I wonder if I can ask probably an idiot question. Which is about what else can I do.
I have a 'difficult' London family history, which has puzzled me over a number of years, and I had some great help with a recent enquiry here.
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=793394.msg6497835#msg6497835The difficulty with my researches is because the names are relatively common (and open to mistranscription), secondly because they did not necessarily marry, or necessarily register the birth of their children, being mostly content to have them baptised, and thirdly because they lived in the poverty stricken East End of London and quoted pob either as St George in the East, or in local adjacent areas like Wapping/Limehouse etc.
I have two people I'd like to research further.
1.
Mary Ann Williams.She features on the birth certificate of my grandfather Joseph William Burton, who was born
11/12 1876 in St George in the East.
He was registered as BURDEN, MMN Williams
Joseph William Burden
1877 Jan-Feb-Mar
St George in the East
Volume 1c Page 441
I'm sure that this is him, as his father is Joseph and the family appears in the 1881, where just for a change the family are shown as BARTON.
28 Star St, St George in the East
RG11/455/93 p 8
Joseph Barton 30 Head Marr Dock labourer b St Georges East, Middlesex
Mary A. Barton 31 wife
Joseph Barton 4
Mary A. Barton 13
Elizabeth Barton
However, through further research on subsequent children of Joseph Burton, I've found MMN as Mary Ann BARLOW.
There is a child, ANNA BURTON born 1878, MMN BARLOW, who dies I believe before the 1881;
a son WILLIAM BURTON, born 1882 MMN BARLOW, and the 1911 suggests parents Joseph and Mary Ann "married" in 1880 (can find no marriage ref).
Reg district: Stepney
Reg District No: 20
Sub-reg district: Shadwell and Ratcliff
ED, institution, or vessel: 13
Piece: 1542
So this suggests that my grandfather JOSEPH WILLIAM and the other child in the 1881 shown as BURTON, were not the children of Mary Ann Barlow, but of a previous 'wife' Mary Ann Williams.
It's possible that the child Mary Ann, aged 13 in the 1881 (so born c 1868), is the daughter of either Mary Ann Williams, or Mary Ann Barlow (or indeed Joseph Burton/Burden/Barton etc) from a previous relationship, but I've not been able to find her either in an earlier or later census.
But certainly my great grandmother is a MARY ANN WILLIAMS who is possibly born c 1850, and possibly born in St George in the East.
I've not been able to find her in the 1871 (potentially with a small daughter Mary Ann), but of course she may have been living with another man under his name.
Is there anything else I can or should do to try and find her?
2.
Sarah WaylingThis is the mother of Joseph Burton Snr and therefore my greatx2 grandmother, as really helpfully established by smudwhisk and other fabulous roots chatters in the other thread I posted (see above).
In search of Sarah Wayling, who was apparently born in Wapping, I've looked on Ancestry (and FamilySearch) for any other "Wayling" family members, brothers or sisters or even potential parents, but haven't had much success.
Would my next step be to try and look at Parish Registers in Wapping? How would I be able to see these?
Any thoughts, please. And thank you - again - for reading.