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Ask the expert – RAF Muster Roll

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Lawrence Plaskett:

‘I am amazed, since I have a family chart of 1600 names, to find a surprising absence as late as WWI. My grandfather was Herbert Charles Plaskett. He was born in June 1875 and died in 1964. I knew him fairly well and I possess a short account of his life but I have little idea about his war service in WWI. I have had periods of searching for it but to no avail. I also have the 1911 census record of his family.

It was said in my family that Herbert went to Italy, where he backed up the forces as a lorry driver. Apparently he found it very pleasant because he could get around and visit the various art galleries of Italy, something that his menial railway job at home could not provide for him. There was no mention of warlike activities but I think that since this was often repeated it is likely to be right. I have a photo of him wearing an Air Service badge but I have no idea whether he was always in the Air Service and do not know in which year he went in and came out, but suspect 1915 as the year for entry.

Recently, on contacting my cousin, a daughter of Herbert’s sister, I was told surprising things. She lived with Herbert during his later life and said that he had a respiratory symptom that he blamed on gas that he had been exposed to on the Western front. She said he was at Ypres, where he experienced a ‘hard time’, being finally invalided out due to the exposure to gas. Was he in the Air Service there?

There were some WWI records destroyed in WWII in London. Could they have been among them? Or is there a special place to look at the Air Service records?’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for the interesting question about your airman grandfather Herbert Charles Plaskett.

Generally speaking, records for servicemen in the Air Force and Navy are less well served online than those of the Army. At present, on findmypast.co.uk we have one interesting record set which does provide certain information about your grandfather. This is the RAF Muster Roll as at 1 April 1918. There was no RAF as such prior to the spring of 1918, when it was formed out of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. This set of records shows Air Mechanic 1 no 16183 H C Plaskett. He is described as having been previously a Driver (Mechanical Transport). He joined the forces on 11 December 1915, enlisted for the duration of the war, and was promoted on 1 June 1917. His normal rate of pay in RAF from 1918 was 4s 0d per day.

So he certainly was in the RAF and in one of its precursors, although which isn’t clear at this juncture. The National Archives holds a very nice record set, series AIR 79, which includes service records of men such as your grandfather and which will be digitised and appear online in the fullness of time – probably within the next one to two years. In the meantime, you could either visit The National Archives at Kew, or hire a local researcher there, to look at the original papers. This should clarify what your grandfather got up to during WWI.’

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Ask the expert – tricky surname spellings

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Carole Buck in Hampshire:

‘I have come up against a block. My grandfather’s (Arthur Henry Willsher born in 1887 in Neath, Glamorgan) parents are listed on the birth records as Henry Willsher and Elizabeth Ann Richards both from Kilkhampton, Devon. This makes sense as he married Madeline Mary Pedlar of Ilfracombe. I have found John Willsher born in 1858 in Kilkhampton and wife Elizabeth Ann born in 1863 in Kilkhampton in the 1901 census. I haven’t found any marriage record and can find no further information on them, despite having searched various census and birth records. Where do I go from here?’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for writing in with your family puzzle.

My first thought when looking at the problem is about the surname Willsher. There are a whole cluster of phonetically identical or similar names and, when searching online databases or, for that matter, original paper sources, you must consider spelling variants (and clerical misspellings). Online this is usually easy enough – for example, on findmypast.co.uk, you just tick ‘include variants’ under the name boxes on the search screen.

If we do this for the 1891 census, for example, searching for Arthur Willsher born 1887 +/- 3 years, we get 26 results to consider. Scrolling down through the list, there is an Arthur Henry in Neath registration district, which is clearly your grandfather’s entry. The spelling is Willshire not Willsher. He’s in Aberavon with parents John Harry, a stone mason, and Elizabeth Ann, plus siblings Mary Elizabeth, Thomas John, Albert Lewis and Annie Maude. His parents are both from Kilkhampton, as you say, but all their children are born in Glamorganshire.

The eldest child shown, Mary, was eight in 1891 and, therefore, was born after the 1881 census. One would expect to find her parents’ – your great grandparents’ – marriage within the years 1880 to 1883. Going to the civil registration indexes of marriage and conducting a search for John Willsher marrying an Elizabeth and using the ‘include variants’ option brings up a handful of entries, including your grandparents – John Henry Willshire married Elizabeth Ann Richards in December quarter 1881 in Neath registration district. This means that we may expect to find them living apart in the 1881 census return which was taken on 3 April 1881.

