Genealogy Chat

Hi In the 1891 census, Thomas Whitham (sic) is 46 born Norwich. He says he is single but so does Eliza so I can't take that as correct! Eliza is spelt Bazants and her children are: Eliza age 3 Thomas age 1 (I know his true dob from his army records) and ' baby' age 1 month They are all described as 'servant's' daughter or son. Also in the 1891, Thomas H Bezants is 27 with Annie Brown 'housekeeper' and a son Thomas C B Brown age 2. In the 1901, there is no Thomas but Sydney A B Browne age 7 and James (I think) B Browne age 1. As there only seems to be one Thomas Henry Bezants b Norfolk in the whole world at this time - this must be Eliza's husband! What a muddle - and the other thing is, that they all lived in Armes Street in Heigham Norwich or within about 100 yards of it. There must have been some tongues wagging! Isabel

Susan Thanks for looking - yes that is my Eliza living with her aunt Martha WITHAM nee GRIMSON, her mother's sister. Am trying to establish a link between Alfred and Thomas Witham but with little success. Thanks Isabel

How old is the Thomas you found in 1891?

Hi This is an update as I didn’t realise Genes Reunited would lump everything together into one paragraph and even I didn’t understand what I had written! Thank you to those who even bothered to try and read it! Elsie Rebecca WITHAM (according to her marriage certificate) was b 2 Mar 1891 and registered as Eliza Witham BEZANTS. Her mother was Eliza GRIMSON dau of William DOBBS and Rebecca GRIMSON b c 1865 Norwich (her parents married when she was about 5 and went on to have at least 3 more children) and acccording to her birth certificate, her father was Thomas Henry BEZANTS. They married in Norwich 11 Mar 1884 - his occupation on the certificate looks like Soldier in HM Service. Other children of this marriage, according to their birth certificates, are: 1887 Eliza Gertrude Witham BEZANTS 1889Thomas Witham BEZANTS 1893 Lily Witham BEZANTS 1894 William Witham BEZANTS d 1896 1895 Edith Witham BEZANTS d 1897 1897 Edith Witham BEZANTS But in the 1891 census I find Eliza living with Thomas WITHAM in Norwich as his housekeeper (but that usually means co-habiting). Thomas Bezants is living with Annie Browne who has a son with the name Bezants as one of his first names. They have another son by the 1901 census. So that suggests to me that these children called Witham Bezants are actually Thomas Witham's children. Thomas died around 1898. Have other people found similar situations? And am I reading it right? So it seems I have to pursue Thomas WITHAM as the genetic parent. But I can't find any birth records for Thomas - he says born Norwich in the 1891 census but he doesn't seem to be anywhere on the 1881 census. However, on 1837 and FreeBMD, there is a Thomas Witham roughly the right age but it says he was born Northwich - could this be a mistake for Norwich - is this common on 1837? Can anyone help with ideas for next steps? Many thanks Isabel

Simply putting the info as a "reply" instead of all in the thread-header will enable you to lay it out in a manner that will make it much easier to understand. (We don't know why GR thinks it's a good idea to suppress all lay-out key-strokes - returns, extra spaces - in the thread-header.) So people will feel more able to help, I expect. In a big lump it gets rather unintelligible! Christine

Hi Isabel, would like to help but found it all a bit too much to take in...sorry. Could you divide it up into a number of smaller questions?..sure people would help.....anyway 'nudge' Joan

Hi Can anyone help with ideas for next steps? Details in post below. Many thanks Isabel