Re: Beresford's John 1845 Durham uk
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In reply to:
Beresford's John 1845 Durham uk
8/08/00
Hello, Vivien, my name is Duncan Brown, email: [email protected] JOHN BERESFORD is my great, great, great grandfather. I'm glad someone else out there is working on this one! I've put in a lot of hours trying to track down his birth.
Sorry about how huge this email is going to be: I am leaving for a 2 month trip tommorow so I won't have access to my files while abroad. I'm sending you everything I've got: word of mouth, certificates and censuses. I am trying to organize my trip to include a detour to Middlesbro, so I can do further research on John. I will definately be checking my email while travelling so please let me know any information you have about him, too. Thanks! When I get back home I can mail you photocopies of all the certificates I have gotten from the registry office if you want them.
According to my great aunt, JOHN was a sea captain. His wife MARY ANN was an asthmatic invalid who needed caring for by the kids later in life. JOHN had a falling out with his youngest daughter, ADELLA (my great, great grandmother) because she left home to get married. JOHN wanted her to stay and look after MARY ANN. When MARY ANN died 5 years later, JOHN died a few weeks later 'of a broken heart'. My great Aunt thinks they are buried in St. Barnabas churchyard, Middlesbro.
Here's the information from the censuses:
1881- Monkwearmouth, Durham county- JOHN, age 36, head of family, Seaman, born in Durham City/ MARY A., wife, age 33, born in Shoeburyness, ess co/ Kids: Annie E, age 12, born in Sunderland, DUR/ Minnie H, age 6, born in langlemoor, DUR/ Ada M., 4, Sunderland, DUR/ William N., 2, born Brandon, DUR/ Thomas K., 5 months old, born in Hendon, DUR.
1891 census (to find this one took some searching- it is just a reproduction of the actual census pages on microfilm, unindexed) JOHN is on page 28 of Middlesbro census fiche number R61240096099119: age 46, profession is listed as B.J. TAPEHOLDER, SLATMAN. All other info is same as 1881, except that Amelia and Minnie are both listed as cashiers. The other kids are 'scholars'. Two new kids appear: ALBERT E., age 5, born in Yorkshire, and ADELLA V, age 4, whose birth certificate I have listed below. They also had a visitor staying with them named ROBERT B. HAYES, single, 29, employed dramatic artist, born in Ireland. They were living at 11 Gloucester street, MIddlesbro. Their neighbors at 9 Gloucester were the family of Alfred Scott, 49, railway engineer driver with a family of eight all born in Middlesbro. At 13 Gloucester, Thomas Baker, 44, oil merchant, lived with his wife and kid. None of these nieghbors names have turned up on any of my certificates as witnesses to weddings etc.
These are the documents I got from the registry office:
JOHN BERESFORD death certificate JUNE QUARTER Stockton 10A 71: died 3 MAY 1912, at 5 The Green, Norton, Stockton, county of Durham, aged 67 years of acute pneumonia syncope. JOHN's occupation was MASTER MARINER MERCHANT SERVICE. Informant was his daughter A.E. HEMINGWAY, present at his death. Her address was 41 Chester road, Sunderland. (This was likely his first born daughter, ANNIE E, born 1869, Sunderland).
Death Certificate of MARY ANN BERESFORD, JUNE QUARTER, Middlesbro 9D 648: died 17 April, 1912, 19 Upton street, Middlesbro, aged 66 years of Asthma Syncope. Informant was JOHN, who gives his address as 19 Upton street and his profession as Seaman, Merchant Service.
Marriage Certificate of ADELLA VICTORIA BERESFORD, SEPTEMBER QUARTER Middlesbro, 9D
982: ADELLA was his youngest daughter and married watchmaker GEORGE CECIL COX (born May 11, 1885 in Abbingdon)on Aug 27, 1907 in Middlesbro. ADELLA gave JOHN's profession as SEAMAN. The witnesses were ADA DALKIN (ADELLA's elder sister) and her husband, JOHN WILLIAM DALKIN. (I have ADELLA's death certificate and birth certs for all of her kids etc)
Birth Certficate of ADELLA VICTORIA BERESFORD, MARCH QUARTER Middlesbro 9D 549: born 6 Feb 1887 at 4 Gloucester Street, Middlesbro. JOHN was the informant and gives his occupation as BOARD TRADE OFFICER.
Marriage Certificate of JOHN BERESFORD and MARY ANN KENNETT DEC QUARTER Sunderland, 10A 581: JOHN is listed as aged 22, a bachelor, occupation appears to be 'SERVICES'. He was living at 22 Lodge something. His father is listed as JOHN BERESFORD, deceased, and was an Attorney's Clerk. MARY ANN is 20, spinster, living at 3 Lodge something, father William Kennett, coast guard. Witnesses were R W Cowlourd and Mahala Kennett. Marriage was 2 Oct 1867, Sunderland, Durham.
