Newbiggin?

[Gadget]

Hi Castana

A few of us have stuck with you through thick and thin with your search. Unfortunately, Jennifer is away for a couple of weeks, so I think it might be left to me to respond.

First of all we had a John Seymour born Newbiggin circa 1876 with a father John, a coal miner, who married in Failsworth. We also had his WW1 service record which showed a number of anomalies.

Second, you then suggested (from info from relatives) that he might have changed his name (no proof from where they got this info).

Jora then found a possible John Richardson,b.Newbiggin at roughly the same time but she didn't give the refs, so I went in and searched and found a family, with an Alexander Richardson as head, who had a son,John, b Newbiggin. I gave the refs and also gave you the refs to a birth registration and also followed the family and suggested that there might have been a second marriage.

You then found a possible match for this John Richardson on the 1911 and have somehow 'leaped' him from Gosforth to 1913 in Failsworth as John Seymour, father John, coal miner,  on  a marriage registration. Also a WW1 record of the same John Seymour - who apppeared to go AWOL after the death of his wife.

I still am unsure how these two people are the same man. Have you followed up the John Richardson, in Gosforth in 1911, to find if he married and died in the NE or elsewhere  and if he had a WW1 record?

Sorry to be a bit of a wet blanket but I think you're still miles from proving a connection.

I think you will have to go through the same tests for John Thomas Ritchie.


Gadget

[castana1985]

Hi Gadget

Thank you ever so much for your reply. You and Jennifer have been so helpful.
I won't go over the facts again, but I think we all agreed there must have been a change of name, when no one could find any trace of the "John Seymour". Then by a lucky fluke, I managed to find some living relatives of John, who confirmed that they knew he'd changed his name from 'Ritchie'.

There was a 'Jane Richardson' as a witness at John's wedding, which led Jennifer to believe John might have been called Richardson, not Ritchie. Hence the trail of John Richardson began.

It is so difficult, when there are so many contradictions, to know which path to follow.
I'm trying to go back to when he moved to Manchester to see if there is anything to show his name as a lodger. Another thing I'd thought of, was to see if there was anything in any of the local papers (Northumberland) to see if he had been involved in a misdemeanor or something that might have been reported?
I know I'm clutching at straws, but its so hard to know which direction to go.

There is no sign of the Gosforth John Richardson marrying in Northumberland. Just one marriage in Hexham in Jun 1913 to Mary Rollin.
So if that John Richardson was our relative - how do i prove it?

I will follow up the John Thomas Ritchie - I have already emailed the Morpeth RO to ask if he was born in Newbiggin.
The problem was, if John lied about his age, he could have lied about where he was born.... ??

I'm sure other people have some similar situation to this. How do you find a connection?
I was hoping that finding this John's mother - Christina McLain (sorry I put McLean before which was incorrect) - that maybe her maiden name was going to be Seymour... ? But I can't even find Christina in any of the censuses to see if she was a widow when she married Alexander.

Thank you for everyones help... this is obviously going to take much longer than i first hoped!

[castana1985]

Just another update.

Had an email from Morpeth to say John Thomas Ritchie was not born in Newbiggin.
So, its a case of trying to find proof that John Richardson was indeed John Seymour...

Maybe a newspaper article or something of that nature might lead to proof??

I'll keep looking, but thank you for everyone's help. I really appreciate it.

Tracy