Again, your great grandfather appears as John H Willshire, not Willsher, so it appears that his name was fairly constant at this time. He is in Kilkhampton, a journeyman mason, living with his parents Thomas and Ann. His mother is also Kilkhampton-born, while his father is from ‘Finsbury, Kent’. This is almost certainly Frindsbury (near Rochester), which I have often seen corrupted in census returns. Thomas’ occupation is noted as ‘Pensioner, Woolwich’ – a second hand (that of the census clerk, rather than enumerator) has written against this the word ‘Army’. Other evidence (see below) suggests, however, that he was actually a Navy pensioner. He was 69 in 1881 and, therefore, born circa 1811/12. This opens up all sorts of new possibilities.

Firstly, we can search for Thomas Willshire in parish registers. On findmypast.co.uk we have a collection called Thames and Medway parish registers, which covers the interesting strips of land extending out from London on either side of the Thames Estuary into Essex and Kent. This collection includes Frindsbury and, sure enough, there is a Thomas Wiltshire (sic) baptised on 25 April 1813 in Frindsbury All Saints to parents William and Mary.

It’s then possible to try to find Thomas and Ann Wiltshire in the other census returns and find details of their various children. This is a little tricky – for example, in the 1871 census, Thomas Wiltshire is a 55-year old agricultural labourer born in Maidstone, Kent, while in 1861 he was a 48-year old Greenwich pensioner born in Woolwich, Kent. In both years, they are living in Kilkhampton, Cornwall, so I believe we can be sure it’s the right couple.

It looks like they married in March quarter 1853 in St German’s registration district, Cornwall – if so, it was under the names Thomas Wilshire and Ann Furze. Thomas was quite old by that time, and he may well have been widowed and had a previous wife – you need to buy the marriage certificate to find out.

In any event, there is much you should be able to investigate, using the above information, and remembering to consider all possible spelling variations – already we have Willsher, Willshire, Wilshire and Wiltshire and it is likely that you will discover others! Good luck.’

If you’d like to send your question to Stephen, please register or opt to receive newsletters in ‘my account’. Stephen only has time to answer a couple of queries each month but if yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Ask the expert – mystery surname

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Kim Hazell:

‘My great grandmother Elizabeth Hazell is shown in the 1901 census living with Thomas Hazell (RG13 piece 3753). How can I find out who Thomas Hazell was, as Hazell was not his real surname? It seems Elizabeth and Thomas never married and Hazell was Elizabeth’s surname, not Thomas’. Thank you.’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Kim

This is a challenging question, and one which frankly may never find an answer, and I’d like to throw it open to readers of this blog to see if anyone can come up with some creative thinking and constructive suggestions.

Some first thoughts on the various possibilities behind this rare example of a man seemingly taking his wife’s or partner’s surname at this date include the following:

1. He took her name to escape a criminal or miscreant or indebted past, e.g., deserting the army, or fleeing creditors
2. As above, but to escape a previous marriage and wife
3. Stipulations of a will
4. He came from overseas and it suited him to have an anglicised name
5. Hazell was his surname – by coincidence, or by distant kinship

If 5 above is not the case, then I think the chances of finding evidence of the change of name are quite slim. Formal changes of name by deed poll were always in a minority, perhaps five per cent of total name changes, but you could try search in the London Gazette just in case he took this course.

Sometimes death certificates record an alias or earlier name, if known to the family or other informant at death, and I’d recommend that you purchase a copy if you don’t hold it already – in my view, death certificates are under-appreciated anyway and often are interesting in their own right. The same citing of former names can also be true of marriage certificates but, of course, that won’t help you here if you know that this couple were not married. If Thomas fathered an illegitimate child by Elizabeth Hazell, then there’s an outside possibility that you might find evidence of him contributing towards maintenance of the child, e.g., in petty sessions.

If Thomas and Elizabeth Hazell had been living not around 1901 but in, say, the first decades on the 19th century, one could have considered ‘poor law’ type records: examinations, settlements and removals etc. Such records can sometimes be found with parish chest materials in local archives, particularly if the mother was from an alien parish and the parish of residence did not wish to pay to support the mother and child – although naturally this only applies if the family was needy and turned to the parish for relief.

