Who is this boy?

[KarenM]

  Is this the same person who contacted you, Karen?

http://boards.ancestry.ca/surnames.reuben/21/mb.ashx

I was never contacted by anyone, just happened to come across the census image while looking for another BHC.

I did post a reply on that thread to see if they are still active.  It was a while ago, but maybe they have more information since.

Karen

[J.J.]

ahhh!   So my brain actually may have been off to Alpha Centauri after all this poking about and deciphering with no results,  I totally missunderstood as I thought the BHC you'd been chasing down WAS Michael Henry Rueben when you came across the odd spelling in 1901... Brain fried again


Oh, well, posting this anyway regarding Michael Henry Rueben since we'd brought this other lad into the thread...and he might have been BHC
 
...If he really was born Newcastle there is a marriage with the wife's surname as SIMON....somewhat close to Simmons but that's where the naming similarity ends... Maybe grasping for straws but some of this story appears to suit the described scenario, orphaned from birth.

Barnard Ruben  &  Rachel Simon  Newcastle T.  vol 10b  p.295
In 1881 they have three children Cecily 4, Jules 3, Samuel baby
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XQCN-L43
The children are registered as "Reubens" and there is also a Henry b.1884, who died 1885

I found a Rachel Reuben b.1857  death March Quarter 1886 Middlesbrough, Yorkshire

and here is that family in 1901 Middlesbrough and a new wife, several new children with Bertha   http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ev3/

Marriages Sept. Quarter 1886.... but it is only a few months after Rachel dies and takes place back in Newcastle? Reuben, Bernard & Levy, Bertha   Newcastle T.  vol. 10b  p.227

Because she was so young...  perhaps Rachel may have died in childbirth....& could a baby have been rejected because of it? ( Happened to my husband's grandmother)

This may be the father's death in 1916 Middlesbrough https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2J4B-GV1

Sorry to have taken the thread sideways.  J.J.

[chinakay]

I hear Alpha Centauri is lovely this time of year, and not too many tourists

I see in 1891 and 1901 there is a 5-year gap between Reuben kids at just the right time, but there is no Michael showing up in Ancestry, LDS or FBMD. There's a Minnie 1885 Middlesboro, not a Michael anywhere.

I like the theory of a rejected baby. Well, I don't *like* it, but it's very plausible.

I'm thinking that if a child shows up in Canada with not one but two first names, they probably came from his parents, though.

I did find Michael Henry b 1889 getting US citizenship in 1928, no new details.

[J.J.]

I found today that there is a query, although cryptic, where they seem hint at having found all that stuff out about Michael, oh, well...It was fun searching....Good for the noggin. (Sans brain on Holiday in A.C.)
Not sure if we are to continue this search, as the initial query was to find the lad from the 1901 and we've crossed over to this lad...Is he proven not to be the same subject.
China, I am rather stuck on the intriging young lad who is said in 1901 to be from Poland. I am pretty sure the Reubens may initially have been from Poland or Russian Poles. What if, when Bernard returned to marry in Northumb. in 1886 he also returned his newborn son to leave him with others...If he was brought up by a Polish family he may have been speaking some of the language...Just a thought. Who is he with in 1901, might be a clue? I can find but cannot see in to the information/ census images...

~~~~~On the personal note
yes sadly hubby's Gmother had a very tough life all around, ( The story goes: rejected for having killed the mother, DUH!!!! nevermind the person who got her pregnant....He married her sister, and left the baby with her parents....) Her rotter husband later left her with a pack of children for a bigamist marriage where he made just as many more children. How lucky that she got along on her own and never sent any as BHC!!!