Genealogy Chat

me too.......

Thanks you lot!!! I always end up giving up, each time I come back to this..... I suppose I should fork out for the Staines birth cert. Trouble is, I'm sure I will still be left wondering!! Still, what's £7??? (lol) I have spent all day making up a fat envelope to send to a lady who is a third cousin and who is just beginning her tree. I have a lock of her grandfather's hair (snipped 21st Feb 1865 - I think it was snipped on the day he was born.......amazing!!!!). Who said my family were hoarders????????????? LOL Merry x

your welcome Merry just lets hope we all find it some where Helen

Only gone Google-eyed over it!! M x

Nudeing up, Ready willing and ale to look for a little while. Helen

Morning Merry, could he away , like in the army , or the navy. Which would eplain why we car'nt find him Helen

I could accept that the guy who died in 1891 and is in hospital on that census, could have been in the army or similar for 1881 aged 26 and maybe even at 16 as well, but I'm finding it hard to believe he had already vanished aged 6!! Maybe when they took the details for his family in 1861, they just missed him off??? My own chap appears beautifully on all the censuses up to and including 1881. If the 1891 guy isn't him in disguise, then what happened to my chap?? He doesn't seem to have died, but maybe he shot off to Australia????? It is telling that my chap's wife does seem to have been abandoned in 1891 when she is living as a housekeeper. She says she is married (she had no reason to hide this fact) but a year later, when pregnant by her employer, she is miraculously a widow!! The family rumour was that her second husband (my g-grandfather) would have been oblivious to any ''bending of the truth'' suggesting that he thought he had employed a widow........but I bet he filled in the 1891 census form and so was not as innocent as I previously believed!! Merry

Nudge. Merry likes to be on page 1 you know!! Victoria

Another merry little nudge .... Jane x

Hi Merry, Well we are all still here! The John born Staines married aged 30, I 'm sure that somewhere in the back of my mind someone told me you had to be 30 to marry in the forces but not sure what years it applied to, I was helping them search in Windsor at the time and her chap married earlier, so I think it was the army. I have also been helping a friend with local searches in Hounslow, his rellie had a child born 1871 in India, the father wasn't in the services either, but I wonder as they were local to the barracks if they took farmers and their children to work the land abroad, could explain why John , the Staines one is missing in 1861 as a small child. I know it's a long shot but have we checked the prisons for your John in 1891? I have found one of mine that way, well at least I'm pretty sure he is. Amanda

There was one rellie I was tearing my hair out trying to find on several consecutive censuses, and it turned out he went to live in France for a few decades, then returned to England. Then there are the ones who insist on being known by a completely different first name from the ones they were given at birth, so that on the census you can only identify them by the people they are with! So he might fall into one of those categories.... If I remember correctly, you have found birth registrations for two different Johns, so there must have been two of them to start with. Are there also two death registrations, or just the one? No, never mind, I've read the thread properly now. I suppose what I am trying to say is, have you searched all through from 1855 or whenever it was onwards for the 'other' death? Kate.

Re death reg's..... I have looked up to 1920 for the death of John Leslie Gosden, but he doesn't show. I have not yet searched after this. I have also investigated two deaths in Australia for men called John Gosden, right age.....neither were him (because neither originated from England). That's certainly an idea about barracks etc. Re Prisons:I have looked at the census for an entry with just initials - no joy..... Suppose I could find out if the father of my John G left a will and who he left his money to, or if his son gets a mention........... Oh......which to do first????? Aaagggghhhhhhhh!! Oh....I've just remembered......I couldn't find a death for John Gosden, the father of my bloke!! (he is being awkward in 1891 and 1901, if he's alive then) The mum, Mary Elizabeth Gosden died in 1890 aged 58. He is supposed to be round about the same age....... Oh....**** Maybe father and son both went abroad?? Why do all these people who are not even my blood relatives have to cause so much hassle????? Why can't they just behave themselves? Merry

Hi Merry, We could well be doing someone else's family here!! I have checked Hanworth 1861 on disc, I knew something was bothering me, under Middx 1861 Hanworth is listed. Hanworth and Hounslow are so close together but different reg districts, as they probably are still now, cross the road and you are in a different borough. The only Henry Gosden I could find is the same one as Nell, but there is a gap for another child if he wasn't living with his father, mind you some of it is so bad on the CD image I wouldn't like to say for sure that John (Staines) isn't there with his family. (I have a rellie who married in 1879 and named his father, he just didn't mention his father died in 1846) Then I found this in 1861 on Ancestry, Mary Gosden b Hanworth abt 1857 living Surrey with grandparents. If she is John (Staines) sister, looks like the parents were either away or had died and the children were separated? Still can't find John (Staines) in 1861, unless by some unknown chance he is the one on a vessel in yorkshire b 1855, all other details are with a ??? mark. Amanda

Thanks for all these replies!! I can tell everyone is really getting to grips with this........ Time for positive action. When I am flush I am going to get the death cert for John Leslie Gosden's mother in 1890 and see who registered the death. If it's her son (unlikely I think!!) then eureka, as he really is unlikely to be married to Alice and coming home to mum as well......If it's dad, then at least I know he is still alive and in the country. Secondly, get the marriage cert for their daughter (that's the dau of John Leslie Gosden and my g-grandmother). I doubt this will help....she didn't marry until she was in her mid-40's, so it's years after all these events........but even if it doesn't tell me anything, at least it's a cert for someone in my own family!! If kids are asleep I can go and see how much dosh they have in the piggy banks......... Now...where did I put my screwdriver??????? Merry

Hi Merry, A nudge, and please let us know what the certs reveal, meanwhile can we help anymore with your search? Just needing another clue for the families! Amanda

Raiding piggy banks Merry, shame on you. But hurry up and order cert ,we wont tell where you get the money from. Helen

Certs ordered (2)......will let you know.......... Merry

ok will watch the board helen

Don't blink then.....it'll be a few days!! LOL Thank you all for your interest.....! I promise to post the results.....(despatch date 3rd Feb) Merry

your welcome merry its been fun looking for your rellies, you got any more like that , yours are more intresting then mine Helen