I’d recommend that you contact the relevant county record office and enquire what records survive that may be of assistance to you. RG13 piece 3753 is for the parish of Newton Heath in Manchester, so the local archive would be the Greater Manchester Record Office, 56 Marshall Street, New Cross, Manchester, M4 5FU (phone 0161 234 1979).

Do any readers have any helpful suggestions for Kim?’

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Ask the expert – British Army ancestor

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Eric Brown:

‘Where do I start?

My paternal grandmother was born in Richmond Barracks, Dublin. She married in Northampton and her father is shown on her marriage licence is Sergeant Major. I would like to find out more about her birth and about her father’s army career and history.

My question is: why was she in Northampton? The address shown on her marriage licence is Lawrence St, Northampton, which is opposite the barracks. Can I guess that her father was based in Northampton and his daughter came over with him?

At the time of her birth, would her father have been in the English army or would there have been an Irish Regiment? Are there records at Kew?

The details are:

Father: William Lynn

Daughter: Marion Josephine Lynn, born in 1857 at Richmond Barracks, Dublin. She married Theophilus Brown on 6 December 1877 in Northampton, aged 20.

Thank you for your help.’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Eric

Thanks for your question regarding your great grandfather, William Lynn, who was a Sergeant Major in an unknown regiment in the British Army and alive in 1877.

I have chosen this question this month as it illustrates some of the techniques which we use when trying to resolve problematic points on our family trees. Firstly, I should say that this, like many problems, has no immediate or easy answer – there is no single database in which you can be absolutely sure to find a named individual, and even the most comprehensive countrywide datasets such as the birth, marriage and death indexes, or the decennial censuses, contain many omissions and errors.

This being the case, it is common to approach problems by identifying a range of potential candidates and then progressing by a process of elimination towards a correct answer. Of course, the more distinctive the combination of details available in your starter information, the more conclusive this process is likely to be. Even a rare name, however, won’t guarantee you a result.

In this case, we have a man with a reasonably good combination of names and a precise rank in the army, who was known to have been alive at a particular date. We can also infer that, as his daughter was born in 1857, he was born at least 16 years earlier than that, i.e., before 1841. When we begin to look at online record sets, we are searching for individuals who meet all these criteria (bearing in mind, of course, that in the case of his army career, he would have held a lower rank in earlier years).

The record sets to begin with in this instance are the so-called ‘Chelsea Pensioner‘ records – the pre-WWI British Army service records, good for out-pensioners as well as the very small number of red-coated in-pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea – and the census returns. We must remember that the army service records are for men discharged from the army and, therefore, exclude those who were killed or died in service; and that, with some exceptions, the censuses are primarily a record of who was sleeping where on census night and, therefore, frequently exclude men at sea (even if just out on a fishing boat) or serving overseas with the army or navy. Nevertheless, when we start to consult and compare these records, only one strong candidate emerges for William Lynn.

Firstly, there is only one surviving service record for a Sergeant Major named William Lynn, and none for NCOs of higher rank (and at that date it would be highly unlikely that he would have risen to become a commissioned officer beyond the scope of the Chelsea Pensioner records). The candidate William Lynn was a Sergeant Major in the 1st Btn and then, upon its creation in 1855, the 3rd Btn of the 60th or King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Note that earlier this month findmypast.co.uk published complementary series of British Army service records from the 19th and very early 20th centuries – these include those for the Imperial Yeomanry who served in the 2nd Anglo-Boer War, for example, the records from Royal Kilmainham Hospital in Ireland, and the fascinating volumes relating to the foreign regiments, comprising mostly German (but also Hungarian, Scandinavian etc) soldiers, who fought with the British in the Napoleonic Wars.

Moreover, what is clearly the same man can be found in the census returns for 1851 (when he is a Sergeant), 1871 (by which time he is a Sergeant Major), 1881 and 1891. The 1861 Worldwide Army Index places him in Wellington (in southern India) and Madras in that census year, explaining his absence from that year’s census.

When one pieces together this man’s life and career, one can see that he married twice (firstly to Hannah, between 1840 and 1850, who died 29 May 1862 in Rangoon, Burma; and then secondly to Mary Ann, at some date between 1862 and 1871, who died between 1881 and 1891); that he had at least four children, born between 1848 and 1856 in Tilbury Fort, Chatham and Co Kildare; and that he joined the militia – specifically 2nd Edmonton Royal Rifle Regiment of Militia, based in South Mimms – on leaving the regulars.

