COMPLETED William R.O. HEATH baptism - mistake/Brickwall?

[AndrewA]

Not sure if this should be in the brick wall forum, I might be just making a newbie mistake. Anyway, I am trying to find the parents and any siblings of my Great Great Grandfather, William R. O. HEATH born about 1821 in Stoke-Next-Guildford Surrey. Obviously working backwards through census data I find him living a ripe old 80+ years old along with his wife Elizabeth in 1901 census, staying at his daughters and son in laws home, there is also the following death entry, relatives are living in Islington but it might not be the same person as you will soon see why!

England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index: 1837-1915 about William Robert O Heath
Name: William Robert O Heath
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1820
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1906
Age at Death: 86
Registration district: Islington
Inferred County: London
Volume: 1b
Page: 13

THE 1891 census is the only time his middle initials R.O. is listed. through the numerous census he lists several variations of his place of birth, Guildford Surrey, Stoke Surrey, Stoke-Guildford-Surrey. Back to 1851 no problems. However now the fun and games begin.

1841 censu, I am not too concerned about 1841 census data at this point,s shows several William HEATH , one transcribed incorrectly as HATH, which incidental is most likely candidate, living with his family in Tooting Graveney , what is important is his birth and baptism entry, which is a complete mystery and obviously needed to confirm parents name to continue with the 1941 census data.

I have made countless searches using different parameters and variations, but can not find a birth or baptism for a William HEATH or a William born to a HEATH in the whole of Surrey for the years 1820 and 1821. However 18th Feb 1819 we have an entry in the parish of Stoke-next-Guildford, William Robert, illegitimate son of John OTTAWAY and Hannah HEATH

Question is, is this my Great Great Grandfather? However, the year does not match his age, also searching through census"™ for Hannah , there is separate census records of a Hannah and her son William living together, with his age etc matching the Illegitimate birth, when my Great Great Grandfather was already with a family of his own, , but is this just a smoke screen and there is another Hannah and William who I have not found? The R O is almost too much of a coincidence.

Could my William just kept his birth-fathers surname as his middle name and just adopted his mothers name? was his mother already married? Did she move off in disgrace? Is there any reason to lie about the babies age which WIlliam grew up beleiving? Another tantalising bit of info is that in 1901 he actually gives his age as 81, not 80, is this just a case of his son in law getting his age wrong, or was he really hiding his true age all these years to distance himself from the damning baptism entry?

Then there is the death entry again, William Robert O HEATH, born about 1820, that would also put this in line for the illegitimate child, this of course could be the illegitimate child and have nothing to do with my William HEATH.

Then there is another willam born in 1822"¦..

I must be missing a piece of the puzzle. Any ideas how to proceed with this?! I am just going around in ciricles and tearing my hair out!

Thanks in advance.

[SRD]

Firstly I think you can probably discount the illegitimate William Robert because of the census evidence of both existing with their respective families but you could try tracking William Robert a bit further just to make sure.

You haven't mentioned any occupations/trades etc. which might help. These can sometimes be used to discount or confirm links. It might also help in placing people, for instance there was a major walking stick manufacturer, whose offices were in London with shops in London & Brighton, but he had most of his stock prepared in the Surrey heathlands near Dorking, so many of the trades associated with walking stick making can be found in the Dorking area.

[MarkCDodd]

This bloke might have taken is father's name as his middle name later in life.

Name: William Thomas Heath
Record Type: Baptism
Baptism Date: 13 Sep 1818
Father's Name: Robert Heath
Mother's Name: Rebecca Heath
Parish or Poor Law Union: Poplar All Saints
Borough: Tower Hamlets
Register Type: Parish Registers

Born 4th July. Residence is Poplar. Father's is a Chainmaker.

[gardener]

Hi
Do you know Elizabeth's maiden name from the birth certificate of one of their children? With that you could perhaps find a marriage entry and get William's father's name/occupation. That might help track him down.

[AndrewA]

Thank you everyone. SRD, its a bit of a nightmare still trying to draw conclusive facts from educated guess work and probability, I am still clinging on to the illigitimate possibility as my Williams age has a one year discrepancy ove a couple of census, if he really did lie bout age or just got it wrong, then his older age would tie in with the illigeitimate birth. Although I have found Williams living with respective families in 1841, again no proof that these are the same people etc.


AS for proffession, William is a Hawker, the 1851 census has him something to do with China, possibly selling it, I cant decipher the scribble at moment. This could also explain why he has ended up in Chichester , not that far from Guildford, but if he is a Hawker, then that would account for his movement.

Now on to good part, I can almost say for certain that I have found the marriage entry, certificate ordered today, hopefully it will be more than just "of age" etc, Elizabeth was born in Chichester and is living there as a married woman, therefore it is more than likely she was married there as well. Cut a long story short, there is a William HEATH marrying an Elizabeth SINCLAIR in Chichester in 1850. This date is also nice, as in 1851 my William and Elizabeth have a 7 month old child. These are the only two returns from Volume 7 and page 409, so has to be these two;.

