JJ,
A couple of snippets, but negative rather than positive...
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William gives his birthplace (i.e. Ramsgate) to two different census enumerators in two different place ( C1891 4057-63-54, C1901 4802-130-29)
So this seems good indication that he was born Ramsgate
(enumerators recorded either "place" of birth or "parish" of birth... Ramsgate was both "place" and "parish"... so he could have been born in Ramsgate town or within the wider parish of Ramsgate, but outside of Ramsgate town... but that does not change Helen's info on Thanet Reg District covering Ramsgate)
But his birth registration is hard to come by ! So then was he registered without a first name (registered before his baptism ? ) or was he registered under a different surname ?
e.g. imagine William's mam has him before she was married to John Ashton ??
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Imagine William born in Kent in c1867 ( he was consistent with his age on C1891 and 1901 1 ) His next known "footprint" is his appearance as an unmarried quarry labourer in Trimdon Grange Colliery on C1891, then his marriage in Newcastle in 1895, then three children born Byker, then onto North Shields for C1901 ( Charlotte is in North Shields, not Tynemouth ! )
There is no indication that his parents married up north, then had him in Kent, then returned northwards ??
Your search should maybe cover any John Ashton with any named wife ( have you any indication of William's mother's name, 1st or sur ? ) Or even just any 4 yr old William Ashton with widowed mother. Or any 4 yr old William any surname, covering possibility that John Ashton died not long after William's birth, say before C1871, and his mother remarried by then. There are some examples of children of a dead father been given the surname of the subsequent step-father, but reverting to their birth surname in maturity.
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From the constitution of the household on C1901, it seems that William and Margaret ( nee Rutherford ?? ) named the three children, using names from her family ( she had a sister Minnie, a sister Mary Eleanor and her dad was Joseph.)
Although the English Naming Pattern was beginning to die out by 1900, the convention required parents to name their first son after his father's father... JOHN in William's case ! Unless the couple lost children, before C1901 ?
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Michael Dixon
Newcastle
