Genealogy Chat

Hi all
I am trying to find anything on my husbands father. On my husbands birth certificate his father is listed as JOSEPH HAROLD NEWMAN, and we have his death certificate which states his age as 63 when he died in 1961. My husband was very young when his father died and has no memories, his mother died in 1980 and we have just started to research the families during the last year. We can find no record of his fathers birth using these names. Now to the confusing bit - We have only one posession of his fathers which is a very ornately engraved ring. We had always presumed these were his initials on he ring as you can make out see the J H and N but on closer inspection the initials are actually J H N W all very curly and elaborate but nevertheless when looked at under a magnifying glass we clearly have 4 initials . All we can presume is that the last name was dropped at some point in his life - we can also find no record of my husbands mothers marriage to a NEWMAN so up till now have presumed that there was no marriage,. Anyway to cut a very long story short I have absolutley no idea what the correct surname should be only that it probably begins with W - where would I go from here?? If anyone has any suggestions I would be grateful. Mandy

what was his mothers name please?
vivienne

Amanda, what area would he have been born.
Is it possible that he was registered in his mothers maiden name.

Amanda, I am subscribed to family relatives which have BMDs transcribed from 1866 to 1920
I have done a birth search on first name Joseph Harold in 1898 and it came up with 84
Out of those there are 11 with the surname initial W

Wow - thanks to all of you that have replied, my husbands mothers name was WHITE so we know that my husband was registered in his fathers name, we have no idea where he was born although my husband has a vague feeling that birmingham features somewhere in the mix but it is only a vague feeling, my husbands sister was born in 1942 and spent most of her time away at school so as you can guess it wasn't a close family - she left home at 16 so also remembers nothing of any use. However she is also registered under the name NEWMAN so whatever the W was it was dropped by then. - why would they drop the surname just like that? was there a reason. Other than obtaining the birth certificates for those names kindly provided by jonesey is there any way of verifying the N initial as well?
Mandy

mandy
may i have miss whites first name as well please?
also the eldest childs year of birth so i can try loking for the marriage for you
vivienne

Her full name was MARGARET ELIZABETH KATE WHITE
Best wishes
Mandy

Sorry forgot to add
Eldest child Margaret Diane White born August 1942

That should be MARGARET DIANE NEWMAN - I am confusing myself now!!

now ancestry has frozen on me, again ,will carry on in a while and get back to you,did you search the years quarter by quarter?
vivienne

My husbands mother was MARGARET ELIZABETH KATE WHITE born in 28 April 1920 so this one cant be her. I have searched th indexes manually quarter by quarter and I am unabe to find any marriage record I can only come to one of two conclusions, firstly that the information on the birth certificates where it names the mother as Margaret Newman (formerly WHITE) the informant was the father JOSEPH HAROLD NEWMAN on both was false or that the marriage was in the surname of whatever the W stands for? I still cant understand why they would have dropped the last name though?
Mandy

the last name well have been a german sounding name and the war was on and they would have had a lot of unpleasantries if that were the case
joseph harold newman w may also have been born in say germany or somewhere,is that a possibility?
also have been through marriages from 1942 back to 36 looking just for WHITE, margaret e k,nothing.
there is the possibility that they may have married abroad in say germany if your m.i.l was in any of the sevices,thats what my oh,s parents did
not been much help,sorry
vivienne

Perhaps the W on the ring stood for WHITE.

If Joseph was the informant at the birth registration, the registrar would probably not question whether in fact he WAS married.
Perhaps the child was sometimes known as NEWMAN WHITE.
Maybe they did in fact marry later and the WHITE was dropped, or perhaps it was just easier to use the one surname.

Gwyn

Thank you for all your time and trouble! it is perfectly possible that he may have been born in Germany or indeed anywhere for that matter, but the theory that they may have dropped the name as it sounded German during the war seems perfectly plausible, where else can I search?

The possibility that they never married because Joseph was already married has crossed my mind more than once I will admit! That also opens up the possibility that there could be some half siblings out there somewhere? Also someone (Gwyn) suggested that the W may be for White , which is also perfectly plausible - Thank you all for your suggestions - they are giving me something to think about now - keep them coming!

England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index: 1837-1983
about Margaret E K White
Name: Margaret E K White
Year of Registration: 1920
Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun
Mother's Maiden Name: Neale
District: Wheatenhurst
County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 6a
Page: 748 (click to see others on page)

Is this her birth?

Snap Helen I am just trying to find a White/Neale marriage. I found other White/Neale births in Stroud. Still checking .

Jenny

Surname First name(s) Mother District Vol Page

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Births Sep 1912 (>99%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

White Edith F Neale Wheatenhurst 6a 594

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Births Jun 1920 (>99%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

White Margaret E K Neale Wheatenhurst 6a 748

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Births Mar 1929 (>99%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

White Beatrice D A

Do the hallmarks on the ring yield any clues? Are they British?

Rose

I have found the marriage for a Florence Neale to a John Lewis White June Q 1892.

I am now looking for them on the 1901 census. I know its a long shot, but there may just be a Joseph Harold Newman W? living in the same area.

Gosh , its like a Sad Little Tale all over again.

Jenny