Great-Great-Grandmother's line in Lancashire

In Lancashire, England, sits the town of Accrington, about 20 miles north of Manchester. According to the 2011 United Kingdom Census, "Accy" is home to 35,456 Brits — and the hometown of musician Andy Kanavan, formerly of the Dire Straits. Accrington is also, as it turns out, the home of my great-great-grandmother.

Elizabeth Ann Hodgson was born in Accrington on 12 July 1862 to Adam Hodgson and his wife. Mrs. Hodgson is still a bit of a enigma for me at this point, having seen her listed as being named Ann and as Elizabeth. I assume, like her daughter, she is probably bearing both names. There are Ancestry.com family trees that assert one name or another, but I have not yet independently verified this information.

The Hodgson line was not something I had previously been aware of in my initial genealogical work on the maternal side of my family. That original work, conducted years ago and much more reliant on the trees created by other amateur genealogists, proved to be plagued with errors and has been part of a targeted overhaul and correction on my part. It was through that overhaul that I came across my great-great-grandmother, Elizabeth.

She came to the United States in 1869, aged 7, according to the 1900 U.S. Census. At some point, she met Frank M. Ellis, my great-great-grandfather. Frank had been born in central Massachusetts, in the town of Oxford, in November 1852. Current research indicates he was one of eight children bore to George and Caroline Ellis between 1849 and 1865.

Elizabeth and Frank were married in Worcester, Massachusetts, 11 December 1883. She was 21-years-old while he was 31. Together, they had six children in the 1880s and 1890s, raising them in Worcester. Their first-born was Frank Lucy Ellis, born 21 November 1884. He was followed by Frederick W. (1888), William H. (1890), Charles Cleveland (1891), Elizabeth (1893), and Esther (date of birth currently unknown).

In the 1900 U.S. Census, the family was residing at 106 Lafayette Street, Worcester, just a few blocks north of Crompton Park. It wasn't long before they moved about a half-mile north to Beacon Street, where my grandfather, Charles Cleveland Ellis, and his lineage lived for several decades.

Elizabeth was just 45-years-old when she passed away at the Worcester City Hospital, due to pulmonary tuberculosis. She died on 24 January 1908, leaving behind teenage children and some who were in their early 20's. Currently, Frank's date of death has not yet been uncovered. He was still alive when Elizabeth passed away, but has not yet been positively identified in the 1910 U.S. Census or beyond.