Michael
22-05-17, 17:15
I've been going back over my notes recently, trying to fill in dates/places which I've previously been missing, and have realised that I don't have the GRO entry for my 2g-grandfather James Norman.
He died at 6 Pleasant Street, Swansea, on 11th July 1900; age on death certificate 48. The ages he gives on censuses vary slightly (9 in 1861; 17 in 1871; 30 in 1881) but all give a DOB sometime around 1852 give or take a year or two. All give Swansea as the place. His parents were Robert Norman and Catherine (formerly Griffith or Griffiths).
This is the family in 1861 at 18 Back Street, Swansea:
Robert Norman, head, married, 48, mariner, Exeter Devon
Catherine Norman, wife, married, 47, mariner's wife, Fishguard Pembroke
Edwin Norman, son, 12, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
Sarah Norman, daughter, 11, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
James Norman, son, 9, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
Robert Norman, son, 5, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
I can't find any entry which could be James, either in the GRO's own index or on Ancestry. I wondered if it might have been omitted from the national register but would appear in the local one, so I applied to Swansea RO for the cert - they sent me the only one they could find with the right parents' names, but that was on 26th August 1838: that isn't the same James, but his brother who died in 1842 (death reg Q1, Swansea, v26 p375).
I haven't found birth entries for Edwin or Sarah either (Robert is there, Swansea 1855), nor found the family on the 1851 census. Given that Robert senior was a mariner, I wondered if he might have gone to sea for a time, and some of the children been born abroad? I can't think of any other explanation.
He died at 6 Pleasant Street, Swansea, on 11th July 1900; age on death certificate 48. The ages he gives on censuses vary slightly (9 in 1861; 17 in 1871; 30 in 1881) but all give a DOB sometime around 1852 give or take a year or two. All give Swansea as the place. His parents were Robert Norman and Catherine (formerly Griffith or Griffiths).
This is the family in 1861 at 18 Back Street, Swansea:
Robert Norman, head, married, 48, mariner, Exeter Devon
Catherine Norman, wife, married, 47, mariner's wife, Fishguard Pembroke
Edwin Norman, son, 12, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
Sarah Norman, daughter, 11, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
James Norman, son, 9, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
Robert Norman, son, 5, scholar, Swansea Glamorgan
I can't find any entry which could be James, either in the GRO's own index or on Ancestry. I wondered if it might have been omitted from the national register but would appear in the local one, so I applied to Swansea RO for the cert - they sent me the only one they could find with the right parents' names, but that was on 26th August 1838: that isn't the same James, but his brother who died in 1842 (death reg Q1, Swansea, v26 p375).
I haven't found birth entries for Edwin or Sarah either (Robert is there, Swansea 1855), nor found the family on the 1851 census. Given that Robert senior was a mariner, I wondered if he might have gone to sea for a time, and some of the children been born abroad? I can't think of any other explanation.