In the 41 census there is an Elizabeth SINCLAIR age 15, but she is living in Portsmouth , but not with other SINCLAIRs, I was rather concerned about lack of this family's presence, however there was a single woman old enough to be her mother living in in Chichester as a grocer, illegitimate maybe? Then I found a SINCLAIR family in Portsmouth, due to transcription error, rather encouragingly the head, james, was listed as being born in Chichester as well

[gardener]

That sounds hopeful. It would still be safest to have the birth certificates of one of William's kids, just to be sure of Elizabeth's maiden name.
Make sure you let us know how it turns out

[AndrewA]

That sounds hopeful. It would still be safest to have the birth certificates of one of William's kids, just to be sure of Elizabeth's maiden name.
Make sure you let us know how it turns out

The birth certificate for the youngest child Ernest Frederic HEATH b 12 Aug 1867 turned up today... its not what I expected. Elizabeth's maiden name is GORE. I have spent all this afternoon searching records in Ancestry and can not find any kind of marriage entry even remotely resembling Elizabeth Gore and William HEATH. I thought this would clear things up a bit, but its made it worse!

What is interesting is that Elizabeth is illiterate, she singed with an X, so could it be that the person entering records misunderstood her and misspelt her surname?

SO where do I go from here?

[AndrewA]

Well my brain finally clicked with the occupation for William , in 1851 he is listed as a Glass and China Dealer. There are 3 businesses dealing in Glass and China listed in the 1851 Post Office Directory, So aybe he was employed by one of these, or he just had a small market stall as in all other records he is listed as a Hawker.

Still no glimmer of hope with tracking down Elizabeth GORE. Do i throw another £10 away and get another birth certificate from another one of her children to make sure?

According to the census data, she was born in Chichester and did not move out of Chichester. however no GOREs to be found anywhere near Chichester. One set of GOREs in Worthing with an Elizabeth right age, but its stated she was not born in the county which is same county as Chichester.

There is also an Elizabeth living as a servant in London, but not much clue wise there.

Another family with an Elizabeth right age, father is a surgeon, but would such a family produce illiterate children, which my Elizabeth is.

ALL this is simply to find William HEATH's Parents and siblings. I guess this really is a brickwall

looks like a trip to West Sussex archive in Chichester is coming up this week

[AndrewA]

Where has the time GOne? seriously, its almost a year now... NO WAY.


Anyway, I keep on coming to the same conclusions, that this is indeed the illigitimate child of Robert OTTAWAY and Hannah HEATH

I just checked for what the 20th time, the parish records of St John the Evangelist of Stoke-Next-Guildford, along with the bishop transcripts and can not see another likely candidate for my WIlliam HEATH. The baptism records are for 1819, but Census entries all record WIlliam a couple of years younger, but so what I say. Could be that William got his birthday wrong, or his mother lied about his age as a child to protect herself maybe. Another interesting fact is that his daughter has listed him as a year old when he was staying with them.

We all know people lie about ages, I have been partly holding off due this age descrepancy, but the other evidence is overwhelming.

FIrst I have the evidence of William's middle initials, R O.



Marriage certificate details of his son, also WIlliam, show his middle name to be Robert.
Secondly here are the entries found of a WIlliam Robert born in the Stoke-Next-Guildford parish records. Again I point out that his biological fathers surname is OTTAWAY, is this what the O stands for?





William Robert Ottaway HEATH

I can not see it any other way.

[AndrewA]

I found an entry in the BMD list and ordered the certificate, and Yes my initial conclusions are now proved correct.

Certificate details:
Reg District ISLINGTON - Death in Upper Holloway.
Died 8th May 1906 20 Scholefield Road
Full name : William Robert Ottaway Heath.
Age : 86
Occupation : CHina and Glass Dealer
Cause of Death : Senectus (Old Age)
Informant : Alice Lock Daughter, Present at death
Registered : 9th May 1906

So yes, that ties in perfect, but somewhere along the line his real age has been lost, the Parish records, see previous post, quite clearly record him as being baptised in FEB 1819, but all through the census history he records his age as being 2 years younger, his daughter appears to have a better idea he was born a year earlier, but still not entirly accurate.

MAybe a case of not being good with maths. Maybe separated from mother at early age and as a child did not get his age right? Maybe a bit more digging will come up with a plausible explanation,

However for now, I have solved the mystery of William R O HEATH, that is he was an illegitimate child and took on his fathers name, OTTAWAY as his middle name.

[Antie Em]

Phewwwwww !!!!! Well Done

[AndrewA]

Thank You! Its great when something that seemed impossible comes to a positive conclusion.

Of course now there is a new challenge to find the right John Ottaway and Hannah Heath!

[Antie Em]

Good luck with that one :

[AndrewA]

Yes I have a feeling that this is where the road ends. However there are a couple of interesting entries in the 1841 census. There is a John OTTAWAY who is listed as being born and living in Woking which is listed on the Baptism records for William. Quite interestingly his eldest daughter living with him is called Hannah, which of course is Williams mother.

I Would like to think that William and Hannah actully liked each other, its rather interesting to see William being given the OTTAWAY surname as a middle name. Maybe a scandle? THere is an entry for magistrates court session at lent in 1819, just a few weeks after William was baptised, A certain John Ottaway was charged in posession of stolen goods, but was found not guilty.

My hunches nearly always prove correct, but we shall see.

[grangers14]

Is this to archive now Andrew?
Jo