Colchester Barracks 1856-1861

[t mo]

hi elissa
i,ve gone through all the permutations i can think of to find william army deaths - criminal records - ordinary deaths - in several different sites .
did he marry lydia barron or mary harding , also have you got the marriage cert for him or where did you find that marriage info , and the info for his son where does that come from , and where does his son say that his father was a corporal - marriage cert?? the reason i ask is to get a better picture of williams history .
trevor

[edalmun]

Hi,

He married Lydia Barron, and I have the marriage certificate for that. His son Charles William Aldous was born in feb 1857. When Charles got married for the second time in 1931 he stated on his marriage certificate that his father was an army corporal. I have ordered a copy of his first marriage certificate which took place in Colchester in 1878 to see if he says the same thing on there.

William really is an enigma. There is the possibility that Lydia just made up that she was a widow, but she was living in a similar area and later got remarried - surely people would have known if she was making it up and William was actually still alive.

Thanks for your help!

[t mo]

hello elissa
do you know if william was born in colchester , or even essex only going through numerous records it seems as if the name aldous is more wide spread in suffolk
trevor

[edalmun]

Hi Trevor,

I believe he was born just before bmd certificates started, in Colchester. I have found his older brothers being baptised in various parishes in Colchester although not William. it is possible he was baptised somewhere other than Colchester, but I think it more likely he just hasn't been recorded for some reason. He is always listed as being born in Colchester on the census.

The name Aldous is very qidespread in Suffolk, and Norfolk as well I think. This has made it hard as there are a few deaths recorded in Suffolk/Norfolk of a William Aldous during the years I think he died but as he isn't in county, and due to the lack of info on a death certificate I don't think I'll be able to identify him out of the numerous deaths. Unless Lydia is the informant I just wont know which is him.

Elissa

[t mo]

as you say it,s going to be a nightmare i,m afraid but if the other boys are bpt in col the law of averages would say william was also the other problem is that unless you get a cert you won,t know who the informaant is which could prove expensive if you get it wrong ,
i  had a thought and looked up marriages for lydia aldous and got this it came up with isaac stonhold or william stuart wright date 1869 dist colchester qtr july -aug - sep  v 4a p 405
then looked up the 1871 cen and this came up isaac stonhold 46 - lydia stonhold 33 - charles aldous 14 , there living in the st nicholas parish colchester
trevor

[edalmun]

Lydia got married to Isaac Stonhold, so she must have been sure he was dead, if he'd just disappeared I doubt she would have known with enough certainty to get remarried.

It is a real nightmare!

Elissa

[t mo]

hi elissa
did you look at the 1851 census only in that a william and charles aldous are living with there grandmother at 35 mersea rd  , the grannies name was mary and she was born in CREDITON SUFFOLK and seeing as a lot of aldous names are from there i,m wondering if william was either living there having left lydia and the boys so that would mean his death record is in suffolk .
trevor

[edalmun]

The Thomas and Charles Aldous living with Mary Aldous are William's brothers - I think. As his (William's) grandmother came from Suffolk it is possible that William left Essex and went to Suffolk because of family connections. There's just so many ifs and maybes, it's impossible to work out what happened.

I have tried looking into his brothers to see where they went but I can't find Thomas or Charles after the 1851 census, and I can't find Alexander at all apart from on the 1841 census. Why on earth would four brothers just disappear?


Thanks for your help,
Elissa

[t mo]

elissa
can i just put in a bit of info from my own family my mums father only ever said that he THOUGHT he had a brother in portsmouth but when i started doing my family tree it turns out that not only did he have a brother in portsmouth he also had 2 sisters and another brother , there parents died when they were quite young one sister was in service the other one and one of the boys were in the workhouse grandad and the other brother joined the army this was just before ww1 the sad part was they never ever saw each other again , i got in touch with a relative of 1 of the boys and apparently that brother hadn,t told his family that he had any siblings at all .
so as you say what causes people to deny other brothers and sisters to that degree all families have hiccups along the way but not to that extreme normally ,  will have a look tomorrow to see where this takes us so will say good night speak tomorrow
trevor