Genealogy Forum UK

your always proberly going to have that nagging suspicion over it, may be after his mother died he had a falling out with his family and changed his name so he wouldnt be accociate with them, it wasnt to difficult to change your name then. ?

I guess you are right Peter, although it would be William's father, John, who changed his name as well as they are both listed as Harbron on the 1890 marriage certificate.

I'll follow the John Harper family line back and see where that leads, although I would like to find something which shows the change of name (although that 'something' probably doesn't exist).

I would appreciate other people's views / experience if they were in the same position.

Chris

As this was bugging me I decided to upload my GEDCOM file to Ancestry.co.uk to see what suggestions it came up (didn't realise it gave hints until a friend started using it to build his tree).

It came up with a suggestion of the following family from the 1871 census:-

John Harbron 27
Emma Harbron 26
William Harbron 4
Ann M Harbron 1

The birth year is about right, but the place of birth is shown as North Hill, Worcestershire, England in the parish of Bredicot which doesn't match the Bilston shown on the 1911 census.

On the 1881 census the family is shown as:-

John Edmund Harborne 37
Emma Harborne 36
William Thos. Harborne 14
Ann Maria Harborne 11
Sarah Jane Harborne 8
Harriatt Emma Harborne 6
George John Harborne 4
Francis Leo Harborne

This does cast a little doubt as the 1911 census shows William as being William P not William T, but that could be a transcription error maybe?

1891 census shows:-

John Harbron 47
Emma Harbron 46
George J Harbron 14
Francis L Harbron 10
Gertrude M Harbron 5

This fits with William having moved out to get married in 1890.

1901 sees them in Aston Manor

John Harbron 57
Emma Harbron 56
Gertrude Harbron 15
John Dunn 51 (lodger)

My gut feel is that this is more likely to be the family as it removes the change of location from Bilston to Worcester, but assuming that William was born in Bilston what were they doing there?

Thoughts and comments appreciated

Chris

ChrisR wrote:As this was bugging me I decided to upload my GEDCOM file to Ancestry.co.uk to see what suggestions it came up (didn't realise it gave hints until a friend started using it to build his tree).

It came up with a suggestion of the following family from the 1871 census:-

John Harbron 27
Emma Harbron 26
William Harbron 4
Ann M Harbron 1

The birth year is about right, but the place of birth is shown as North Hill, Worcestershire, England in the parish of Bredicot which doesn't match the Bilston shown on the 1911 census.

On the 1881 census the family is shown as:-

John Edmund Harborne 37
Emma Harborne 36
William Thos. Harborne 14
Ann Maria Harborne 11
Sarah Jane Harborne 8
Harriatt Emma Harborne 6
George John Harborne 4
Francis Leo Harborne

This does cast a little doubt as the 1911 census shows William as being William P not William T, but that could be a transcription error maybe?

1891 census shows:-

John Harbron 47
Emma Harbron 46
George J Harbron 14
Francis L Harbron 10
Gertrude M Harbron 5

This fits with William having moved out to get married in 1890.

1901 sees them in Aston Manor

John Harbron 57
Emma Harbron 56
Gertrude Harbron 15
John Dunn 51 (lodger)

My gut feel is that this is more likely to be the family as it removes the change of location from Bilston to Worcester, but assuming that William was born in Bilston what were they doing there?

Thoughts and comments appreciated

Chris

Just wondering what the occupations are stated as on these various census as that might help to confirm or otherwise.
My gut feeling is this looks better than the other lot

Hi Maths Girl,

The occupations for John Harbron are listed as follows:-

1871 - Ag. Labourer
1881 - Ag. Labourer
1891 - Plate Navy? (2nd word isn't clear, but the first word is Plate)
1901 - Ground Labourer

On the marriage certificate his occupation was listed as Ag Labourer

They do seem a 'better' fit with William as you say.

Chris

ChrisR wrote:1891 - Plate Navy? (2nd word isn't clear, but the first word is Plate)

Just wondering whether this could be "navvy" as in labourer on the railways - Plate was another name for the rails I think

I'm sure someone will put me right if there is something more obvious

A plate layer was to do with the rails, so it could be right.

Navy was my stab at what the word was - it could be a M at the start, but it definitely ends in a Y

From,

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/p.html

Platelayer. Laid and maintained railway tracks. The name predates railways, and is derived from the original "plateways" which existed hundreds of years ago, laid for coal mines.

Navvy / Navigator / Navor. Labourer on canals or railways, roads etc.

Thanks for that Jimmy.

I hadn't heard of the word Navor. I'll have another look at the scan and see if I can make out the word any better.

Chris

1891 census shows:-

John Harbron 47 Plate Navy
Emma Harbron 46
George J Harbron 14 N/H??ewtown, Worcestershire
Francis L Harbron 10
Gertrude M Harbron 5

I had a look at the original and the capital letter at the beginning of Navy is written in the same way as the capital at the beginning of George's birthplace which Ancestry transcribes as Hewtown - is there such a place or should it be Newtown in which case it would be Plate Navy.

there a newtown in worcester

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?source=s_ ... er&split=1

CCan this be archived Chris?
Jo