lived in Tockholes on a small holding and Hannah joined them there. Andy remembers Hannah returning to Birmingham, probably around 1964 – she was often at their house in Craythorn Avenue. Hannah died in Birmingham in 1968; Gill remembers being taken to visit her in hospital.