Any suggestions where I go from here?

[justevi]

Please can someone give me some advice as to my options with the following?
I have just received my grandparents marriage cert and was hoping to at least find addresses of their families from it but I was disappointed. Its my grandfathers side that is the problem.
marriage 22/6/1914
Henry Thompson 23 yrs steelworker  3a Derwent Crossing, Workington. Father : James Thompson (deceased) Blastfurnaceman
 m
Sarah Taylor 20yrs 3a Derwent Crossing, Workington. Father William Taylor, Blastfurnaceman.
Witnesses were Mary Thompson & Thomas Broughton.
As you can see they were both living at same address when they were married. I was born at my grandparents house but they were then at #8 Derwent Road (aka Derwent Crossings) which I think may have been Workington steelworks houses as they were just over a bridge from the steelworks so theres a good chance Henry (and possibly both fathers) worked there. Possibly James had his own house as his father was dead.
All I know is Henry was born c 1891 but no idea where. I know nothing about his parents.
Anyone any ideas? Any help would be much appreciated.

[geniedi]

Hi

Just a thought have you found them on the 1901 census.

Also quite often people put down the same address on the certificate, I believe it was a residence address so that they got married in the same parish without paying extra. I could be wrong on that but that's from memory. Maybe somebody else could correct me

Cheers Diane

[Little Nell]

Using the information you gave, I have just checked the index for 1901 census.  There is a James Thompson living in Workington, age 49, occupation Blast Furnace man, born Wednesbury, Staffordshire.  There is also a Harry Thompson listed with the same page ID number, age 13 born in Workington.  

There is one Sarah Taylor age 7 listed in the index in Workington and a William Taylor, Iron Worker age 39, born Radcliff, Lancashire has the same page ID number as her.

It may be worth getting sight of these images to check out the families and the addresses.

Other than that you need to find Henry's birth in the GRO indexes and get the certificate to find his parents, although if this is the correct one, then you could also check him out on the 1891 census.

Hope this helps.

Nell

[justevi]

Using the information you gave, I have just checked the index for 1901 census.  There is a James Thompson living in Workington, age 49, occupation Blast Furnace man, born Wednesbury, Staffordshire.  There is also a Harry Thompson listed with the same page ID number, age 13 born in Workington.  

There is one Sarah Taylor age 7 listed in the index in Workington and a William Taylor, Iron Worker age 39, born Radcliff, Lancashire has the same page ID number as her.

It may be worth getting sight of these images to check out the families and the addresses.

Other than that you need to find Henry's birth in the GRO indexes and get the certificate to find his parents, although if this is the correct one, then you could also check him out on the 1891 census.

Hope this helps.

Nell

Sarah is my grandmother, I had found her in census but hadn't found the James Thompson. Sounds good except for age of Henry who would surely only have been 10/11 if he was 23 in 1914? Worth persuing tho, thanks!
Trouble with ordering BC is that I only know he was in Cumberland in 1914, he could have been born anywhere. I only knew about Sarah cos one of her brothers went back to Radcliffe then to Tyldesley and I remembered going there as a child.
Many thanks Nell!

[Gardener]

If I were you I would do as Nell says and pay to see the images for these entries. Henry's age may have been mistranscribed and in any case ages on wedding certificates are never very reliable - or those on the census if it comes to that
If you decide that this is your Henry then he was born in Workington according to the census so with a bracket fro his age plus place plus father and father's occupation finding his birth certificate should be a piece of cake. Note I said should

[D ap D]

From experience, I would only use the information contained in the census' as a guideline and not believe every word.

My great grandfather for example gave a different date and place of birth in every census from 1871 to 1901. His occupation varied from gardener to farm servant to labourer in brickworks, and I know he was a farmer, with several acres employing several workers as I have copies of the deeds. He also owned the land on which the brickworks was built and was a successful property developer as a side line. His obituary on the other hand contradicted not only the information gained from the census, but also other facts I had gained along the way.
If I didn't know better, we could be talking about 3 different people here.

My grandmother used to say that he couldn't take the emunerator seriously, as the emunerator usually couldn't speak Welsh, so my ggf used to fob him off with any old rubbish.

I dare say he wasn't an isolated case.....

[geniedi]

I would have to agree with you on that.

I have one whose age, place of birth and occupation was different to the facts on every entry I have from 1871/1901.

It does make you wonder who filled the form in and from what information.

 

[madbadrob]

Ok am going to defend the enumerators here.  Ask yourself if your a non geordie and went to Newecastle would you be able to understand what they were saying?  I doubt it.  Then take into consideration that most of the Adults giving the info to the enumerator probably couldnt read or write and probably couldn't work out how long it was since they were born.  Then take into account who was giving that information, for example what if they were miner's it could be that the wife was giving it because on census night the hubby was down the mine.  She was probably more likely to be illiterate and would only have her own memories to go on.
All in all the census like all other secondary sources should only be used as a guide. 

Secondary I hear you all scream its primary,  well nope its not, the enumerators books are a copy of the original questionaires which after being copied were destroyed

rob

[Boongie Pam]

I spend a good deal of time doing comedy Northern Ireland accents to see how a scottish burring enumerator would hear an Antrim Fallon. 

It explains why one individual has 5 pieces of source info and 5 variations in spelling!

Also, if you can think of a reason to lie to an enumerator - so can one of your ancestors! 

Cheers,
Pam