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Hi all
Please can someone help to advise how to proceed,as i have trawled through so many census records etc to try to find this man.

He is my stepmothers father, and I am trying to find a birth record for him, so I can try to find out about his family.

I have his marriage cert. 1920 in Elham,Kent he married Helen Impett b. 1900 kent. I have no idea where Thomas comes from other than kath(my stepmum) remembers being told that her mum and dad took it in turns to either one go to kent and the next for the mother to go to London! while they were courting.
On the marriage cert he is recorded as living 32 Royal Military Avenue, Cheriton?! and she at 89 Canterbury Road, Folkestone.

any ideas how to go about finding him please? I have looked on freebmd,ancestry etc but there are so many of them I am unable to see an obvious match !!!


Thankyou, cathy

The fathers & fathers' occupations on the marriage cert are?

This is the only Thomas George Matthews c1898 that comes up on freebmd search so far.

Births Jun 1898
MATTHEWS Thomas George Neath 11a 877

????

1901 Wales Census
Name: Thomas Matthews
Age in 1901: 4
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1897
Relation: Son
Father's Name: Enoch
Mother's Name: Elizabeth
Gender: Male
Where born: Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales
Civil Parish: Glyncorrwg
Ecclesiastical parish: Llangynwyd and Maesteg
Town: Abergwynfi
County/Island: Glamorgan
Country: Wales
Street address: 11 Gelty Cottages, Gelty Tce
Condition as to marriage:
Occupation:
Registration district: Neath
Sub registration district: Ystradvellte
ED, institution, or vessel: 10
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 272
Household Members:
Name Age
Enoch Matthews 28 - coal miner
Elizabeth Matthews 27
Rees Matthews 5
Thomas Matthews 4
Ann Matthews 7 months - Blaingmynf, Glamorgan

All except for Ann born Swansea.

Hi Ozibird
Thankyou for your help.
His father is also Thomas Matthews occupation Greengrocer (shopkeeper) Thomas George was 21 on marriage cert. so possible 1899 birth.

I have also learned he was in ww1 as he lied about his age because he was only 16 but told them he was 18.

Don`t think that can be him on the census you found.

regards cathy

No, certainly not! Back to the drawing board.

Ozi.

Have you got his WW1 record? It's on Ancestry.

Ozi.

Hi Ozibird
no i haven`t ...is it ?!! I will have to take a look thankyou although I never seem to be able to get any info whenever I have tried it for other relatives. Will try now though
regards cathy

Hi
I have been on ancestry and viewed the records and it gives his father as next of kin. The address given is: adams hill, St Buryan and I think its Cornwall, but very hard to read properly.

Will need to get some sleep now but will check in with you later .
thankyou
cathy

You might have found a different record. I'm sure the address for father was 32 Royal Military Avenue, Cheriton.

There were 12 pages. Thomas jnr was practically deaf & blind.

Is this the one you were looking at?

Ozi.

Yes, just checked, definitely Cheriton.

This link is the page with father's address, the 4th of 12.
http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=1114&path=M.Ma.Mat.13904

Ozi.

Hi Ozibird
thankyou.
I am sure the one you found is him, he was deaf as a result of shell fire etc according to my stepmother. I will go on ancestry and take a look now.
will check in with you a little later when I get hubby off to work
cathy

Goodo!

Could it be this one???

1901 England Census
about Thomas Matthews
Name: Thomas Matthews
Age: 2
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1899
Relation: Son
Father's Name: Thomas
Mother's Name: Beatrice
Gender: Male
Where born: West Ham; Plaistow, Essex, England

Civil Parish: West Ham
Ecclesiastical parish: St Mary
County/Island: Essex
Country: England

Street address:

Occupation:

Condition as to marriage:

Education:

Employment status: View Image

Registration district: West Ham
Sub registration district: Plaistow
ED, institution, or vessel: 34
Neighbors: View others on page
Household schedule number: 57
Household Members: Name Age
Thomas Matthews 22
Beatrice Matthews 22
Thomas Matthews 2
Beatrice Matthews 5 months


Thomas snr is a Hawker, which I'm sure is a seller of fruit and veg from a barrow??? Like a market trader now a days.

This is him on the 1911 census;

HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS THOMAS M 1879 32 West Ham Essex


there is also this;
HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS BEATRICE LOUISA F 1879 32 West Ham Essex
HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS BEATRICE MAUDE F 1901 10 West Ham Essex
HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS GEORGE TOMMY M 1899 12 West Ham Essex

So did Thomas George go by george Tommy to stop any confusion????


Dee x

This could be his birth reg, George could have been added at his Christening;

Births Mar 1897 (>99%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matthews Thomas W. Ham 4a 312


Dee x

These are all the children living with Beatrice Louisa in 1911;

HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS ARTHUR HENRY M 1907 4 West Ham Essex
HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS BEATRICE MAUDE F 1901 10 West Ham Essex
HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS EMILY MAIGAIRT F 1909 2 West Ham Essex
HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS GEORGE TOMMY M 1899 12 West Ham Essex
HOUSEHOLD MATTHEWS NELLY FLORENCE F 1905 6 West Ham Essex


Dee xx

Hi
How long have I been away?!!!
thankyou for all your hard work.
I am inclined to think this is his family,although when i saw this record yesterday on ancestry I spoke to my stepmother and she was sure there was no aunt or grandmother named beatrice! I had thought it was a good bet as the first daughter of Thomas and Helen was named Beatrice.

Thomas did go by the name of george, and yes it is possible it was to avoid confusion in the household, I`ve other relations who did that ( eg joseph kevin son of joseph keegan, joseph jnr used kevin...and went on to be the famous footballer and later manager of england...just a little light relief for you !)

I feel so useless as I have been trawling through census,christenings etc for over the past couple of hours since hubby went off to work...and I got more muddled than ever there are so many thomas matthews!!

I have the military records that ozibird found and have printed a copy off. I thought they might give me a clue to where to look for birth record etc, but no!
Now we seem to be back over to Essex again.

I have no idea !!!! and surrender!!
cathy

Ooh Cathy,

You name dropper!!!! My hubby's hero of his youth!!!!!


I wonder if Beatrice used the name Maude, with mum being called Beatrice aswell they may have switched the names like;"joseph kevin son of joseph keegan, joseph jnr used kevin" (Just incase anyone else pops in!!! LOL!!!)

What fun tracking them down though, don't they give us the run around!!!!

Time for sleeps 1 thinks, night night, Dee xxx

Ok now thinking about the occupation of Thomas snr. Hawker?
Thoms george was a bakers barrowman when he enlisted, and according to the family thomas jnr used to get up really early and go to buy fresh produce and barrow it to his stall and sell to other stalls too. Th older children had to help too as he was deaf.

So really think you have got the family there dee.
I intend to try to get more info because I don`t know how we can prove it one way or another.
cathy

Hi Dee good night..and thankyou so much.
cathy x