Does every family tree have it's enigmatic member ? I put this in Middlesex because that is where the story ends. Thomas Robertson 1820-1895 my g-g-g- grandfather. The one certain fact I have, he's dead. What I have found in the census 1891, 1881,1871 confirms he is he same man although born in East India or At sea or (most likely) Middlesex. 1851-61 he is in Leeds Yorkshire with wife Ellen Birmingham. No marriage found. 3-4 Children birth certificate confirms Ellen formerly Birmingham. Shortly after 1861 something happened and they left for London. Daughter Sarah E. married Thomas Burris 1863 Whitechapel. It looks like Sarah took to prostitution. Thomas Robinson lives in Bloomsbury with daughter Ellen. Wife Ellen Birmingham has disappeared with baby Selena whose birth in Leeds was unregistered.
An Ellen Birmingham of about the right age was admitted to Hoxton House 29 July 1862 and died there 1864. UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912
Back to Thomas and 1841 finds one in the Clerkenwell House of Corrections.
Another aboard the Prison ship York in 1840.
Oh! what an interesting character,
To add to the mystery in 1881 census he has a new wife Amelia and a 16 yr old daughter Harriet Robertson born in Spitalfields.... Name Harriet Robertson Birth Date 3 May 1864 Baptism Date 3 Dec 186 Saint John Evangelist,Limehouse,London,England Father Thomas Robertson. Mother Ellen No registration index so I cant get a certificate.
