This looks to be really easy, but I am failing to find likely candidates in birth records and censuses for my great great grandfather Thomas Moody - I am thinking maybe there are sources that I don't know about, or I am missing the point in some way.
Basically Thomas Moody was born circa 1854/55 in Yorkshire, but he moved to New Zealand, before his marriage there in 1876. The family bible his wife Mary Ann Tomlyn annotated, lists his birth date as 1 April 1855, and lots of evidence suggests that he is born around then in Yorkshire. For example he is always listed on his children's' birth certificates as being a year younger than his wife, and she is definitely born on 30 July 1853, and ages given for the couple on various certificates etc support these birth years. In short if he is lying about his birth year he is consistent throughout his life. Also two of the children's' birth certificates give his name as Thomas Mark Moody, but he never seems to use his middle name.
His death certificate states he was 88 at the time of his death in 1942, and that he was born in Goole, Yorkshire. However he had remarried at age 76, and his new wife would probably not have known about his life in as much detail. I would think that a place name like Goole is not going to be random - it must mean something in his life.
Names of his children may give a clue to names in his family - there seems to be the conventional Victorian naming scheme going on maybe, but we have in order John Edwin, Etty Tomlyn, William Ernest, Arthur Thomas, Frederic Charles, Mary Elizabeth, Albert Henry, Lily Margaret, Thomas Henry, Eva May and Ethel Maud. First daughter Etty Tomlyn seems to pick up maternal grandmother's name Harriet Tomlyn (nee Darby), and second son seems to pick up maternal grandfathers name William. So maybe Thomas Moody's father was John or Edwin and his mother Mary or Elizabeth?
Thats as much as I know - I can't find any birth records that seem to fit these facts, and no census references either. Basically I need a Thomas Mark Moody born circa 1855 in Yorkshire, who is out of the country by the 1881 census. He may or may not be there for the 1871 census. How to proceed further than ancestry.com's records is the question!?
