Here's a condensed version of the report:
With regard to your research into William TURNER who was born in Seaton Colliery in 1864, I have been unable to find his whereabouts in the 1911 census. I have searched online at the following sites, without success:
•Ancestry
•Find My Past
•My Heritage
•The Genealogist
I searched for possible first and surname variants, again without success.
I did find a possible death entry where the age at death matched an approximate birth year of 1864, however when the certificate arrived it was in respect of a different William TURNER. I also searched for a possible re-marriage of William TURNER after the birth of his youngest child. Several marriages were located however when I looked for these couples in the 1911 census, none of them matched the birth year/place of your William TURNER.
I then moved on to searching the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for a possible death of your William TURNER in WW1. I located an entry – which I believe you referred to when we met – in respect of a William TURNER who is shown as having been born in Rotherham and who served in the DLI. I located his military record on the Ancestry website and after looking at this in detail, I do not believe he is your William TURNER. Not only is his birth year different, but there is a letter in the record (copy attached) that shows his wife was E A TURNER.
As your nephew believes that William died in 1917, I have run a further search of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for all deaths of a W TURNER between 1 Jan 1917 and 1 Jan 1918. There were numerous results, some of which show the age at death, some of which don’t. Unfortunately, I have simply run out of time to look further at all of these however it may be worth your while looking at these if you have not already done so. The link is as follows
https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-war-dead/results?initial=w&lastName=turner&dateFrom=01-01-1917&dateTo=01-01-1918 If you click on each possible individual, you may often find mention of their grave and/or family members which may help you determine whether any of these are your William TURNER. Alternatively, if no such information is given, if you find mention of the individuals’ regiments/soldier numbers, you could then – if you have a subscription to Ancestry or Find My Past it may – search for the individuals’ military records on there in order to try and determine whether any of them is your William.
The above concludes your TURNER research. I appreciate how disappointing it will be to you that I have not solved your mystery as to William’s whereabouts in the 1911 census or his death information. All I could now suggest is for you to look for the marriage entries in respect of William & Martha’s children and see whether it shows whether William was deceased at that time; this would help narrow down when he died. There is, of course, no guarantee that the entry would indicate whether he was deceased.
On my Grandfather's Marriage certificate 1928 he has stated fathers occupation as Miner rather than saying Deceased so I'm not its worth paying for further Marriage certs for the above
