My shortest lines, a.k.a. my dead ends:
In Canada: my father’s paternal grandfather was illegitimate. Apparently, his mother never told him the name of his biological father: great-great-granny took that secret to her grave.
All of my father's Canadian ancestors: I don’t know where any of them were from in England, Scotland and Ireland, nor do I know their parents’ names.
In England: my g-g-grandmother, Sarah Pope, born about 1845-1848 in Whitechapel. All I have is her marriage record, her son’s birth record, and a million fruitless searches.
She married William Thomas George on 2 June 1868 in Bethnal Green. She said her father’s name was Robert Pope. Her maiden name was Pope on her son’s birth registration, too.
I only have her for certain (or as sure as I can be) in 1881:
12 Thomas Street, Bethnal Green, London, Middlesex
William George, married, 38, born Bishopsgate, Middlesex, Poultry Porter
Sarah George, married, 36, born Whitechapel, Middlesex
Annie George, 7, born Whitechapel
Jane George, 4, born Whitechapel
Henry George, 1, born Whitechapel [my great-grandfather; he was actually born in Bethnal Green]
I might have William (age 25, a Porter, born Bishopsgate) and Sarah George (age 23, born Whitechapel), in 1871 in Mile End Old Town, with daughters Sarah, 3, and Elizabeth, 1. How inconsiderate of those daughters not to have survived into 1881!
FreeBMD has a birth for a Sarah Pope in Whitechapel in 1845. I ordered it and thought I had the right girl until I had a subscription to
www.ancestry.co.uk and tracked the family. The Sarah in the birth record I received must have died in infancy and, besides, the father wasn’t named Robert.
I can’t find any Robert Pope in 1851 or 1861 with a daughter named Sarah of the right age born in or around Whitechapel. I have a feeling I will never learn anything about Sarah’s family. If she wasn’t born in Whitechapel, I have no way of knowing it, and I have no way of knowing her correct birthdate.
William Thomas George died in 1883 in Bethnal Green with his wife, Sarah, present. That’s the last I know of her.
There’s also my great-great-grandfather, Henry Parker, whose father was supposedly John (per his marriage record). But the only Henry Parker I can find born about 1860 in Chatham, Kent (per the 1881 census, which again is the only sure sighting I have of him) is the son of Thomas Parker and Elizabeth Collins. I’ve found baptisms for 10 of their 12 children. Guess whose baptism I haven’t found: Henry’s, of course, and one of his sister’s. FreeBMD and ancestry’s bmd don’t have a birth record for a Henry Parker in Medway around 1860. There’s a Henry J. Parker, but that’s not the same guy (of course: that would be too easy).
My husband's great-grandmother, Georgina Salisbury, born about 1860 in Birkenhead, Cheshire or Liverpool, Lancashire. I can't find her marriage to Andrew Christy (between 1881-1891), so I don't know her father's name. The story was that Georgina's father was a bargemaster and she was born on a barge. I can't identify a birth that might be hers on FreeBMD.
I've got her in 1881-1901. She's not the Georgina Salisbury from Hackney.
In 1871, in Birkenhead, Cheshire, there's a Thomas Sailsbury, boarder, widower, 44, born Manchester, with Francis Jones, boarder, 12, born Birkenhead, and Gorgenna Sailsburgh, boarder, 11, born Liverpool. I don' t know if this is her and her father. I couldn't find them in 1861.
In 1851, there's a Thomas Salisbury, married, born in Manchester, living in Manchester, but he's visiting someone with his wife and possible children. Of course. This guy's a labourer in 1851 & 1871.
In 1861, there's a James Sailsbury, 20, unmarried, and George Sailsbury, married, 36, both working on a coal barge. When I had a subscription to ancestry, I had no luck tracking them in 1871.
I read all of this back with gnashing of teeth and seriously question my sanity! ; )
Regards,
Josephine
