Hello
This is a rather long message - apologies in advance, but I'm trying to make sure I cover everything up to now. If anyone has any idea where to go with this, I'd be really grateful
So I'm looking for my grandmother, Margaret Jones’ birth record. She found out later on in her life that the father she grew up with and had the surname of, was not her birth father. The man she grew up with was called Reginald Wyndham Jones (born in Hull 01/05/1905).
Margaret grew up as Margaret Jones in Portsmouth and was apparently born in Hull 31/12/1923. She died in 1985 in Portsmouth.
Her mother was called Hilda Hardwick and was born 08/05/1902 in Worcester (I have her birth certificate and death certificate). In the 1939 census, Reginald, Hilda and Margaret were living in Portsmouth. Margaret then married my french grandfather Roger Feat in 1945 in Portsmouth. Reginald is on their marriage certificate as the father. She divorced my grandfather and later remarried to a man called Fred Thorne (so she died Margaret Thorne, I have her death cert).
There is no birth record of Margaret Jones or Margaret Hardwick born in Hull 31/12/1923. Or anywhere in England, for that matter.
My family have no idea of the details around Margaret's birth father and her birth.
The birth father's surname may be on Margaret's birth certificate. Margaret had no middle name - but there is always the possibility that there could be a different christian name on her birth record.
If Margaret was born as an illegitimate child, I'm guessing the birth might have been kept very hush hush. There was a move from Worcester to Hull at some point before Margaret's birth. I think Hilda's father died while she was pregnant with Margaret and her mum died when she was 11. Hilda was the youngest of 12 children. Margaret was Hilda’s only child.
Hilda’s DOB on the 1939 register is wrong by one year. I think I have eventually found her marriage to Reginald though, with Reginald using the surname Sollars. I was advised to order the marriage certificate of the entry I found if it showed Reginald’s father as George. It was and the certificate was sent to me. It certainly looks like them, with Hilda calling herself 20 years old there instead of 22. I think at the time they married they had a lot to hide. I’m baffled at why Reginald would use a different surname though.
Hilda and Reginald’s marriage certificate info:
1925. Marriage solemnised at the Parish Church in the Parish of St Paul, Sculcoates in the County of Kingston upon Hull
Column no. 174 (or 194)
Date: February 9th (I think 9th, writing is scruffy) 1925.
Name and Surname: Reginald Wyndham Sollars. Age 19. Bachelor. Rank or profession - Pattern Maker. Residence at the time of Marriage: 6, Reed Street. Father’s name and surname: George Edward Sollars. Rank or profession of Father: Marine Engineer.
Name and Surname: Hilda Hardwick. Age 20. Spinster. No rank/prefession. Residence at the time of Marriage: 6, Reed Street. Father’s name and surname: William Henry Hardwick. Rank or profession of Father: Deceased.
This marriage was solemnised between us, Reginald Wyndham Sollars / Hilda Hardwick. In the presence of us, Thomas Frederick Barton/ Kate Annie (unreadable surname)
Hilda’s father is indeed William Henry Hardwick and I had previously found a record of what looks like his death in 1923 (just before or during Hilda’s pregnancy with Margaret), which fits with it saying deceased on the certificate.
Reginald’s father, George Jones’s profession in the 1911 census is Marine Stoker (Marine Engineer on this certificate)
They were obviously living ‘in sin’ before their marriage (they have the same address)
Census/electoral roll-wise, I think Reginald Wyndham Jones seems to be in the following entries:
1911 census.
10 Henry Terrace West Parade, Holy Trinity, Hull, Yorkshire
George Jones 48
Margaret Jones 34
William Jones 7
Wyndham Jones 5
1927 electoral roll.
21, Caroline Place, Hull, Yorkshire
Emily Dixon
John Crowley
James Witting
Annie Witting
Whyndham Reginald Jones
1929 electoral roll.
21, Caroline Place, Hull, Yorkshire
Emily Dixon
John Crowley
Whyndham Reginald Jones
Hilda Jones
1930 electoral roll.
21, Caroline Place, Hull, Yorkshire
Emily Dixon
John Crowley
Whyndham Reginald Jones
Hilda Jones
1931 electoral roll.
24, Saint Luke’s Street, Hull, Yorkshire
George Jones
Margaret Jones
William Arthur Jones
Reginald Wyndham Jones
Hilda Jones
I have checked with the GRO for adoption records in case Reginald adopted Margaret with no results, but records only started after 1927 anyway. I called the GRO and checked Margaret Sedgwick and Margaret Clark in Yorkshire whose mother’s name was Hardwick. No results for the DOB as 31/12/1923.
Does anyone have any idea how to find my grandmother, Margaret? I have reached a mega brick wall!!!!