Each month I am looking at a different Family surname and straightening out my files and seeing what I know or don’t know for each family line. This month the dubious job is surveying the Heap files. It begins with my maternal grandmother (Ada Richmal Heap  b. 18 August 1888, Staten Island, New York, USA) and I have navigated my way back to my 4x great grandfather (Robert Heap b. 1766?, Cheshire England).

Since I have the direct line sorted out to that point I have taken to what we genealogist lovingly call “killing off the relatives”. Some of the siblings are not co-operating and in order to find their death dates I have to muck around in the records sometimes creating more questions for myself. One of those was Edward Heap b. about 1841 to Henry and Mary (Woolley) Heap. Henry had a brother Edward Lees Heap (b. 1809 d. 1845) and when Henry and Mary had their third baby boy christened on 11 April 1841 they named him Edward Lees Heap. Well, now Henry’s son Edward is in the 1841 census for Ashton Under Lyne and noted to be 6 months old. Also there is another Edward Heap 30 years old living in Henry’s household, unfortunately they do not list relationship in the 1841 UK Census, but the age is right for Edward Lees Heap, Henry’s brother. Since the census was to reflect the household on the night of  June 6th 1841  Edward (the younger) was born in either December 1840 or January 1841.

Henry and Mary had their children (Robert, John Woolley and Edward)  baptized at the parish church

Mottram-in-Logandendale, Cheshire England. In the Census of 1841 the family is shown as living at Rossbottom Street in the town of Staleybridge (Cheshire). When Mary (Woolley) Heap dies in 1843 she is shown as being at Rossbottom Street and when Henry marries Eliza Stokes in 1845 his address is listed as Staleybridge and they marry in Ashton Under Lyne. In the Census of 1851 the family is shown as living at 52 Rossbottom Street in the town of Staleybridge (Cheshire) but no Edward.

So the questions are:

• where in 1851 is Edward or did he not  survive to his 10th birthday
• where would I find the death record? Mottram-in- Logandale? Ashton-under Lyne?
•  looking at the map of the area we can see that Staleybridge is between Mottram-in- Logandendale and Ashton-under Lyne.

Who are the Edward Heaps in the 1851 UK census

• in Hartshead in the parish of Ashton-under Lyne there’s another Henry Heap family. His wife is listed as Elizabeth. The children in the family are shown as Robert(24 years of age), Ann (22), Edward (21), Martha (18), and Joseph (16). This Edward is too old and this Robert is 4 years older the our Robert would have been. This census does list the relationship of each individual to the head of household
• in Lancashire there are are only two other Edward Heaps indexed in the 1851 UK census.
  • one in Higher Booths who is only 5
  • one in Cotton who is 11 which would be about the correct age but he is shown as born in Munst.
• There are none in Cheshire and several in Yorkshire.

So I have sent an inquiry to the Parish church in Mottram-in-Logandendale for a possible burial that is not available on-line. Any other ideas? Would love your input.