Note that these locations and the army service record mostly match the recorded postings of the 60th Royal Rifles, which can be found in various publications such as The King’s Royal Rifle Corps Chronicle (pub 1905). Chatham was the depot for the 1st Btn of the Regiment throughout the early 1850s. The 3rd Btn was in Curragh (Co Kildare) in 1856 and in Dublin in 1855 and again from later in 1856 to 1857 – it then moved overseas and we can plot the movements of Sergeant Major Lynn (and presumably his first wife and children) as follows – 1857: Madras, Bangalore, 1858: Mysore, Bellary, 1860: Jackatalla, 1862: Thayetmyo, Toungoo, 1863: Rangoon, 1865: Madras.

This man would appear to have been the only Sergeant Major William Lynn in the British Army in the mid/late 19th century. We do not have sufficient information to definitively clinch the ID; however, the balance of probability leans persuasively towards this man being your great-grandfather. We discussed this offline, and you mentioned that your grandmother had a son of the same name, Godfrey, as one of the children of William Lynn. Godfrey is a fairly unusual name, good to have in any family tree, and to my mind this additional detail adds further weight to the balance of probability. If one and the same family is involved, then your grandmother named her son Godfrey after an older brother.

To try to secure proof, it would be useful to obtain copy documents, such as the birth certificates of William Lynn’s sons Thomas and Joseph, and also of course the 1857 Dublin birth or baptism of your grandmother Marion (this event doesn’t appear in the army births on findmypast.co.uk and, as civil registration in Ireland did not commence till 1864, your only chance would appear to be the event having been registered locally as a baptism).

If the link can be proven, the British Army pension record gives the precise parish of birth of William Lynn as Bristol St Philip, so you should then be able to advance your research back in time from there.

Good luck, and please let us know if you make a breakthrough!’

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Ask the expert – disappearing act

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Linda Paddington:

‘I am curious to find out what happened to my great-grandmother’s second husband (possibly my great-grandfather). Her name is Clara Monger and he is Thomas Tillin, born in 1849 in Ufton, Berks. He married Clara in 1870, nine months after my grandfather (James Monger) was born. She does not name him as James’s father on the birth certificate but this could be the usual practice as he was born out of wedlock. They appear together on the 1871 census but the 1881 census is a bit of a mystery.

His name appears to have been crossed out in the section where the street should be. Clara is noted as head of house – this could have been an error on the part of the clerical staff filling in the form and possibly Thomas was there. Clara names him as the father of her youngest daughter Emily Maud in 1885 on the birth certificate. After that I cannot find any trace of him. Possibly he left the country or did not want to be found on census forms.

I was told he died in 1917 in Aston, Birmingham. The birth certificate I have is for Thomas Tilling with a ‘g’, although the age seems correct. His widow, A Tilling, is the informant. I’m still not convinced it is the correct Thomas – I think it is Thomas Tilling born in Gloucestershire. Please can you help me trace the elusive Thomas?’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Linda

This is a curious business indeed. Thomas Tilling appears as Tilling on the 1851 and 1861 census returns, but then marries your great grandmother Clara Monger as Tillin in 1870 and is with her on the 1871 census return as Tillen. Such variation in last name spelling is, of course, not so unusual but it does inevitably mean that you have to be alert to all possible variants and to consider each one in every search you undertake. The permutations include exchanging both vowels (i.e., Tellin, Tillen etc), and with or without the terminal ‘g’. This is to capture not just genuine name variants (i.e., as used by the bearer) but also clerical mis-renderings of the name.

The evidence of the 1881 census (with Thomas’ name accidentally entered in the address column and then struck out but not written into the name column) probably tells us only that the couple was still married at that date. I am sure that Thomas was not at home on census night in 1881.

As you point out, there were rules governing the registration of births at this period which are not always helpful for the genealogist, as they may disguise actual paternity. There are two ways in which this could affect your own research. Firstly, if the parents of a child were not married, it was customary for only the name of the mother to appear on the birth certificate unless the actual or putative father also presented himself at registration or otherwise claimed paternity. As you say, therefore, Thomas may well have been the father of your grandfather James, whose birth certificate is silent as to paternity. On the other hand, James retained the last name Monger (e.g., 1871 and 1881 census), so perhaps Thomas wasn’t his father.

