So I think I may be at a dead end, but perhaps one of you lovely people can come up with something I haven't thought of.
The man in question is James Thomas.
According to his tombstone - he was born on May 25th 1853, and according to various census' he was born in Cardiff Wales.
He married Jane Arthur Fry on the 12 Feb 1878 in Barnstaple, Devon, and they as a family moved back to Wales where he appears with Jane and some kids in Aberavon in 1881.
The family arrived in Canada in May of 1886 on a ship called the Corian - they moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada where James continued his trade as a bootmaker until such time as something happened to have him committed to an asylum where he spent the rest of his life (while his wife claimed on census' that she was a widow)
He passed away on the 17th of December 1923.
I applied to receive his birth certificate, but GRO couldn't find it. So is this as far as I can go? Are there any records that might help my search for his parents along? I would've assumed with a birthdate I'd have more luck, but nope!
* I should note I'm making my way over to Canada at christmas, so I'm going to try to get a hold of the asylum records which may hold some answers, but that'd be my last hope!
