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Earlier today I rushed out a reply to this post without thinking this through. I was on a plane about to land so...If this person is a half niece or nephew then the implication is that you have a half sibling via one of your parents. This is a big deal, exciting, but does challenge some of your familial knowledge. I understand your reluctance to communicate with this person. Good luck, no wrong decision here.

Thank you for you reply and for backing up my theory. Yes, I do believe I have/had a half sibling! I know this connection is on my paternal line as there are other matches on my paternal line who match this person too. I thought again about the possibility of this being a 1st cousin match but it would mean one of my paternal uncles would have had a child in his 50s and the mother of the child would have been in her 30s when my match was born....not impossible I suppose.

Ironically the mother of my match (my possible half sibling) died aged 64 exactly the same age as my father when he died.

I’ve discounted this being a ‘double relationship’ as I believe this would also affect the number of cms I share with my other paternal matches who also match this person.

I have an elderly paternal aunt who has an excellent memory so my next step will be to ask her if she recognises any of the names in my match’s tree.

Yes, I am quite excited about the possibility that I have family I never knew about but still unsure whether to make contact with my match.

Have you checked to see when they were last active on Ancestry? If recently, it might suggest they have more than a passing interest in their tree (ie haven't just put together a tree, taken DNA test, then never to be seen again), so might be more open to discussing how your shared cM has potentially come about.

Thanks, yes they signed in last week. So they may have more of an interest than just the ‘ethnicity estimates’. Although profile states ‘researches never’.

OK... I am going to do some more digging my end regarding specific dates and if I find anything interesting, I will let you know (I dont want to take you down a rabbit hole with this)...However, there are a lot of similarities.. Our 'Mr Jones' was a Stevedore, bigamist etc ....We have his year of death around 1948 in Essex so will keep you posted...

Ok thanks Farvie. One thing I did think about is that my great grandfather’s last child was born in 1908...if he was the father of your grandfather (born in 1919) he would have been 51 when he was born...I guess that’s not impossible!

Let me know if you need any other information...although most of the info I have is in this thread.

I'm not sure if this is connected, but looking for births of Alfred Jones c1869 turns up this one:

JONES, ALFRED mmn CHAPMAN 
GRO Reference: 1868  D Quarter in SAINT GEORGE IN THE EAST  Volume 01C  Page 449

St George in the East Workhouse register of births:
7 Nov 1868 Alfred Jones, Mother: Sarah Jones. Legitimate

Sarah Jones b 1832 admitted to St George Workhouse 7 Nov 1868 in labour.  Discharged with Alfred 28 Nov 1868.

Other Jones children registered with the mmn Chapman in St George in the East include Francis Robert in 1862, and his baptism on 4 May 1862 at St Mary Stepney gives his parents as Henry & Sarah Jones, Labourer, of Lower Well Alley, St George

ADDED:
Possibly them in 1861 at 8 Duke Street, St George in the East
Henry Jones 31 Dock Labourer b St George, Middx
Sarah Jones 30 wife Tailoress b Wimbledon (?) Surrey

Hi

I've now received the birth certificate for Alfred Jones mmn Chapman as kindly suggested by Jomot and the mother's name is recorded as Sarah Chapman, so I'm pretty certain it is the correct birth cert for my great Grandfather.

On cross checking the GRO website with birth & death records it appears that Sarah may have had 5 boys that died soon after birth before she gave birth to Alfred. To confirm this I would probably need to buy all birth and death certs...so may put that off for a while!

Still pretty much confused as to the birth place of Sarah as are a number of other people who have the Chapman/Turners in their tree! Her place of birth on various Census records is recorded as Stepney or Rotherhithe and her mother Martha's place of birth - Rotherhithe or Woodbridge in Suffolk...strange as Rotherhithe is not even close to Woodbridge!

I thought it possible that the Sarah & Henry Jones on the 1861 Census at 8 Duke Street could be my great great grandparents as the birth/death dates of her sons appear to indicate that on the date the Census was taken in April she wouldn't have had any living children...although if that is the case we have the birth place as Wimbledon.  Then again as Jomot highlighted in his post there is a Sarah Chapman, 28 and unmarried in the 1861 Census at Lower Well Alley. This seems more likely to be my Sarah Chapman due to the link with the Turners and maybe there was at the time much confusion from the family as to where she was born - Stepney or Rotherhithe!

More research needed on my part but I'm not ready to give up yet...will keep looking and will endeavour to provide updates if I ever solve this mystery! 

Many thanks

Linda

Quote from: jonw65 on Thursday 11 June 20 09:42 BST (UK)

Francis Turner, a Waterman,  married Charlotte Chapman, 3 March 1847, St Dunstan Stepney
Fathers were James Turner, Barge Builder, and Robert Chapman, Carman
Image
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSFC-M6NP?i=202

Haven't found Charlotte before then.

In 1841 the family is at Turners Buildings, St George in the East
Robert Chapman 42 Carman? No
Martha 41 No
Charlotte 15 Yes
Sarah 10 Yes
Mary 5 Yes

1851 Raymonds Place, Saint George in the East
Robert Chapman 60 Labourer b Woodbridge, Suffolk
Martha 59 wife b Rotherhithe, Surrey
Sarah 19 daur b Rotherhithe, Surrey
Mary 15 daur b Whitechapel, Middx

Marriage 27 May 1855, St Thomas, Stepney
Charles Yems f/a Bachelor, Stepney, father William Yems
Mary Chapman f/a Spinster, Stepney, father Robert Chapman
Wits: CA Bocking & Eleanor Hooper

1861, 1 Hampton Court, St George in the East (transcribed as 1 Churches Gardens on FindMyPast)
Charles Yems (Yanes on FindMyPast) 27 General Dealer b Shadwell
Mary 25 wife b St George in the East
Mary 5 daur b St George in the East
Robert 3m son b St George in the East

Mary Sr died in 1868

Hi Jomot

Thank you for this info. On my initial post on this this thread, the attachment I uploaded for Alfred’s first marriage to my great grandmother, one of the witnesses was a John...looked like Welles or Wems but could be Yems.

I found the marriage for Charles Yems & Mary Chapman on Ancestry - surname transcribed as Years. Yems such an unusual name..wonder where that came from?

I’ll need to start doing some work on my tree on Ancestry starting with Alfred’s parents, Henry & Sarah & his siblings, to get a better picture of where everyone fits in and hopefully one day it may turn up more info on the elusive Alfred!

Thanks again for all your help.

Linda