Secondly, the child of a married woman was customarily registered as the child of her husband even if they were separated. Even though Thomas’s name appears on the birth certificates of your grandfather’s younger siblings Henry Thomas and Emily Maud Tillen (registered in 1881 and 1885 respectively) and the law assumes that he was the father, it is not necessarily the case that he was (nor, of course, that he wasn’t!). This possibility is raised by his absence from the family home on the 1881, 1891 and 1901 census returns, in all of which his wife Clara is alone but describes herself as married. She then died in 1905.

I do not believe that I have found a single instance of the correct Thomas Tilling, Tillin, Tillen etc on any of the four English and Welsh census returns from 1881 to 1911 inclusive. There are of course several candidates in each year but I believe that most can be eliminated by a combination of factors once one traces them across the census years and looks at their places of birth, occupations, spouses, children etc.

I am afraid that this probably also applies to the candidate Thomas Tilling who died in Aston in 1917. His age at death is a good fit; however, I believe this man can be found on the 1911 census in Aston – as Thomas Tillings, although he signs his name as Telling. The details given do not look promising – he was born in Gloucestershire, describes himself as a widower, says he has been married 24 years (placing his marriage circa 1886/87) and he has five children (all alive in 1911). He features on the 1901 census as Thomas Telling, a general labourer from Fairford, Gloucestershire and is married to his wife Mary. I also noted that a Thomas Telling (sic) married an Amelia Grimes in Aston in 1912, so this would be consistent with the informant at the death of the Aston man being his widow, A Tilling.

Notwithstanding this, I would of course review this impression if the source of your information (‘I was told he died in 1917 in Aston’) is family papers or lore, rather than, for example, recent research by a third party.

It is possible that Thomas was merely coincidentally absent from home on census nights but for this to happen across so many census years seems improbable, given that he was seemingly an agricultural labourer (and not, for example, a seafarer, a fisherman, a soldier etc – occupations which may lead to a man being genuinely away on census night). This leaves us with a man who disappears from his family at some point between 1871 (at the very earliest) and, say, 1891, and probably in the mid- or late-1880s.

It’s possible that he remained in England, perhaps tramping around finding casual work on farms, or he may have moved to a big city and become a labourer there. Of course it is not impossible that he found the means to emigrate (or assisted passage) and headed to North America or Australia or New Zealand. A change of name is not inconceivable either, for example, if he wanted to re-marry discreetly in England and minimise the risk of being charged with bigamy – recently, we have been digitising various criminal justice records in preparation for publishing them online and it is striking how many men and women who came before the law had two or more aliases.

This, however, is all speculation. It may be that this problem will remain insoluble, but equally it is just possible that new records may be released that give you the breakthrough you need. In advance of that, there are a few things you could consider – for example, contacting the Berkshire Family History Society for advice or (if you haven’t done so already) posting details of Thomas Tilling on genealogical message forums. Do mention his parents Richard and Sarah – as per the 1851 and 1861 census returns – as then you may attract responses from others researching their descendants, who may have concrete or anecdotal information on Thomas.

Good luck with your research, Linda!’

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Ask the expert – elusive Royal Navy ancestor

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Graham Browster:

‘My grandfather served in WWI – he was 28893 Dvr E Browster RFA and he won several medals which I have. While trying to trace his date of birth I have learnt that he served on HMS Queen Elizabeth and had been in the Royal Navy for several years.

I have not been able to trace him under the name we know him as but I know he was quite good at boxing and used the name ‘Gunboat’. Can you assist please?’

Paul says:

‘Dear Graham,

You’ve done better than I have in managing to dig up information about his Royal Navy service. I searched the Royal Navy ratings’ service records on The National Archives website but came up with a blank.

No service record appears to survive for his time with the RFA during WWI but he has two campaign medal index cards, one of which notes that he arrived in France on 22 July 1915 and was later awarded the Military Medal. The award was gazetted in the London Gazette of 16 August 1917. The card for his Military Medal notes that he served with B battery, 93rd Brigade.

I note that there was an American boxer by the name of Edward ‘Gunboat’ Smith who served with the US Navy but I’ve not found evidence that this man and your grandfather are one and the same person.’

