James Edward Archer

[hanes teulu]

The Lucy Tooth on the '81 Census with Benjamin and Lucy is aged 4 (c.1877). Struggling to find a birth reg. to fit this age.
Your latest post states "I had located all the other births attributed to mother's name Shelley"? Did this include this 1873 birth registration which you have dismissed?

Lucy Tooth, registered Sep Qtr 1873, Birmingham, 6D 148 - mother's maiden name Shelley.

Ages on Census can be notoriously suspect.

[acm99]

Yes, I picked up Lucy 1873 and Sarah 1877 from the GRO records, along with Benjamin Jnr. As Ciderdrinker and I noticed, the ages of the girls are swapped against the names on the 1881 census when compared to the GRO evidence.

Benjamin Jnr's mother's maiden name is Shelley from the GRO and his mother's name on his baptism record is Sarah Ann. So, unless she is informally known as Lucy and that is what is recorded on the census, then we could be looking at the right family whose details were recorded incorrectly. But that means Bertha is a boy named Benjamin... 

I haven't dismissed it, but it's a struggle to say for certain this is the right family - there were plenty of Tooths from Wolverhampton, I just need to find the link in 1881 to Benjamn Jnr.

I am working on the theory that something happened between 1879, Benjamin Jnr's birth from mother Shelley, and the end of 1882 or start of 1883, James Edward's conception from mother Archer/Cade. We know that Thomas Archer died early 1881 so maybe that helps too.

Time to home in on addresses to see where these people were living in relation to each other. Evidence from other family members I have addresses for, seem to suggest they lived within a localised area, with no more than a few streets, often houses apart.

The good news is that we have the biological father and mother of James Edward even if his half siblings are a bit of a mystery as to what happened to Lucy and Sarah - and where did their mother come from and go to?

Thanks again for the insights and supporting work - you are a great bunch of people   

Cheers!
Andy

[hanes teulu]

Have you checked the newspapers? There are one or two items that relate to Benjamin Snr. and one or two that might.
But they don't appear to take the search forward other than providing additional addresses?

[acm99]

I've not seen any newspaper information. I'm not sure where to look for that, I don't know if my Ancestry subscription gives me access to anything like that - any obituaries in newspapers seem to want a higher subscription level   

[hanes teulu]

Newspaper reports of the inquest in December 1870 into the Birmingham gunpowder explosion include -
"... Benjamin Tooth, glass cutter, said he lodged with Mrs Bullivant, at 17 Tower Street. He knew her daughter Selina ...". Selina was one of the victims of the explosion. Benjamin had identified "... her body by her hands which were long and thin, and a ring she wore with three marks on it ..."

Birmingham Mail, 22 Mar 1879
"MISCELLANEOUS WANTS
Benjamin Trotter, Glass Blower, is requested to send his address immediately to No 2, Watery Lane"

These newspapers are available at FindMyPast and British Newspaper Archive.

[acm99]

That's great, thanks, I'll see what can be found.

Interesting breakthrough, we discovered that Sarah Ann Shelley married Henry Proud in 1868, but there appears to be no children from them. Instead, from the 1881 census onwards, we found he has children with 'wife' Ellen (Hopkins), but they married in Feb 1882 where on the marriage record he is identified as 'widow'.

We found that Sarah Ann Proud died in the last quarter of 1881, so Henry was then free to marry Ellen and go on to produce many children.

So that part is explained, but not what happened to the Tooth girls, obviously Benjamin Jnr stayed with dad as seen on the 1891 census, but the girls could easily have been with their dad during the 1880s before moving on, perhaps to the US as Ciderdrinker found some evidence for Lucy.

Cheers!
Andy

[acm99]

I discovered that many children from broken families that ended up in the union or on the streets were often deported to Commonwealth countries, notably Canada in the late 1800s. Local authorities who wanted to save money took advantage of this scheme and children deported from the UK.

From what I learned it was likely that we would never know whether both Lucy and Sarah were included in the scheme, other than the inference that since Lucy turned up in New York state that she may have travelled from Canada to the US.

Today I found this site https://canadianbritishhomechildren.weebly.com/ which claims 82,000 names indexed, so I tried the surname "Tooth" and three results turned up, among which were Lucy and Sarah:

• http://www.britishhomechildrenregistry.com/Person/bhcInfo/16941
• http://www.britishhomechildrenregistry.com/Person/bhcInfo/17026

So mystery solved as to why they disappeared from the UK and Lucy appeared in the US.

I've also accepted the 1881 census record is associated with this family and it was incorrectly recorded by the enumerator, p'raps Bertha was the name they used for Benjamin Jnr.

We now have a mystery with Benjamin Snr. Born Wolverhampton while the Tooth family were there in the 1840s before returning to Birmingham. The GRO doesn't have him listed, at least not one with the right mother's maiden name. Not sure what to do for that. It perhaps is an 'adoption'.

Cheers!
Andy

[SuzieJ2023]

Hi Andy,

 I am Edward Archers grandaughter and recently discovered the birth and early details of my grandfather. He had 4 children, Edward, Minnie, Ethel and Jessie who is my mother. He married Minnie Bishop and lived in Bordesly Green Birmingham. My cousin has recently found out all the info as I found nothing about Edward, thrown by all of h the different surnames! Edwards mothers maiden name was Cade and married an Archer who died in 1881. His fathers name was Tooth, but he used his mothers first married name of Archer as well as Tooth. It would be so interesting to find out more!