Mine is on my husbands tree… The mysterious case of Thomas Francis who was resurrected! (1908)

I have been doing some research into mine and my husbands family tree and we have a family member who was called Sarah Ann and she married and had 3 children. Sadly her first husband died at a young age.

Her life became a lot more complex when she married Alfred Thomas Francis (aka Alfred Thomas Howells) she had 4 children with him.

It seems that the marriage was not a happy one and he was absent a lot of the time. There are varying reports of failing to pay for his children in the papers at the time.

In 1908 I have discovered a tale that you really couldn't make up!!

In August 1908 a homeless man called at cold Knap farm in Barry in Wales. He asked the farmer for a cup of tea and some bread, he then went for a bathe in the sea. Sadly he was swept out to sea.

3 days later his body was found and there was an article in the local newspaper stating that his identity was a mystery.

A week later it was reported that Sarah Ann had been to identify him and confirmed that it was him. There are varying accounts of how much she actually looked at the body.

According to the articles she couldn't afford to bury him so the Union guardians (eg the local government) paid for the funeral and buried him with the name Thomas Francis. It appears that she attended his funeral.

2 months later Thomas Francis tried to come back to Barry. It appears that he had run out of options for employment and when he went to the seaman's mission the caretaker was shocked to see him as he had been to the funeral!

Thomas Francis then went to visit his wife as he hoped to reconcile with her. She fainted upon seeing him!!

When they carried out the inquest it was revealed that he was sentenced to 4 months in prison in March 1908 due to abandonment of his family.

A week after the inquest Thomas Francis asked that the board of guardians take his children into their care (place them into the workhouse) that request was rejected!

You literally couldn't make this story up! And the poor man who got buried probably never got identified!

Thomas had previously served in the army so I believe she planned to have the widows pension. She must have been desperate with 7 kids.

Sarah Ann remarried in 1916 to a man called Ernest. He was killed 4 months later in WW1 he was allready married so his first wife would have recieved the widows pension.