A big Hi to everyone who may be still interested: I have just made a major breakthrough in my William Rufus Diamond (WRD) research with the location of three new sources:
1) the burial record for a Keturah Diamond in Brenchley (17 Dec 1825). This would have been first wife of WRD’s father, Joseph. This find puts Keturah definitely in Brenchley with Joseph. The date of this record also ties in with Joseph’s second marriage to Matilda in 1826.
2) the baptism records for three children born to Joseph and Kate:
Keturah 1814 – 1814; Joseph 1815 -
?; and Mary Kate 1820-
?
There may of course have been more.
3) a marriage record for a Mary Kate Diamond and Edward Barnes in April 1848 at St Mildred, Tenterden, Kent. The record tells us that both Mary Kate and Edward were resident in Brenchley at that time; and confirms the fathers as Joseph Diamond and John Barnes.
This last find is very significant because amongst the artifacts I inherited from my father is a letter, dated March 27 1889, addressed to William Rufus Diamond in Brecon, from a John E Barnes, 37 years of age, living in St Louis, Missouri, USA. The letter begins “Dear Uncle Rufus” and goes on to talk of “Sister Ruth” living in Detroit, and his son of 9, Harry Edward.
Thoughts on WRD’s date of birthI am very much minded to now accept that WRD was born in March 1828 as the copy baptism record indicates:
(a) it is the date that calculates from the note in the baptism extract (that he was 2 years and 3 months when baptised), and that information must have been given by Joseph or Matilda - why would they have any need to falsify that.
(b) 1828 is the date that WRD uses on the 1871, 1881 and 1891 censii after his discharge from the army when he had no further reason to hide his true age.
Thoughts on WRD’s place of birthAs to his place of birth, I am still very much open to either Brenchley or Dorking, Surrey, but on balance I think Dorking is more likely:
(a) he stuck with this place from the very first record he had;
(b) his father, Joseph, worked as a carrier and just maybe at some point he was living in Surrey with Matilda;
(c) in any case why would he want to lie about that detail which alone would not have prevented him from being accepted into the army;
(d) if WRD had been born in Brenchley, why would he not have been able to obtain a copy of his birth record instead. I would assume that it was WRD who organised the copy because both Joseph and Matilda had died in 1863.
There are of course still other questions to answer, notably the widely varying occupations, but the bottom line is that my faith is now totally restored in the 1851 census which puts WRD’s first wife, Sarah Ann, with Joseph, her father-in-law.