My grandfather William Barnes has proved elusive. The first paperwork we have on him is his marriage certificate and we have looked into every William Barnes from Liverpool listed at FreeBMD born five years either side of 1872 (the estimate from the census an marriage certificate) - ordered certificates, looked them up in the census an reconstructed the family trees, only to find out he is none of them.
So we had a family meeting today to draw together what facts we can prove an what we "know".
What we can prove (or at least what we have paperwork for):
- He was born on May 31, 1872 - from the 1939 Register.
- He married Annie Ryan on
October November 10, 1895 in St Joseph's Church, Liverpool - from their wedding certificate. - His father was named Thomas who was a mariner and was deceased at the time of his son's wedding - from their wedding certificate.
- He was born in Liverpool - from the 1901 an 1911 census.
- He died on March 14, 1946 at the age of 75 - from death certificate.
- He was buried in plot AC 365 in Ford Cemetery, Litherland on March 17, 1946 - from the Catholic registry of burials.
What we "know" (often relying on 60-70 year-old memories and perhaps a few rumours):
- He claimed to be English "through and through".
- His mother, apparently, died when he was little, an his step-mother was "the best mother he could ever have had".
- A plaque on his mantlepiece was to: Elizabeth, gone but not forgotten.
- There is a memory that his stepmother might have been called Eliza Berry but there is no such marriage in the time period.
- His father was apparently lost at sea also when he was young.
- He had a cousin called Julia Lynch (it likely her mother was his first cousin, as generationally Julia is of the same generation as William Barnes' children) who married a Mr Styles and had two daughters and a son Arthur who was a prison officer in Cumbria.
- He had other relatives - George and Isabella Kirkpatrick who owned a furniture shop on Stanley Road in Bootle. William and Annie apparently had a rather over-large (enough that it was a talking point) piece of furniture in their house that they got from them.
What we have speculated on:
- There is one William Barnes in the census we can't fit in with any of the known ones we've tracked down - aged 8 an living with an Elizabeth Barnes (a 33 year-old chemical worker from Ireland) in the 1881 census.
- A Thomas Barnes from Liverpool was lost at sea when the Vicksburg sunk on June 1, 1875, he was aged 31. The sinking made the news. A cousin has also found a Thomas Barnes dying at sea in 1878 onboard the Devonia, but I can't confirm this.
- If he was English "through and through" then it seems that a relative (aunt, sister, cousin?) married into the Lynches and Kirkpatricks, rather than him being descended from them.
Obviously, there are a range of possibilities for where the problem finding his birth come in:
- His birth was never registered.
- As both his parents seem to have died when he was still small, he may have been mistaken about where he was born.
- His step-mother may have been mistaken (or been lying) about one or more details.
- He isn't who he says he was - a theory my mother was in favour of, but she was suspicious of everyone. This might suggest that some (surname?), a lot (perhaps his dob stayed the same?) or all of our information is wrong.
Clearly, we've had to work the evidence based on the first couple of assumptions, as it'd be difficult to get around any serious doubt in the information. That said, I have had my DNA tested - Y DNA and autosomal. I've not had much luck with the Y tests but there are some 2nd-4th cousins who match strongly and the only English part of their ancestry seems to largely go back to Cheshire (with surnames like Arnett, Burgess, Davenport). Unfortunately, they've not replied to my email so it is just something I'll throw in, just in case one of those names turns up.
So that is what we have - it should have been enough to track his birth details (with parents) but it has proved elusive.
Thanks in advance for any help.
