Look up Parish Records

[Mary Jane Tape]

Can anyone find information about my 4x great grandfather who, in the 1861 census gives his birthplace as Lower Heyford.  He was 80 at the time of the census so was born about 1781.
His name was Thomas Ralph.

He moved to Staffordshire where he married Catherine ?? who was 10 years his junior but still with him in 1861.

I can't find him in any other census although he should have been in 1841 and 1851.

I believe he left Oxfordshire to work on the canals when he was about 20 but that is only because his descendants all worked on narrow boats and Thomas's address in 1861 was Nock Street, Tipton which is just round the corner from Toll End where boatmen lived.

Many thanks in anticipation.
Mary Jane Tape

[Pennie]

The OFHS's Oxfordshire Marriage Index (1538-1837) only contains about half-a-dozen or so (male) RALPHs (and variants).  There is one (from "Milton") marrying at Warborough in 1788, but all the others are in the 1600s or 1800s.  Warborough is in the south of the county, quite a distance from Lower Heyford.

It's not surprising that you have been unable to find Thomas on earlier censuses - canal folk are often very elusive!

In view of all the above, I would suggest that you contact the Oxfordshire Family History Society (www.ofhs.org.uk) - for a couple of pounds they will search their county-wide baptism index and hopefully manage to locate Thomas's baptism for you.

Pennie

[jaywit]

He would have been a teenager when the Oxford Canal was being built through Lower Heyford.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Canal

So he could have moved anywhere before ending up in Staffordshire.

[jaywit]

I wonder if Thomas was married a few times.
This is from Free REG.

http://freereg2.freereg.org.uk/search_records/5510a57fe937907e5f6f49a7?search_id=55f569ac33045b975a000c66

[Mary Jane Tape]

Hi Jaywit
Checked out FreeReg and found Thomas Ralph, widower marrying Lettice Bate but can't find any further details on that site. Put in loads of 'trials', things I have answers to, but I just kept getting zero results.  I couldn't even find myself!

[Mary Jane Tape]

This is a reply to your first response - Thomas was a teenager when the canal went through Lower Heyford.  Is this speculation on your part or was a canal being dug through Lower Heyford?

[jaywit]

No I agree, but with Catherine being younger than him it makes me wonder if he married her later in life.

Looking at Staffordshire on FreeREG there does appear to be 2 Thomas Ralphs in Bilston having children baptised around the correct time, one of them is a miner the other a tinman, it's a pity we don't know for sure what Thomas's occupation was. You don't happen to have a marriage certificate of one of his children which should give an occupation for him?

[Mary Jane Tape]

I know he had one son (at least) called John.  Unfortunately there were dozens of John Ralphs living around Toll End, Nock Street, Lower Gornley in the mid-1800s.
I can't identify the particular John I want other than he turns up on various children's marriage certificates as a Boatman.  As Thomas lived in Nock Street, just round the corner from Toll End I'm guessing he was a boatman or canal worker of some kind, not a tinner or a miner.  His granddaughter, Emma (for whom there are no records on FreeReg despite me having a paper copy of her marriage) married Thomas Wright who was another boatman like his father.
Most Ralphs in that area of Tipton were boatpeople.  I wish I could find Thomas on an earlier census - 1841 or 1851 but not luck as yet.

[jaywit]

No I looked on the earlier census returns but my guess is on the very early census returns it just didn't occur to anyone to see who were on boats on census night.