Genealogy Chat

I have been trying to help an American to source the birth of one of his ancestors. To date I have not been lucky.

I have found on the familysearch site, info that was submitted, other than this I have drawn a blank.

The details are...

William Charles Whitbread-Clark, born in Kent 1830.

He went to the USA when he was a young man and married in 1868. The info I have been given by the American side of the family is very clear and definite from 1868.

Any suggestions as to how I can help with the period from 1830-1850 (approx) would be very welcome.

Kathlyn

What was his father's name?

Unless he came from a well-to-do background, the double-barrelled surname smacks of illegitimacy...........

Reg

Hi Reg,

Thants my stumbling block...The only info I have is what is above.

Kathlyn

Don't the US connections have his marriage cert?

Have they checked immigration records?

Reg

I will have to check to see if the marriage cert is available. But here is the info I have at the moment:-

"I don`t know if William Charles was his name in England, some of the family have said his name may have been Charles Edward as he named one of his sons that name.

He left England one jump ahead of the sheriff as a stowaway, don`t know which ship. He used the name William Charles Clark once he arrived in the States. In one census he said he emigrated in one year, then in the next, a different year, but it would have been about 1864.

One of his daughters said he first went to Canada, joined the Royal Canadian Army, got in trouble, went south and joined the Union SArmy. Went south again.

As the info stops with the birth of William and no indication of his parents names, I do not know where to go next.

Kathlyn

|Hi Kathlyn

WILLIAM CHARLES WHITBREAD-CLARK
b; 10 jun 1830. Kent.Eng.
marr: 2 jun 1868 at Victoria, Texas.
d; 14 oct 1921 Stockdale. Wilson, Texas
bur: 15oct 1921 Steele Branch Cemetary.

CHILDREN: five recorded...
WILLIAM STEPHEN CLARK 1867-1952 Texas.
MARY ANN CLARK b: 1973 Texas
DORA {donnie] CLARK 1879-1964 Texas
EMMA CLARK 1879-1953 Texas
FLORIA sULLIAVAN CLARK
1891-1955
ALL ABOVE INFO ON IGI - SEND YOUR E-MAIL FOR A COPY.

Hi Kathlyn,

I see your problem! I have had a brief hunt around & find there are so many William Charles Clarks (WCC) that it is impossible to say which is which. All refs to Whitbread-Clark are only via submitted IGI entries or on dubious family trees. So my first question is how do this family tie Whitbread-Clark (WCWC) with WCC? Do they have some internal family evidence?

Going through the USA info we have WCC married in 1868 in Gonzales, TX. In 1870C he is a Blacksmith b. England aged 36 living with wife Rebecca & son Stephen in Calhoun, Tx; in 1880C his wife is named Elizabeth with children Stephen, Lotte & Mary & he is a blacksmith b.1832 Engand of an English father & Irish mother. In 1900C he is a farmer aged 68 (b.6/1831) from IRELAND of an English father & Irish mother. He is living with wife Rebecca & chidren Sarah, Rosea & Floria. He claims immigration from 1856.

In 1910 he is back being Engish but it appears his mother was German(!) and he immigrated in 1859. In 1920C he is back being born in Ireland but his mother is now English with immigration in 1859 and naturalization in 1862.

My best guess is that he was born in Ireland and his mother was Irish (Clark?) & father English (Whitbread?) in June 1831.

There are dozens of William Clarks emigrating from Ireland/England. If he went to Canada he certainly didn't join the RCMP as it wasn't formed till 1873 and there wasn't an RCA as far as I am aware. He could well have joined in the Civil War (1861-1865).

Unless your US family has other personal evidence of WCWC or WCC's origins or movements I doubt you will get further. Perhaps a search of the notoriousy difficut Irish records might throw up something.

regards,

Alastair

Thank you Kathlyn for providing an interesting topic to research. After 4 hours digging around on your behalf, I now know a great deal more about the US Census I didn't know before. I also learnt about the "Mounties" formed in 1873 & later called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920. I found out how porous the border between the US & Canada was in the mid-1850's as well as the small populations of these vast areas. There were many other historical topics that I found out about but are probably irrelevant to you.

It would have been nice to have had you involved in these excercises but apparently you feel that you can just push out the boat and then wait to see what happens when others do the work.

Hello Alistair,

I have sent you a pm explaining why I have been absent from these boards, but to anyone else interested, I was called away to deal with a very sick and very elderly mil.

Anyway, I am very, very grateful for the work undertaken on my behalf by Alistair, it is people like this that make this site so wonderful. Thank you a million times Alistair.

I would also like to point out that I can only enter this site for short periods of time and therefor may be "offline" when someone replies to my query. My absence and the hard work Alistair undertook on my behalf has added to his knowledge, so I hope I am forgiven for my fleeting moments on GR.

Kathlyn

More undocumented information:
http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi
"# Name: William Charles Whitbread CLARK
# Sex: M
# Birth: 10 JUN 1832 in England
# Death: 14 OCT 1921 in Stockdale, Wilson County, Texas
# Burial: 15 OCT 1921 Steele Branch Cemetery, Stockdale, Texas

Most of the information on this family comes from connections made on message boards, RootsWeb, Ancestry and family relatives...

...Marriage 1 Rebecca E. WILKERSON b: 29 DEC 1851 in Texas

* Married: 2 JUN 1868 in Victoria, Texas..."

There is additional information on the site; however, nothing before 1832 and it doesn't show his parents.

Actually, two people posted information about William. The other posting shows his parents.

http://www.cemeteries-of-tx.com/Etx/Wilson/Cemetery/steelbranch.htm
has information about Rebecca. I don't see anything for William.