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Ask the expert – Fleet Air Arm

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Anthony Hood:

‘My father served in the Fleet Air Arm during WWII. How can I get a copy of his service record?’

Paul says:

‘The Fleet Air Arm is the air force of the Royal Navy and The National Archives website has some useful information.

To obtain a service record you’ll need to visit the Veterans UK website and follow the instructions. Note, however, that prior to 1972 all Royal Navy personnel were given their service record when they discharged and that the only information held on Royal Navy personnel who served prior to 1972 are their service details and a list of dates and ships/shore bases. Nevertheless, using this information it should be possible to piece together a fuller service history.’

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Ask the expert – advice for beginners

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Barbara Humphry:

‘I have held back from paying a subscription as the one time I had one, I kept finding myself blocked from going any further through my ignorance of how to go about the next move. I was born in 1928 so computers were not part of my education. I cannot go back beyond my mother’s father as there seems to be no record of him. His name was Henry Hobbs and he was a corn and seed chandler at 1 Salisbury Street, Marylebone, London so it should be possible to trace him but I have had to give up the search. I have no birth date but his death was recorded as 6 December 1917 in Marylebone, aged (family memory) 69.

If you can give me any advice as to how to find out more I would subscribe again. Life is short and I have already too many spent far too many hours in fruitless search. Thank you.’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Barbara,

Thanks for your question. Starting your family history can seem daunting at first, especially if you are not very confident with a computer, or if you think you know only limited information about your ancestor. This needn’t be the case, however, and I strongly believe that most people with British ancestors should be able to research most lines of their family trees back to at least 1800 and very probably another 25 to 50 years or so – sometimes surprisingly quickly. I would, therefore, encourage you not to give up, and to keep looking. If you are worried about using a computer, then perhaps you could either contact your local family history society or local library – someone will very probably be only too happy to help you.

Looking at the limited information about your maternal grandfather, the first thing I would do isn’t to look for his death entry in the civil indexes (although it is true that I might want to buy a copy of his death certificate, or search for a will for him). Instead, I think the combination of facts in your possession – name + occupation + place + date of 1917 – is good enough to find him on the 1911 census of England, which is perhaps the single most useful source of information for a family historian starting out.

Sure enough, if I search the 1911 census for a Henry Hobbs living in St Marylebone, I find four candidates. We find that the first of these – a 60-year old – is correct when we look at the transcript. This shows that the corn chandler Henry Hobbs was residing at 1 Salisbury Street with his wife of 23 years, Emily Barbara, aged 42, plus four children – Walter (aged 16), William (13), Winnifred (12) and Lilian (10). The children were all born in Marylebone but the wife was born in Long Ashton in Somerset and Henry himself in Clayhanger in Devon (but right on the border with Somerset). The other thing that the 1911 census uniquely provides, as well as duration of marriage, is the number of children born to it – in this case, Henry Hobbs has declared that he and his wife had 11 children in total, of whom seven were alive in 1911 and four had died.

Now you have found the 1911 census, you have multiple options. You can see that if Henry had married 23 years earlier, this places his marriage circa 1887/88 (1911 minus 23 years, and adding a year because the 1911 census was taken in April, so it’s slightly more likely that he was born in 1887 than 1888). Do treat this with a pinch of salt, however, as human memory isn’t always infallible! This also means that you should be able to find him with his wife and growing family on the 1891 and 1901 censuses. As we know that he was aged 60 in 1911, this means that he would have been born circa 1850/51. We should be able to find him on the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses, and, if lucky, on the 1851 census too (if he was born before that census was taken).

Research isn’t always quite so simple, however! Again, we have to be careful with information recorded on the census. When we go to the 1901 census, Henry is aged 45 years – meaning he ‘aged’ 15 years in the 10 years between the 1901 and 1911 census! He is a corn merchant living at 53 Lisson Street in Marylebone. We also learn the identity of two new children, Gertrude and Adry. Next, when we look at the 1891 census, 10 years earlier, Henry is aged 40 – an age which is consistent with the first census we looked at, the 1911. At this date, he is residing at 22 Paul Street and is a butcher with a live-in servant. It is clear that, having made money in butchery, he made a career move and went into buying and selling grain in London. On the 1891 census, we see that daughters Eveling (sic) and Gertrude were both born in Exeter.

