Is he the dad?

[BlueSavannah]

Hi,

I am currently looking at the life of William Edward Fletcher born 1872 in Heanor, Derbyshire. He married Elizabeth Gray in Mosborough, Derbyshire in 1892 and they are living there in 1901 at 6 Duke Street Court with their daughter Ethel.

2 doors away is a widow named Eliza Wallace who was with her 2 sons Edward & William. A 1900 snippet in a local newspaper stated that Eliza had admitted to stealing coal with William & Elizabeth.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/7814/images/DBYRG13_3257_3258-0645?pId=19273510

Elizabeth Fletcher died aged 38 in August 1907 in Heanor. William was present and registered the death.

In 1911, widowed William is boarding at the home of Eliza Wallace, now in Chesterfield. She is again with 2 sons, William from the previous census but a 7 year old son named...Fletcher Wallace! I purchased the birth certificate (Nov 1903) for this child and there is no father named. Nor is any father named on the baptism entry for him.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2352/images/rg14_21085_0117_03?pId=5722220

I am looking for any opinions on whether I should, or should not, assume that Fletcher was fathered by William Fletcher whilst his wife was still alive?

Eliza Wallace died in 1918 and on the 1921 census, Fletcher and his older brother Edward are living at the 1911 address but William Fletcher is not there. The head of the household on this census appears to be Eliza's younger brother and his family. William is elsewhere in 1921 and has a widowed woman doing housekeeping for him.

What are anyone elses thoughts on this?

Thank you, Claire

[kiterunner]

Maybe Eliza was a relative or friend of the Fletcher family, so Fletcher could be named after the surname Fletcher without William Fletcher being his father. So I don't think you can assume that William was Fletcher's father without some evidence.

[BlueSavannah]

Thank you Kite. I can't find any previous link to Eliza but you're right in that they could have been family friends etc.

I will file Fletcher Wallace for now just in case any proof comes further down the line somehow :)

Claire

[Phoenix]

What did his wife die of?

One of my great uncles was having it off with the woman who would become his second wife while she was nursing his first wife.

But without DNA, it's all supposition

[Merry]

William is elsewhere in 1921 and has a widowed woman doing housekeeping for him.

He married Hannah Headley in 1927, two years before his death.

[BlueSavannah]

Good Morning Phoenix & Merry,

His wife Elizabeth died aged 38 of Chronic Nephritis & Cerebral Apoplexy.

I hadn't realised he'd married Hannah in 1927. I saw he'd died in 1929 and that's a certificate I am going to purchase today. I might have to get that marriage certificate to see about his father's name. He's supposedly the son of Eli Irons according to a bastardy case, but even though that was written on his first marriage, the vicar had crossed it out.