Southgate

[Annette7]

There is a tree on ancestry which has a photo of William Smith and Doris Mabel Wilding and also shows that Doris had a son in 1933 which matches what has been uncovered so far.

All it says for William Smith is that he was born 1892 (nothing more) and that he and Doris married 31/1/1916 West Ham and that his fathers name was George.

Do you have this marriage certificate?   If so, what are all the details shown for William i.e. age, occupation, where living, name of father and his occupation?

With a surname like Smith you need every bit of information you can glean to identify him before you can even hope to trace what happened to him.

Annette

[Susan Smith]

Yes hubby has a tree on there plus his great nephew dies also.

We do have that photo but forces site could not help,  we have Williams and Doris marriage certificate but he is shown as living at same address as Doris and was shown as a Bomadeir in what looks like RHA. Think we need to get Doris second matting cert to see if she is shown as a widow or divorced.

[Annette7]

Can you confirm that his father is named as George and also what is given as George's occupation?

Annette

[Susan Smith]

Annette,  The marriage certificate of William and Doris shows father as George and Occupation Labourer.    They got married in 1916,  William was in the Army as occupation is Bombardier in what looks like RHA but an only Living Daughter who is very elderly and,lives in Belgium did say when contacted quite a while ago that he was in the Kings Own Royal Rifles,  but has very little information.

The problem is that we don't know where William was born and his mothers name,  which obviously makes it very difficult.

I can see that we may have to wait for the next census to see if that helps.

Just would be nice to get closure as to what happened to him,  where did he go,  did he remarry and have more children.

Sue

[Annette7]

Oh dear, Sue - how frustrating.   As you say, it might be that you will indeed have to wait until the 1921 census becomes available.

Wish I could help but don't see how right now.   If he was believed to be a local man he could have been born anywhere in the London area of course. 

You say when they married it had the same address for both?   What was that?

Feel for you.

Annette

[Susan Smith]

It was 13 winters avenue Annette.

Sue

[Susan Smith]

I obtained Doris Mabel Smiths (formerly Wilding) certificate of Marriage to Arthur Cecil Southgate in 1942,  She has put herself as Spinster (she was not as was married to William)  Arthur was down as Batchelor but think he was married before.  Doris's Father was down as James Smith deceased,  her father was James Wilding not Smith,  the witnesses were her Daughter Phylis and her husband their surname was Estur.  This is another intreging find as were they deceiving the authorities by putting false information.  This has made it even more difficult as we were hopeing that Doris would be down as Widow or Divorced.

Alan