Welcome to this weeks Scavenger Hunt, sorry I'm a bit late putting it up, I got caught up with other stuff.
Hope you can help with this, it looks a bit complicated, but I'm sure you'll be able to work it all out.
Good Luck and Good Hunting.
Barbara
***********************
I’ve posted about this branch of my tree many times on the fora and had a lot of help so far. This might be my last attempt to glean as much help and suggestions as possible to try to tie things up.
My great-grandfather was unknown to my mother and myself until I started my research and although I’ve built up a picture of the family over about 100 years, I’m stuck both with their origins and what eventually became of my great-grandfather. So here goes! My hunt is for:
1. Joseph Kilner’s birthplace around 1789
2. Any deaths, marriages or census sightings for Joseph, his wife Elizabeth and daughters Harriet and Caroline between 1832 – 1861.
3. Anything about Thomas William Kilner between 1918 – 1947.
I’ve put alternative surname spellings in brackets where appropriate.
The first sighting of my KILNER family was in Enderby, Leicestershire, when Joseph Kilner, a batchelor and framework knitter m Elizabeth Hill in 1816 (IGI erroneously gives their names as Hilner and Will). I can find no other Kilners in Leicestershire at all at that time. Elizabeth’s family were from Enderby, but where did Joseph come from?
Joseph and Elizabeth had several children born in Enderby: Jane (1816); Rhoda (1818); Thomas (1820); Elizabeth (1822, died at a month old); Caroline (1823), and Harriet (1826). The youngest, Hiram, was baptised at St Margaret’s in Leicester in 1829; he died in Leicester 1832.
After 1832, Joseph, Elizabeth, Caroline and Harriet disappear. I cannot find any of them on the 1841 or 1851 censuses, and no mention of marriages for the girls. Joseph reappeared in Leicester Union Workhouse in the 1861 census. His age was given as about 72 and place of birth “unknown” (arrgghh!) He died in the workhouse in 1866 and was buried in a communal grave in Welford Rd (“Kilmer”).
So where were he and Elizabeth between 1832 and 1861? Did they go back to Joseph’s place of origin? (that’s my favourite theory!) or are they simply horribly misspelt on the census? When did Elizabeth die, and where? What about Caroline and Harriet, what became of them?
Of their other children, Jane married Charles Langham at St Margaret’s in 1833; I’ve no further sightings of her. Rhoda married John Kind in 1839; Rhoda is traceable (without John) on the censuses up to her death in 1877.
Thomas (I’ll call him Thos 1) married Mary Ann Hudson on 1.5.1841. Thomas and Mary were at Lewin St in 1841(“Kilney”) and 1851 (“Kelner”) but his parents aren’t with them or Rhoda. Mary Ann died in 1858 (buried as “Kilver”); Thomas and his new “wife” Eliza (but I don’t think they married) were in Wheat St (“Rilner”) in 1861. Thomas died in 1868 and shared a grave with Rhoda.
Thos 1 had a son, also Thomas (Thos 2!) born 1850. Thos 2 married Sarah Ann Jayes (b 1845, Leicester) in 1869. He and Sarah were in Wheat St in 1871 with William (born William Henry Jayes 1867) and baby Harriet, and in Lea St in 1881 with William (AKA Henry), Harriet, Lizzie (Elizabeth), Emma, Ann and Thomas (my gt-grandfather). Their last child, Florence, was born in 1883.
Thomas William Kilner, (Thos 3!) my gt-grandfather, married Eveline Holyland in Leicester in 1903. They had 2 daughters, Vera (1903) and Maud (1905). Soon after that, Thomas, who was a French polisher, left Leicester and the family. His brother William, also a French polisher, is in the 1906 Leic trade directory but Thomas isn’t. Thomas resurfaced in 1911, using the name William and lodging with a family in Nottingham; from there he enlisted into the army in 1915. His army discharge papers give a discharge address in Leicester (by this time both his parents and brother were dead; I don’t know if any of his sisters were still around, and he didn’t go back to his wife and children!). I can find nothing then until he died in 1947. I found him in the 1947 electoral role at Devonshire St, Leicester (but he wasn’t there in 1946); he seems to have been lodging there with a married couple, one of whom was the informant on the death certificate. There was another woman at the same address though I know nothing about her. He was buried at Gilroes cemetery, in a Common Grave. I presume he’s unlikely to have a headstone.
Frustratingly, a French polishing business in his name “& sons” appears in the Leic trade directories up to 1963! But where was he between 1918 – 1947? Did he really have any sons? Who ran his business after he died?
All help gratefully received – thankyou all in advance!
Other threads about this family:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,322619.0.htmlhttp://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,360308.0.htmlhttp://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,322205.0.htmlhttp://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,347917.0.htmlhttp://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,337954.0.htmlhttp://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,337629.0.htmlhttp://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,351763.0.html