Sometimes in working on a family tree you inevitably come across a false trail. This first occurred when my mother gave me the incorrect name of her mother’s father. At that time it was more time consuming to get certificates and when my grandmother’s birth certificate arrived – surprise, surprise – a different father! A minor set back but new research got me on the right track. That’s when I knew i had to get the three key certificates – birth, marriage and death.
But sometimes even that does not help. A spanner could get tossed in the roots of your family tree which is what happened with my grandfather – John Henry Green. There was a number of coincidences that came with John’s story.
My original history had John Henry, born to Thomas and Eliza Green in 1866. This was confirmed with the birth certificate. I was able to follow John’s life through the census returns to 1894 when Johnny married Ellen Ethel White. The marriage certificate confirmed that John Henry, who’s father was Thomas married Ellen Ethel White. Good so far. A minor difference – Thomas was listed as a railway worker and by the time of the marriage Thomas was working as a farm bailiff but he had been a railway worker.
For the marriage certificates of his daughters, John Henry was there as a railway ticket inspector. Then, for the marriage of his youngest daughter he was going by Henry John??? The 1939 registration also listed him as Henry John but the rest of the family was listed and correct. The register shows Henry john as being born in 1866.
I had been working on trying to find that third certificate – the death certificate. Through electoral registers Henry John was listed as 54 Woodstock Road up until 1950 but then he disappeared in 1951. Time to expand my search for John Henry/Henry John and a likely candidate was Henry J M Green who died in 1950.
When I received the death certificate for a Henry John Mantell Green my tree branch started to shake. Henry lived at 54 Woodstock Road. The informant was C.H. Green, his son and my great uncle was Cyril Henry Green. To cap it off, Henry was a retired railway inspector.
The chainsaw was warming up.
Mantell sounded like a surname, usually on the mother’s side and there was a birth registration for Henry John Mantell Green and when I tracked that down, his father was Thomas Green – a railway employee. And Thomas Green married Mary Elizabeth Mantell. The chainsaw is ready.
As an added twist, poor Mary died in ’69 when Henry was three years old and like so many of my other relatives, Thomas then married another Mary.
Henry John Mantell Green went by John Henry from 1881 through to 1932 and then changed back to Henry John. It appears to be around the time he retired from the railway.
[deep sigh] so, once again a certificate leads me down a different rabbit hole. The marriage certificate I have for John and Ellen is good but having a John Henry who worked for the railway whose father was Thomas and a Henry John who worked for the railway whose father was Thomas is comletely unacceptable. However, paper chips start flying as I cut John Henry and his ancestors free and I graft Henry John and his ancestors on my tree.
Lesson here – much as we do not like making or acknowledging mistakes in our work, it happens. Recognise and correct the mistake aand keep on going!
If you have any questions or need help drop me a line at cormorant_art@yahoo.ca or leave a message on this blog.
Cheerio for now.
Across the Pond 