According to JOHN's given ages on his marriage certificate, death certificate and the census returns he should be born between oct 3, 1844 and april 5, 1845 in Durham city. This is where I am stuck.
There was only one birth certificate in the index for Durham city in the approximate time period: June quarter, XXIV- 104. I sent away for it and it is for a JOHN BERRESFORD, born May 18, 1845 in Durham City at the Crossgate Workhouse to an unwed mother ELIZABETH BERRESFORD, father left blank.
Problems: First, the last name has two R's in it. Second, our JOHN is already age 36 in the april 4, 1881 census, and already 67 at his death May 3, 1912, putting his birthday prior to May 18, 1845. Third, according to JOHN's marriage certificate his father was JOHN BERESFORD, an attorney's clerk. It would be a huge coincidence if this Elizabeth Berresford later married someone with an almost exact last name. Because of the stigma attached to illegitimate births, especially back then, it is concievable that our JOHN is this May 18 birth, and that he merely invented the father listed on his marriage certificate. However, it's more likely that our JOHN's birth wasn't registered. The May 18 JOHN is probably someone else- here comes the search!
I tried to confirm or deny the possibility that our JOHN BERESFORD was this May 18, 1845 birth. First, I matched up all spellings of last name BERESFORD (beresford, berresford, berisford, berrisford, berresford) listed in 1881 census as being born in Durham. I found a few men and women, none named JOHN and none of them were between 35-37 years old. Next I checked all spellings of JOHN BERESFORD's listed in the 1881 census. Our JOHN BERESFORD was the only person in the 1881 census with that name who was born in Durham city. I was able to match several of the other age 35-7 JOHN BERESFORD's birthplaces from the census to the birth record index which definately eliminated them as our JOHN (one aged 36 born in Nottingham, another aged 36, born in Newcastle).
There was only one JOHN BERESFORD (also all other variations on the last name checked) aged 36 (none aged 35 or 37) born in Durham city listed in the 1881 census. This means that the May 18, 1845 JOHN BERRESFORD was our JOHN BERESFORD or else the May 18 JOHN was dead, in another country, or evaded the census. The May 18 birth certificate was registered 12 June 1845, so this JOHN survived at least one month for certain.
I searched death records to see if the May 18, 1845 JOHN died between 1844 and 1869 which gives total coverage between our JOHN's birthdate and marriage date in 1867. Any death certificate numbered 10A in the index will be for the Durham area. No JOHN BERRESFORD died in the Durham area between 18 june quarter 1844 and june quarter 1869. Of course he could have died away from his birthplace, but rather than throwing away money on dozens of certificates I tried another angle.
I figured that if I found the death certificate of the ELIZABETH BERRESFORD who gave birth to the May 18 JOHN I might find out something about her son from the certificate. This looked promising because I actually found the correctly spelt death certificate for Durham county. It's death cert Dec Quarter 10A 123: I ordered it but it was for ELIZABETH BERRISFORD, died 19 Nov 1858, age 19 weeks, daughter of Israel Berresford, a coalminer, Tanfield, County of Durham. (The index doesn't give age at death until 1866.)
I then searched the index for the death of JOHN's "deceased Attorney's Clerk" father listed on the marriage certificate. No deaths of the appropriate age in Durham city, although there are several deaths in Durham county that might be him. I have kept a complete list of every death certificate name index number etc for the period 1844-1869 for Elizabeth or John Beresford with all variations of the last name, and all people with any of those last names who died in Durham, but the list is so huge it would cost a fortune to order them all. In the event of a total dead end with this search we could try and find several people working on this family tree and each order a few of the certificates to lesson the cost, but first I have some other ideas about how to track down JOHN's elusive history.
ONE- Check for a date of birth at the St Barnabas Churchyard, Middlesbro. If the tombstone doesn't survive or have the actual day and month, they often keep burial records.
TWO- check for baptismal records in Durham city for birth date.
THREE- check for a last will and testament in public records.
FOUR- Investigate records of the Merchant Service.
PS: I have MARY ANN KENNETT's birth certificate (June 8, 1847), but not her parent's marriage certificate (WILLIAM KENNETT and ANN PRATT) or the birth certificates of WILLIAM AND ANN. -- also: I haven't ordered this certificate, but one of John's daughters was ADA MATILDA BERESFORD, fourth quarter 1876, birth certificate number 10A 635. ADA married JOHN WILLIAM DALKIN. According to my great aunt ADA was born 3 Dec 1877, and had a son, Will, who lived in Seahouses, Northumberland. Hope I've filled in some gaps for you with all this. If you have any information on John that I don't have I'd love to know about it! Bye for now- Duncan.