Hello everyone, I’m looking for some assistance with a very significant brick wall that I have in my family tree research please, with the main location of interest being Kidderminster.
The birth certificates of my grandfather Charles Henry Phillips (1895-1979) and his brother William Acton Phillips (1892-1987), who were both born in Kidderminster, state that their father was William George Phillips (hereafter WGP). However, I can’t find any evidence that their mother Charlotte Louisa Edge Wright (1869-1940) married WGP and I can’t find the couple living together on any census. Charlotte gave her surname and that of my grandfather as Wright in the 1901 census and again referred to my grandfather as being called Wright in the 1911 census, by which time her surname was Pountney.
When they got married, my grandfather and his brother named different fathers on their certificates, George Wright (deceased) and John Wright respectively. Neither of these were correct – John Wright was actually their maternal grandfather.
Both brothers went through the vast majority of their adult lives using Wright as their surname rather than Phillips. This, of course, raises the possibility that WGP never existed at all. However, my great uncle was named as William Acton Phillips in Great Western Railway employment records in 1910 and also by his aunt and uncle (Thomas and Elizabeth Brighton) in the 1911 census when he was living with them in Birmingham. The latter in particular indicates that WGP was indeed the father of the brothers.
When Charlotte Louisa married William Pountney in 1903, she’s recorded on the certificate with a surname of Wright and as a spinster. However, on the birth certificate of the son she had in that marriage (Harry Pountney in 1908), she qualified her surname with “late Phillips formerly Wright”.
My brick wall is that I can’t trace WGP, as he doesn’t appear with Charlotte Louisa in any marriage or census records and, of course, he has a common name. The only clue is that his occupation on both brothers’ birth certificate is stated as “vocalist”. There’s a family story that he was a member of a touring company, possibly D’Oyly Carte, and either came from or went to the USA but I’ve not had any joy exploring that avenue either.
Any help anyone can provide to help me with tracking down William George Phillips would be very much appreciated!
