Find Ancestors

John Thomas As children, my sisters and I were led to believe that my Grandfather John Thomas was the father of 30 children, 19 by his first wife and 11 by his second. My mother, Eliza Jane, was supposed to have been the last of these. He was also reputed to have been around the world as a cabin boy or the like by the time he was 12 years of age. When my wife and I began to research my family tree I came to believe that neither of these claims was true. According to our researches, he was born in North Benfleet in 1857. In 1861 he was living with his parents and other children in Runwell in Essex. In 1871 he was living in Barling in Essex aged 13 with his Mother and Step Father and various other children. In 1881 he was shown as the Mate of a Thames barge, registered in Rochester in Kent aged 23 and married. We discovered his wife, Annie Elizabeth, aged 19 living in Borden in Kent. From the information given in that Census we were able to discover that he had married her in the Medway Register Office in June 1880. We traced the baptisms of seven children of that marriage when he was described as a Labourer. The last one was registered in 1889 and baptised in 1890. Then in 1891 we were unable to find an entry relating to him but his wife was shown as living as the housekeeper to a widower named Grimes with one child and her own seven children. In 1892 and 1895 further children were baptised in the name of Thomas but with the father’s given names being those of Grimes. In 1897 a further child was baptised in the name of Grimes. Annie Elizabeth died in 1899 and my Grandfather was shown on her death Certificate as being present at the death. In the 1901 Census he appears as a 43 yr old Waterman and Barge labourer, a widower with five children of his own and three adopted children whose names agree with the Grimes/Thomas/Grimes children. They were living in Grays in Essex. Given that he had fathered seven and adopted three, what happened to the other nine? We have searched the baptismal records of several neighbouring churches and have found no more. In 1902, described as a Mariner, he married my Grandmother, Eliza Jane, from his address in Grays and her address was given as the house next door. She had a son aged 7 at the time of the marriage. Despite searching various Baptismal records we have only found six children including my mother registered and baptised between 1903 and 1914. Their names were familiar from stories of my mother’s and Aunt’s childhoods and they each appear in the Register of the Catholic School in Tilbury where the family was living when my mother was born I cannot remember either of them referring to members of the first family by name though they did mention their mother’s child. Given that John had six children by this marriage and adopted one, what happened to the other four? He died in 1935 when I was aged 6 months. As my mother died in 1960 and my Aunt, the only one of the family I knew, died in 1977 I fear that I am never going to get to the bottom of these mysteries, unless there is someone out there who can help me. Although all of my known Uncles and Aunts are also dead, there must be other descendants like me, one or more of whom will recognise the details I have given, omitting the names of children for lack of space. I will be delighted to hear from anyone who can help or indeed needs any help I can give. J.W.R. Hopkins.