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I am trying to trace the history of my G.G.G. Grandfather Edward T. Roberts.

I believe he was born in the British West Indies (St. Thomas or St. Croix) about 1807. On all his subsequent census entries he describes himself as a "British Subject".

In the 1841 census he is living in Seaford. He married Jane Sarah Wade in Telscombe (in 1834). His occupation is Coastguard. They have 3 small children.

In the 1851 census he is living in Newhaven in the coast guard houses, he is still a Coastguard and they now have 5 children.

In the 1861 census he is still living in Newhaven, he calls himself a "Seaman" and still has 5 children with him (they had 10 children).

In the 1871 census he is still in Newhaven, he is now a "superannuated Coastguard" & Labourer. He is living with a number of children and their husbands/wifes and children.

His wife Jane is a widow by the next census in 1881.

How do I find out about his birth in the West Indies? Can I find anything about his early life and how he got back to England?

I think I have found his death in 1878 in Lewes and have just sent off for his death certificate.

How do I find out about the Newhaven Coastguard, would they keep records that far back?

Edward is going to be my project for 2017, I want to find out as much about him as I can.

Thanks

Happy New Year!


 

Hello everybody,

I am now at a point where I thought I would come ask all the experts what they would do next if they were me.

My quest started about 10 years ago. I always new that my father had a rather strange background and that his father had died when he was 11 in 1957.

His fathers name (taken from both a marriage certificate and his death certificate) was "John Edward Brighton otherwise John Edward Knowles".

My grandfather was the second husband of my grandmother, her first husband was Eric Brighton with whom she had three children. He died in 1938 and soon after she met John Edward Knowles, they went on to have three children together, my father the middle one of them. She was not married to him at the time.

In 1953 they got married and I understand that John Edward Knowles and his three children all had their names changed to Brighton to fit in with the rest of the Brighton children. I presume this was quite a thing to do. My father knows very little of his father and he was away from home a lot, he remembers very little of him.  By 1955 his parents had broken up after what appears to have been a stormy marriage.

He never saw him again and he died in Hockley Birmingham in 1957, he is buried in a paupers grave.   

I have a copy of my grandparents marriage certificate and he put down his age as 51 in May 1953, his death certificate has his age as 56 in September 1957. On the marriage certificate he puts his father names has "John Knowles"

On his death certificate the informant is G.E. Knowles (Brother) of Birmingham. I traced him to a marriage certificate and his name was "George Edward Knowles". His marriage certificate from 1948 gives his age as 33, so born in about 1914/1915. Again the name of the father was "John Knowles".

I have not been able to trace a birth certificate for either of them. I have bought every birth certificate between 1900 and 1905 for every John Edward Knowles, none have a "John Knowles" as the father.

When my grandfather died in 1957 he was living at 3 back 127 Barr Street, Hockley, Birmingham. Using the excellent www.midlandshistoricaldata.org I have been able to trace various Knowles people at this address from the electoral rolls of 1945 and 1951 but I have no idea how to work out what relation they were to my grandfather. My guess is that he went home to his mother after the break up of his marriage.

I am looking for inspiration as to what to do next!

Thanks

Glen




 

I am looking for the marriage information of Hannah Brighton who married in East Stonehouse in Q2 1838.

From BMD it looks like she married one of these four:

John Bickle
Digory Davey
Joseph McCollum
Joseph Penrose

Anybody got any ideas how I can trace who she married (apart from buying the certificate of course!)

Thanks

Hello,

I was hoping somebody may have some ideas for me. I am trying to trace the history of my grandfather. Its rather a sad tale of a split family and my father was brought up not knowing his father, John Edward Knowles.

My grandfather was born in 1901 (taken from his marriage certificate) and I believe served in the Coldstream guards, one of my fathers only memories of his father is seeing him undressed once and seeking some very bad wounds on the back of his leg. He sadly became estranged from my father when he was 8 years old and dies when my father was 11.

Anybody got any ideas how I go about trying to trace some history for him?

Thanks

Glen