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« on: Tuesday 18 December 07 15:09 GMT (UK) »
My great grandfather was an enigma. Born Thomas Jones in London, all we knew of him was that he married my great grandmother Ellen Rondeau in 1913 (six years after my grandmother was born), he had a brother called George who died in France in 1916 and he worked for the brewery looking after the horses.
We asked my grandmother and her sister before they died for family memories, and they said they never met any other family on their father's side.
Scroll forward to one year ago and Yours Truly decides to start the family tree.
I find brother George Jones on the CWGC web site from the service number on his WW1 medals, and that tells me that he was 43 when he died in 1916 and his mother and father were called George and Martha Jones. I have my great grandfather's marriage and death certs which tell me his age at death (51) meaning that he was born in 1881 and his father's name on his marriage certificate is given as George Jones, Shipping Agent.
So far so good...
I trawl through all the census records for the time and eventually find George Jones, Shipping Agent of the right age, married to Martha of the right (and fairly unusual) name (GRIM), with son George, son Thomas and two other daughters (Elizabeth and Eleanor) that I never knew existed.
I found the likely marriage of George Jones and Martha Grim at St. James the Great, Bethnal Green, in 1871 and it gives his father's name as Thomas Jones, deceased.
Now, the only Thomas Jones in the area with a son called George of the right age is a brewers agent, BUT, he was still alive in 1871 when George and Martha married.
However, there was another Jones family in the right place, at the right time, with all the right ages, but the father's name wasn't Thomas, it was John. Added to this is the fact that Martha Grim was a servant in the house of the eldest Jones son in 1861. Right age, right name.
Now to add to the mixture, George and Martha had a daughter Ruth in 1868 before they got married and the same (perhaps eldest brother) of George had a Ruth Jones of the right age living in his house in the 1881 census and she was listed as his niece.
Still with me? Well done...
Now, which of the two Jones families is more likely to be a match? The one with the correct father's name but the wrong death date, or the wrong father's name and the other bits and pieces that do add up?
I know that Jones is a fairly common name, but does the co-incidence about the brother with Martha Grim and Ruth Jones make it an almost certain?
Any and all advice or suggestions gratefully received.
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