Wolverhampton mystery ... who was George Haycock's mother?!

[lizdb]

FreeBMD has a birth of a George Whitehouse in 1st qtr 1863  6b   440 in Wolverhampton ?

Kay

That would work, if either the birth or marriage was misindexed.

[josey]

It's a shame that http://www.staffordshirebmd.org.uk/ doesn't cover Wolverhampton - these may have been independently transcribed. Don't ancestry's indexes come from freebmd? Are they all from the GRO index pages rather than the original source registers.

[Kay99]

FreeBMD has a birth of a George Whitehouse in 1st qtr 1863  6b   440 in Wolverhampton ?

Kay

That would work, if either the birth or marriage was misindexed.

 I edited my post as I think he could still listed as Whitehouse in 1871 with another family however there is another George Whitehouse born in Dec Qtr 1863 Wolverhampton so  maybe

[TreeDigger]

Hi all,

A HUGE thanks for helping me out on this! It would be so great if we could solve this ...

George's birth is a "definite" 24 December 1862. It appears on all of his service records. And on his death certificate (18 January 1942) it states his age at death is 79. He would've turned 80 that December. In my opinion there shouldn't be any doubts with regard to his DOB. Seeing how his DOB is close to (or on X-mas) it would not surprise me if it wasn't registered until the New Year, so 1st quarter 1863. Therefor any George Whitehouse or George Whitehead from that period is "suspicious' :-)

In the 1871 census he is listed as Haycock with his father and siblings. I have no idea what the legal track is with regard to acknowledging children "born out of wedlock" or resulting from short relationships, but it seems as if John at least had son George registered as an "official" child by the time he was 8. A hypothesis was thrown up that he might have been the child of one of his 'siblings' but I have no idea how to go about finding that out as well. Living across the canal is somewhat frustrating at time ...

TD

[lizdb]

We so need a birth cert for him!

Have you looked for a christening?

[lizdb]

There are deaths in Wolverhampton for Maria Whitehouses in both Ap/May/jun 1863 and Oct/Nov/Dec 1864

Either (or neither) could be her

[TreeDigger]

I did look for a christening on all of the free sites, and on the Wolverhampton parishes site as well. Both for George Haycock and George Whitehouse/Whitehead.
Naturally I might have overlooked something, one does have the tendency of becoming "blind" when staring at something for too long ...

I'll have a look again though, right after I've had my coffee 

What really gets to me is that it seems as if I'm the only one researching this particular family! George had at least 3 brothers and 1 sister, all of whom had issue. Yet I haven't found any of their descendents over the past years! The only relatives that ever responded to my searches were children of my grandfather's brother, as well as a few very distant cousins on my grandmother's side.

That would almost seem to indicate that the name Haycock may have ended up being spelled differently for some of the family ...

[josey]

That would almost seem to indicate that the name Haycock may have ended up being spelled differently for some of the family ...

It can indicate that [amazingly] no one from the other siblings' descendants ever caught the family history bug

I looked for baptisms on the free sites as well with no success.

[Ladyhawk]

Could it be

Marriage
Jul/Aug/sep 1865
Wolverhampton ref 6b 679
John Haycock / one of brides on same page Mary Ann Whitgrove

Sorry to say I think this marriage can be ruled out 

Other male name on that marriage was a Thomas Biddle –  John Haycock must have married Emily Buckley other female name on same page

Mary Ann Whitgrove Jan-Feb-Mar 1844 West Bromwich Volume:   18 Page:   612

Mary Ann Biddle [Mary Ann Whitgrove]  Birth Date:   16 Feb 1844
Death Date:   10 Nov 1931 Chicago, Cook, Illinois Burial Date:12 Nov 1931
Burial Place:   Joliet, Will, IL Cemetery Name:   Joliet Oakwoods
Residence:   Chicago, Cook, IL
Father Name:   John T. Whitgrove Mother Name:   Mary Grove
Spouse Name:   Thomas Biddle


There is this death entry for a Mary A Haycock but not in Wolverhampton

Haycock   Mary A   19 (b1847)   Newport, Sh.   Sep 1866 vol 6a   Page 459