Plymouth Family

[Claire England]

Good Evening all,

I've been searching my family history for a number of years now, but mainly my local Yorkshire/Lancashire family, who appears to have great resources online and obviously if I find myself in difficulties I can have a wander around the local areas/libraries etc.  However after speaking with another family member I have been trying to research my ancestors from Plymouth, of which I barely know and I am struggling to understand the City/area dynamics.  Living next to a Sea/Port City appears to be very different to the Northern Country side cities/Towns.

Main problems I have uncovered are:
8 Siblings from one mother and father appear to have different spellings of surnames, and from 2 of the children's baptism records they have their mothers Maiden name, not the father surname.

One child appears on a baptism and a census record, but not on the GRO

I can not local the birth or death of a child who appears on a census record as 'son' to the head, as I would like to confirm if his mother is my ancestor.

I have contacted GRO but they have closed the enquires as 'Indexed data not available'.

Sources I have used are: Family Search (discovered the baptism records), Find my past (Census information), Free BMD - no records of people I am looking for and GRO.

Am I missing something?  Where else could I look?

[Neale1961]

You don’t mention any dates or names, so that makes it difficult to assist much.
Perhaps the birth was not registered or was registered under another name.
Baptisms with only mother’s name would suggest she wasn’t married.

[Claire England]

The births range from 1906 - 1918 which is why I thought if I contacted the GRO they might be able to confirm that a page of relatives had been missed, but they don't appear to have done a through job.


1908   - Jack Richard Durham (census 1921 only)
1/7/1907 - Charles Philip Hopley (census and baptism)
4/5/1907 - Georgina Elizabeth Hopley (baptism record)
17/01/1909 - Gladys Elizabeth Hopley (baptism record)

[Neale1961]

1/7/1907 - Charles Philip Hopley (census and baptism)

Looks like his GRO birth registration might be a late entry, and is under the date 1966. (7A  J/66)

See entry on FreeBMD
https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?r=118725402:2089&d=bmd_1705870475

Or here    https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVWF-297W

[CaroleW]

What were the parent/parents names on the baptisms

Are the dates shown their baptismal dates only - does the entry show a birth date?

[CaroleW]

1911 shows Charles as the son of Philip & Alice

Alice was nee Thomson

The GRO entry for the Sept qtr 1907 has it entered manually at the bottom of the page so as Neale says - late registration - Charles P Thomson Hopley

[CaroleW]

Georgina’s baptism just shows mother as Jane so she was illegitimate

Gladys Elizabeth - mother Jane Ann Eliza

[CaroleW]

A tree on Ancestry suggests that Gladys Elizabeth was surname Pollyblank

Birth reg for Gladys shows mmn Hopley

Gladys E Pollyblank died Sept qtr 1909

Georgina’s birth is also under Pollyblank in 1907

[Neale1961]

You are looking at 2 different families, (2 different mothers.)

Charles Philip Hopley born and baptised July 1907 Charles Plymouth (same time as his older sister Winifred)
Parents Philip Hopley (a driver) and Alice (nee Thomson)
Jubilee Street

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Different family ….

Georgina Elizabeth Hopley born 4th May 1907 and baptised St Peters Plymouth
Mother was Jane Hopley (a hawker)
Granby cottages

Gladys Elizabeth Hopley Baptised Plymouth St Peter 1909
Mother was Jane Ann Eliza Hopley (hoover seller- similar to hawker)
Granby cottages

Note - The mother, Jane Ann Eliza Hopley, is older sister to Philip Hopely. She married / partnered a John Pullyblank, and had a couple more kids. Children’s births registered under surname Pollyblank.

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You have not given parents names, so we don't know which family in particular you are looking at. Anyway, different families, but related.
Philip and Alice Hopley by 1911 census had 6 children (3 still alive and 3 dead), but I see problems with that. Other children born after 1911 census.