My third great-grandfather was William Lewis. He married Christiana (sometimes written on documents as Christian) Purves during 1817 in Berwick and they had at least one child there before moving to Newcastle Upon Tyne where my second great-grandfather was born. The family lived at Wall Knoll in the Pandon area of Newcastle and William died there in 1840. The death certificate says he was a labourer aged 48, so I put a circa 1792 birthyear for him on my tree. I looked for William Lewis' in the area who could be him, but there were no obvious candidates so I turned my attention elsewhere.
Now I'm back on the Lewis' and here's where it gets tricky. I know there weren't many Lewis' in Newcastle at the time, so started looking for others who may be related, hoping I could pin down William from another angle. I found a death notice for a Henry Lewis in the old newspapers collection on FindMyPast.co.uk. He died in January 1846 at New Pandon Street in Newcastle. Aha, practically next door to my William, so I figured there's a good chance they're related. Maybe Henry is a son of William's I hadn't found yet. The notice said he was 26, so possibly born in very early 1820 but more likely 1819.
I started looking for Henry's baptism to see if I could tie him in. Nothing in Northumberland. I checked the Scottish borders (as Christiana was from Berwickshire), nothing again. I checked County Durham to see if he was born across the river, also nada. So a little frustrated I did a global search on Ancestry for any Henry Lewis circa 1819, father's name William. Bingo, I got a match... but it's in Rochdale
There's never been any hint of family roots in Lancashire on that side, but it's the first lead I'd found so I opened the image anyway. The entry was for Henry Lewis, christened 1st November 1819. Abode: Summer Castle (I looked for it on Google Maps, it's in the east end of Rochdale). Parents William and Christien (sic) Lewis. Under the father's occupation was "Soldier 88 Regt".
Now this is interesting. If this was my William, it would make a certain amount of sense for Henry to be born in Rochdale as soldiers move about a lot. I always thought it was a bit odd that the oldest child of William and Christiana's I could find was born almost 7 years after they were married. It's possible Christiana had medical issues which made having children difficult, but as they later had four other kids, that explanation seems a stretch. It makes more sense that if William was a soldier, the eldest children were simply born wherever William's regiment were based at the time. Military service also runs in the family, so it fits in quite nicely for William to turn out to be one too.
I know that's not proof positive Rochdale Henry's father is my William, but I can't think of another explanation that doesn't require a shedload of coincidences. He's the right age to be the Henry who died in Newcastle in 1846, the father's name matches, the mother's name matches bar spelling error. I don't think Christiana/Christian is exactly a common name, even then. I haven't run across the name in any of my other branches and I've got about 4000 people in my tree. Is it more likely that this Henry Lewis was my great-great-grandfather's older brother and their father was a soldier who just moved about a lot, or that there was a totally unrelated Henry Lewis born in Lancashire who just happened to be the exact same age as the Henry who died in Newcastle and just happened to have parents with the exact same names? Or that the Rochdale Henry randomly moved to the north east and just happened to live the next street over from two unrelated people with his parent's names who were married two years before he was born?
What do you Rootschatters think? Is it safe for me to say yes, this Henry was a son of William's? If so, I now have more info with which to pin down William (and that he wasn't necessarily from the north-east).
