How to find Thomas Moody?

[zumaro]

The marriage certificate is for St John's Church in Napier, New Zealand, and it says that Thomas Moody is a labourer. I know from relatives still alive who knew him, that he worked on the railways, and the family moved about a lot through the central North Island of New Zealand at that time (although they later settled in Christchurch). However the family went through a messy legal separation of Mary Ann and Thomas, where he was essentially disowned by them all - by all accounts he was not a pleasant man.

No parents are given on the certificate at that time, but the witnesses are Frederick Starmer and Mary Ann Lincoln, names that mean nothing to me. Interestingly the minister officiating John Townsend, was fired later that year, causing a large church scandal (seems his views were out of step with the congregation). So the marriage certificate is not that helpful.  I will order the photocopy of the original, as this is a written copy, so may be missing information.

The family is a large one, but all the children are born to Thomas and Mary Ann Moody, except Mary Elizabeth and Thomas Henry, who are born to Thomas Mark Moody. No idea why this would change and I don't have original copies of any of these. Maybe it is time to order a few (expensive in NZ!!).

The family list I have given earlier is watertight (well there is another Frederick Charles, replacing the earlier one who died in infancy), and it comes from Mary Ann Tomlyn's family bible, where she has written them all down plus their birthdays. That is where Thomas Mark Moody's birthday of April 1 1855 comes from as well.

[Milliepede]

If he wasn't a pleasant man then he could have lied about his real name and how old he really was.
I've no doubt the birthdate in the bible is as accurate as she believed it to be but may not have been the truth. 
As I said if it was he wouldn't strictly have been 21 when he got married so he lied about one or the other.

[zumaro]

I just got the scans of the original birth certificates of two of the children, John Edwin and Mary Elizabeth. I would like to say they reveal new things, but in both they describe Thomas Moody as a labourer born in Yorkshire, with the addition of the name Thomas Mark Moody in the case of Mary Elizabeth's certificate. This is totally unambiguous as well - it clearly reads Thomas Mark, so no transcription error.

Also totally consistent are the ages with other certificates we have. Thomas on both certificates is one year younger than Mary Ann Tomlyn, and her stated age in both cases is consistent with her known birthdate in 1853. So on all evidence we have, he says he was born in the timeframe 1853-55 in Yorkshire.

So indeed he may be lying, but if he is, he is making himself seem younger, which doesn't seem to carry many advantages in my eyes. Maybe he was on the run from something and just wished to obscure his past. He may have been a 'drunkard and a scoundrel' according to Mary Elizabeth, but I don't have knowledge of a specifically criminal past!

He remains an intriguing figure...

[zumaro]

Resurrection of an old thread! I have found a Thomas Moody Fell born April 1 1855, in Knottingley, Yorkshire. His father John Fell is a ships carpenter, and his mother is Sarah Moody. You can find him in England up to 1869, where he is an apprentice on a ship, but after that he disappears. He would have to be in New Zealand by 1875 to be Thomas Mark Moody.

I note that Thomas Moody Fell's birthdate April 1 is the same as that given in the family bible for Thomas Mark Moody, and Thomas Mark states his parents are John, a ships carpenter and Sarah.  Also intriguingly, the Fell family's second son is John Edwin Fell, the same name as Thomas Mark Moody called his first son in New Zealand.

Is Thomas Mark Moody really Thomas Moody Fell? My sister and mother have a DNA match with other descendants of John Fell's parents, which is a little suggestive of some kind of link.