My 3x gt grandfather, William Clark, is a rather interesting chap - he was in the navy and ended up on an Arctic exploration, fighting in a war against China and reenlisted to serve in the Crimean War. I have seen his naval records and his merchant seaman records, and have him on censuses from 1861 - 1891 inclusive.
However, his origins are rather vague. On his service records and on 3 of the 4 census that I have him on, he gives his POB as Maldon. On the 4th census (1891) he gives his POB as Heybridge (looking at maps, Maldon and Heybridge seem to be within spitting distance of each other).
On both of his marriage certs, he gives his father's name as James Clarke, mariner. James is not marked as deceased on either of the certs, but then neither is any other father on the subsequent pages of the parish records. Trying to identify the correct James Clark in the censuses is not really possible.
I have checked seax for the baptism of William Clark in Maldon and Heybridge between the years 1819 and 1830 (he is rather inaccurate with his age, and gives different ages on different documents ranging between Aug 1821 and Aug 1828) but he is not there.
If anyone has any bright ideas for finding William's birth, I would really appreciate it. I believe that there is a RC church in Maldon, so I shall also contact them to see if they still hold the relevant parish register (unless anyone knows where else it is).
Thanks in advance for any help, or spare magic wands to make him appear........
linked topic:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=724386.msg5685464#msg5685464
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Topic: Missing in Maldon (Read 799 times)