George Symons born USA

[louisem]

I am trying to work out parentage for a confusing part of my family tree. The story spans Cardiff, the USA and Devon so I wasn’t sure where to post.
I have DNA links to the two main characters George and John Symons so I know they are connected.
John Symons was born in Cardiff in 1878, my Great Grandmother’s brother. I have him in 1881 and 1891 with family in Cardiff. A probable, but not definite marriage, in South Wales in 1897. A mention in the news story of his sister’s wedding in 1898 where it mentions he is married.
I can’t find him in 1901. He reappears in the USA in 1910 in New Jersey as John Simons with a wife Ellen and children. The year of birth doesn’t fit but then over the years that changes until by WW2 we have his correct date of birth. The oldest two children in this USA family are not his, they are his wife’s daughters.
The mystery is another child - George Percival Symons - this boy is on the 1911 U.K. census in Ilfracombe living with a widow, Adelaide Leigh - aunt. It says he was born in the USA. I am convinced because of the DNA that he is also John Symons son but I can’t find any more info. I can’t find any family connection to Adelaide Leigh but neither can I find any other records for her. I can find George married in 1939 but that doesn’t give me any more re his parents.
My guess is that John Symons went to the USA with his original wife from Wales, they had George, she died, he remarried and sent George back to the U.K.  But it makes no sense that he didn’t send him to his wider family in Cardiff.
Any ideas would be hugely appreciated. They are not even my direct line but the story/mystery is niggling at me.
Thanks very much.

[maddys52]

I can’t find any family connection to Adelaide Leigh but neither can I find any other records for her.

I might be wrong, but I'm guessing this is Adelaide: Adelaide Ann TOLLIT (father Thomas, painter) married Charles Walter LEIGH (father Robert, independent) 6th April 1890 at St Katherine's Northampton. They can be found in the 1891 and 1901 where he is a boot rivetter born Norwich c1854, though she is born Woburn Sands, Bedfordshire c 1860. If this is the correct couple, I'm not sure why she says born Stoke Gabriel in 1911? (Though I think she may have previously told fibs as she says she is married to Joseph EMERTON in the 1881 at Northampton - she is there with 2 of her brothers - but I can't see a marriage for her.)  And I  can't see a connection to George SYMONS yet.

[louisem]

Thank you very much.  It’s all so strange to me. There were a lot of Symons relatives in Cardiff - Henry and Ann John’s parents, his sister Mabel (my great grandmother and her husband Henry Davies), several of John’s brothers. Seems so odd to send a child to stay elsewhere. Of course my only ‘evidence’ he is John’s son is DNA, but there are several different DNA links which all fit entirely with this scenario and no real alternative explanation.

[willyam]

Louise,

Hopefully some of the following may be helpful.

I believe that you have the right marriage in 1897 but I wonder if Annie might not have travelled to the USA with John. I mention this because of 3 things that have caught my eye.

First - it appears that there was a child born of this marriage - a daughter who was named Mabel & whose birth (with a mother’s maiden name of Sivill) & death were both registered (in Cardiff) in the October quarter of 1897. As John & Annie married in June 1897, unless Mabel was born prematurely - which could explain her early death, it could be construed that their’s was a shotgun wedding.

Second - in Welsh Newspapers Online (on the same results page as the 1898 wedding report) there is, in the South Wales Daily News issue of 22nd November 1898, a Public Notice which states: “I, JOHN SYMONS, 51 Connaught Road, Cardiff, WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE for any Debt incurred by my wife, Annie Symons, after this date, 19th Nov. 1898. (Signed) JOHN SYMONS Witness - H. Davies”.

Third - recorded in the 1901 census, living at no. 41 Inverness Place, Cardiff, are James & Mary Ann Sivill and their married daughter Lydia A Symonds (aged 22 & born in Illogan, Cornwall) - although she was not also with them in 1911 and I cannot find her elsewhere.

Willyam

[louisem]

Wow thank you so much, I really appreciate the effort you have put in to finding that out, that’s so fascinating and I had no idea about it. H Davies is most likely my great grandfather Henry/Harry. What an intriguing story. I need to dig around some more.
Also baffling to me that John lied about his age once he was in the USA. Because of the age discrepancies in the USA censuses I thought it was a different person, or could never be proven, but then DNA came along and linked me firmly to that John Symons plus I found his world war 2 documents which have his correct dob.
Maybe the mystery of George will not be solved but I know I have exactly the right DNA link to him for him to be John’s son and nobody else in the family fits the bill to be his father. Why oh why did I never ask my grandparents more about their families?

[Christine53]

I think Adelaide Leigh may be Adelaide Amanda Mattick, daughter of George Shadrach Daniel Mattick , who was baptised 22 Mar 1860 at Stoke Gabriel.

Adelaide Amanda Mattick married Henry James Lee J-S 1890 Henley 3a 1111.

Adelaide had a sister , Violet L Mattick  born 1879 , who travelled to America and arrived New York 24 May 1903 on the ship New York.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JFRQ-TWP

Violet married John Symons 2 days later :
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2449-HYG

Edit - can't find a birth for George Percival , but there is a George John Symons born to the couple in 1904 :
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:27YW-LLN

[willyam]

With regard to Adelaide Leigh, it is little wonder that she has proved to be so elusive.

There is a death registered in 1956, in Devon Central, for a 92 year old Adelaide A Leigh - which suggests 1864 as her year of birth. However, her 1939 year of birth is shown first as 1868 but then also (lightly) written above that year are both 1874 & 1864.

These in turn contrast with her census records:
1911 - in Ilfracombe, where she has stated her age as 51 - which implies born in 1860
1901 - in Bunbury (Cheshire), a widowed Assistant Schoolmistress aged 32 - possibly born in 1869
1891 - in Denham (Suffolk), a married Schoolmistress aged 26 - perhaps born in 1865 or 1864.

In the 1901 census her place of birth is shown as Dartmouth as it also is in 1891. Although the 1891 entry is for an Adelaide Lee, given that in 1939 she said that she was an ex-Teacher, I feel sure that this is the right Adelaide.

[louisem]

I can’t thank you all enough. I was so perplexed by this. Quite an intriguing story. I am out and about at the moment but when I am home I need to look at the USA records and see how that all fits in and what happens to Violet as John Symons then ends up with a new wife who already has two daughters. I once corresponded with a DNA descendant of George who had been told his father had died when he was a baby, so he didn’t know that he had a father and siblings and a big family in the USA. The Symons family didn’t have a lot of luck with their sons, another died in tragic circumstances in 1909 and another was killed in WW1. My great grandmother was the only daughter.

[louisem]

Here are some of the relatively minor players in this story. On the left is Henry Symons the patriarch of the Symons family, John’s father. On the right are Mabel Symons, John’s sister and my great grandmother and her husband Henry Davies who witnessed John’s unusual declaration about his first wife.