Sometime ago I asked for help with the daughter of this person and got some very helpful info. I was unable though to come back with a m/c for her parents and was at a loss as to why I could not find anything. Anyway, I thought sometime later lets try again and remembered a scrap piece of paper that I had scribbled on many many many years ago from notes given me by my Mum before she died and which was the thing that started me on this ... the word diamond and South Africa were scrawled in the bottom right hand corner and I couldn't recall what Mum had said other than Diamond mine, large diamond in Treasury! Images come to mind of lottery wins and a jackpot!
Anyway with those silly thoughts I decided I must solve this puzzle. So unusually I scrawled through the Public family trees on Ancestry. Imagine my surprise when I found someone with the same name as my GGM who had a similar tree and details. I wrote to her and got a reply and found my third cousin...in Africa! I was then able to find my missing piece of this puzzle a m/c which she kindly sent me a copy.
Now onto my query...with this I then knew Charles Deacon had married Margaret Redshaw and were the parents of my GM, Margaret Mercy Deacon. I also knew that Charles was definitely a soldier and census data found here was thus correct.
However, I have since found another tree which follows mine but the person has a different Charles, a Charles Alfred Deacon. His DOB was similar and on checking the Northampton registers I find two Charles
Charles Deacon born abt 1855, baptised 12 April 1855 parents William and ELIZABETH (who may have maiden name Walker) but no actual date of birth. Parish St Edmund
Charles Alfred deacon born 11 June 1853 and bap July 1853. Parish St Giles.
Charles (the first one shows up in several census with varying years of birth ranging from 1853 to 1855 and on his discharge papers leads us to believe he was born in 1853. Also varying parishes St Giles/St Edmunds and St Andrews) His parents seem to have passed on early and he and a possible brother John end up in Union Workhouse at age 6 (father was a soldier)
The second Charles - Charles Alfred looks as though he may have died in the same year in October and the address is similar and if it is him he did indeed have a brother called William who also died a week before). His parent however are Frederick and Martha.
Can anyone help me feel reassured that the first Charles is the right one for my line and that the second one with whom there appears to be an infant death is likely to be the second Charles - Charles Alfred and in fact died therefore the wrong Charles for my line..
I hope I managed to make sense of this???
If so it means I can now proceed with searching for William and Ann with the details I have so far and thus onto their parents:)
If I am wrong I would rather know and not make assumptions and get back on track