John Roberts 1839 (an unnecessarily common name, unfortunately)

[silverleaf79]

So a FreeBMD search for John Roberts brings up a few possibilities:

Mar 1839
Roberts    John         Shrewsbury    18   174
Roberts    John         Shrewsbury    18   168
Dec 1839
Roberts    John         Shrewsbury    18   157
Sep 1840
Roberts    John         Shrewsbury    18   165
Dec 1840
Roberts    John         Shrewsbury    18   184

I guess even if I order all 5 certs (which I don't want to do), I won't be able to tell which one's him...

So I guess I could go two ways with this. Continue researching Margaret Roberts in the hope of finding her siblings (hoping that I'm right about her being his biological aunt), and follow up these 5 John Roberts possibles assuming that both parents died before 1851, looking for deaths of parents from certs.

Any other thoughts? What am I missing here?

[silverleaf79]

I've ordered Daniel George Roberts's birth cert, which will give me Caroline's maiden name and allow me then to order John and Caroline's marriage cert - hopefully this will give me help with John's parents.

Too many possibilities for him otherwise.

[silverleaf79]

Daniel George's parents are John ROBERTS and Caroline JAMES.

The marriage cert give the fathers as John ROBERTS (dec) and George JAMES. Date 25 Dec 1865, Dudley. Witnesses are Charles Poole and Sophia Cox, so no help there.

The younger John was a bachelor when he married, so the marriage to Phoebe must have been a different John ROBERTS, and so my 1861 census is not him.

The older John obviously died before 1865 which would fit with John Jr. living with relatives in 1951. But I can't think of any way to check if the one living with aunt Margaret is the right one.

Any ideas? I'm stumped.

[heywood]

Hello,

The 1861 still looks quite tempting.

There is a marriage 1859 Dudley where Phebe Perry and John Roberts are among the spouses.

1871 has Phebe Roberts, unmarried living with Josiah Rolason. 

1876 has marriage where Josiah Rollason and Phoebe Roberts are among the spouses

1881 has Josiah and Phoebe Rollason with a boarder Benjamin Perry.

heywood

[silverleaf79]

If John Jr's marriage cert says he's a bachelor, doesn't that mean he hasn't been married previously?

If that's the case he can't have been married to Phoebe.

What I'm pretty confident I know about him (from 1871 and 1881 census plus marriage cert):

• Born Shrewsbury, about 1839 (censuses suggest 1839, marriage cert says 1842)
• Married Caroline JAMES at St Thomas, Dudley, 25 Dec 1865.
• Children Agnes (1866), John (1869), Eliza (1871), Daniel George (1874), Mary A (1879), all born Oldbury.
• 1971 Living in Rowley Regis.
• 1881 Living in Oldbury.
• Father John ROBERTS Sn died before 1865 as he's dec. on the marriage cert.

Possibles which I don't know how to confirm:

• 1851 Living with uncle and aunt William WALKER and Margaret ROBERTS and their children in Shrewsbury. Maybe.
• Margaret was born in Bangor, and presumably her brother is John Sn, if she's correct.

I'd like to find out anything about his death, and early life. Tricky, because I don't know anything other than his father's name, and John Roberts is such a common name that I can't narrow it down at all.

I don't know where he was in 1841 (if he was in fact born in 1839) and I'm guessing about 1851.

Frustrating.

[heywood]

I suppose his status at marriage was whatever he declared.

I was just wondering if you were right as it does look a possibility.

[silverleaf79]

I guess it's possible... but I've no idea how to check if that's right or not other than ordering the marriage cert on the off-chance that his father's a John too - but that still wouldn't confirm, with the horribly common name.

I'm honestly about ready to kick the first John Roberts who decided to call his son John. And then he called his son John as well. Sigh. I'm wishing myself back to the Wigfields and Roddises on my mum's side, they are much easier!