Anyone bored?

[HarrysMum]

If anyone wants to look for a birth/ baptism for Joseph Wilks around 1815ish.

He had a younger brother, William. No idea how much younger. Mother was supposed to be Mary, a straw bonnet maker.

They were from St Philip and St Jacob. Only one I know is Bristol, but could be others.

[Merry]

It would be helpful to know what happened to either of the brothers and how you have the info above. eg if they went to Australia there's no point in my looking on the UK census etc.

[Merry]

This William has wife Caroline here:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/8860/images/GLSHO107_1954_1954-1123?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.95598740.929782837.1599676883-862782618.1572732679&pId=7584721

but I think the mother of most of the children was Frances (not confirmed mmn yet). Frances may have died in 1849, but I can't see a second marriage (or a first yet!). Note there is a son Joseph.

[Merry]

I don't associate straw bonnet making with Bristol at all, but I suppose there were some! More of an east of England occupation.

[Merry]

There are trees with these people. Some have linked an 1841 marriage at Bedminster, but the Bride's name is Fanny Rankmore when the GRO index for the daughter b before that marriage (in 1838) has the mmn as Lewis, so would need further looking at!

[Merry]

The tree I'm looking at (first one!) has a brother Joseph for William. Joseph emigrated so that ooks like the people you are after. However, they have no baps for the two brothers and the parents names could have originated from the info on that 1841 "wrong" marriage cert (which has father William Wilkes, Labourer). I need to look more closely at the registrations for the children to see if Rankmore comes up anywhere.

[Merry]

The 1851 census shows these children for William:

Frances 12
Joseph 10
Louisa 7
William 3
?? 4 (female)
Florence 1m

And these fit:

WILKS, FRANCES mmn LEWIS
GRO Reference: 1839 S Quarter in THE CLIFTON UNION Volume 11 Page 261

WILKES, JOSEPH mmn WRENTMORE
GRO Reference: 1841 S Quarter in THE CLIFTON UNION Volume 11 Page 288

WILKES, LOUISA mmn LEWIS
GRO Reference: 1844 M Quarter in THE CLIFTON UNION Volume 11 Page 329

WILKES, WILLIAM HENRY mmn WRENTMORE
GRO Reference: 1848 D Quarter in THE CLIFTON UNION Volume 11 Page 291


WILKES, MARY ANN mmn WRINKMORE
GRO Reference: 1846 S Quarter in THE CLIFTON UNION Volume 11 Page 306

WILKS, FLORENCE CATHERINE NEALE WILSON mmn DEAR
GRO Reference: 1851 M Quarter in CLIFTON Volume 11 Page 326

So, further investigation needed to eliminate the Lewis children if possible.

There's a bap for Louisa which has her parents as William and Fanny, so there are either a lot of coincidences or something dodgy is happening! lol

[Merry]

I didn't look for other children above, only the ones on the census so far.

Possible baps for those children:

Frances Wilks
b abt 1839 4 Aug 1839 St Philip & Jacob, Gloucestershire William,
Frances Address Jacob St, father labourer

Joseph Wilks
abt 1841 12 Sep 1841 St Philip & Jacob, Gloucestershire William,
Fanny Address Lamb St, father labourer.

Louisa Wilkes
abt 1844 3 Mar 1844 St Philip & Jacob, Gloucestershire William,
Fanny Address Lamb St, father labourer

William Henry Wilks
abt 1848 19 Nov 1848 St Philip & Jacob, Gloucestershire William,
Fanny Address St George's St, father labourer

Mary Ann Wilks
1846 26 Jul 1846 St Philip and Jacob, Gloucestershire William,
Fanny Address Bread St, father labourer

There are no other baps for the children of Wil* and F*an* Wilk*s that I could see. No bap for the dau of Caroline either. (and no marriage to Caroline at the moment)

[Merry]

So, Louisa was bap from the same address as Joseph, yet she has a different mmn, but the same as the illegitimate (?) Frances b 1838.

[Merry]

The family at Lamb St in 1841:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/8978/images/GLSHO107_377_378-0205?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=85af09ea95b4c098316f2d721d844196&usePUB=true&_phsrc=WEQ9006&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=2217273

[Merry]

So, William's mother Mary, also emigrated in 1855 (the tree says straw bonnet maker on a doc re the emigration), so she should be on the 1851 census?

[HarrysMum]

Sorry Merry. I should have said Joseph came to Australia in 1832 as a convict and his brother as a free settled a little while later. I really know very little else. Just helping someone going through convict files.

[Merry]

The tree has this for the second marriage:

Marriage
13 Jan 1850 • St. Marys Catholic Church in Bristol, William aged 31, a widower of Folly Lane St Philip & St Jacob, son of William Wilks who was also a labourer. Caroline Wilson Stanton aged 24, a widow, living at the same place as William
Vol 11 page 212

Caroline Wilson DEARE
(1824–1885)

There's a GRO ref for this that I missed the first time round.

[Merry]

Sorry Merry. I should have said Joseph came to Australia in 1832 as a convict and his brother as a free settled a little while later. I really know very little else. Just helping someone going through convict files.

It would be helpful if anyone knows any reported ages for Mary Wilks after she arrived in 1855 (and if 1855 is correct).

[kiterunner]

Maybe they were baptised at the same place and time as my 3xg-grandmother Ann Sage who was supposedly born in the parish of St Philip and St Jacob around 1815. I have never managed to find her baptism although there are some for some of her siblings.

[Macbev]

Have you seen this article Libby?
http://www.tasmanianwarcasualties.com/gravesofts%20split/Our%20Family/Convicts/Wilks%20Joseph.htm


it seems others have found the Bristol records hard to access.

[kiterunner]

But that would have been before the parish registers and censuses went online, though.