Once this stage is researched, there is so much you can do – search birth, marriage and death indexes, search all the available censuses, and then look at other records prompted by the results of your research – and not just for Henry but also for his children and other family. In fact, your family tree could extend both backwards, sideways and forwards quite quickly.

Good luck with your research, and please don’t give up!’

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Ask the expert – missing service number

Our resident military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, offers advice on how to solve your military family history mysteries.

From Derek Franklin:

‘I am trying to trace Arthur Hollingsworth’s army record but I have no service number. He was born in Bermondsey on 2 February 1898 and is believed to have served in WWI under General Allenby, possibly in the artillery. Arthur’s UK address was 165 Lynton Road, Bermondsey. He is a long lost uncle. I would be most grateful for your help.’

Paul says:

‘Dear Derek,

The National Archives lists 17 men with medal index cards who served during WWI and so it’s going to be a tough call for you to narrow down those men to your ancestor, particularly if you don’t know the regiment he served with.

Two of these men, however, are listed as having served with the Royal Artillery: one with the Field Artillery and one with the Garrison Artillery. The former arrived in France in 1915 and so we can rule him out because your relative would have been too young to serve overseas at that time. So the other man, 151141, would be a possibility. From my own research I can advise you that this number would have been issued towards the end of March or early April 1917 and so this certainly fits the scenario of a young 19 year-old soldier being called up to the colours.

General Allenby led the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the conquest of Palestine and Syria in 1917 and 1918 but this doesn’t help you to narrow down the search a great deal and unfortunately there does not appear to be a surviving service record for our 151141 Gnr Hollingsworth.’

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Ask the expert – traveller ancestors?

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Royston E Herbert:

‘My grandfather Ernest Matthew Herbert died in 1925 and was married to Annie Elizabeth Herbert, nee Franklin. Their children were as follows: Ernest Edward, Walter, Henry (died young), Rhoda and Jack. I believe Ernest Matthew was born in Hendon, Middlesex and his father’s name was Matthew. I also believe that Ernest Matthew was born in 1882. I am unable to find a birth certificate for my grandfather and thought that perhaps you could help!’

Stephen says:

‘Dear Royston,

Thanks for your question. I have taken a look at the problem and believe I may have found a partial answer, as well as the reason why you have experienced difficulties. It seems possible that the family was Romany or, alternatively, that they lived a traveller or hawker existence around Britain and, therefore, births of children may not have been registered in the normal way, and certainly not in a single locality.

As you know, Ernest Matthew Herbert married in Kennington, south London in 1905 – he was a horse-keeper at that time, and his father Matthew Herbert was a horse dealer. It was by looking at various entries for men named Matthew Herbert on the decennial census returns from various years that I was able to piece together something of the family history. The wife of Matthew (or Mathew) Herbert was Rhoda nee Coleman – note that Rhoda was one of the names you gave for the children of your grandfather Ernest Matthew Herbert, who clearly named one of his daughters after his own mother. These are the census returns upon which I found the family – you can use the census references to go straight to the images on findmypast.co.uk using the census reference search feature.

• 1871: a caravan in the hay market, Peasholme, York. Matthew (described as a ‘licensed hawker’), wife Rhoda and their two children Matthew Jr and Benjamin (RG10 piece 4750 folio 83 pages 36 and 37). A family named Coleman is in a neighbouring caravan – presumably, from the ages, this was Rhoda’s older brother Edward and his wife and children
• 1891: 19 West Street, Warkworth (now part of Banbury). Rhoda is there, without her husband, but with children Henry, Salome, Ernest, William, Rhoda Jr and Beatrice (RG12 piece 1184 folio 114 page 8)
• 1901: 165 Bridge Street, Northampton. Matthew is resident at this address, described as a widower and a horse dealer (RG13 piece 1426 folio 33 page 14). I checked the death indexes and saw that his wife Rhoda had died in the March quarter of 1898 in Northampton, aged 52 years
• 1911: 24 Bridge Street, Northampton. Matthew is here described as a dealer (RG14PN8424 RG78PN434 RD163 SD2 ED2 SN70)

Matthew did not read the 1911 census instructions very carefully. People have never been very good at filling in forms in the way that the authorities ask. Here, however, what that means is that his census return gives more information than was asked for. Strictly speaking, only married women were supposed to record the duration of their marriage, plus the number of children born alive, still living and now deceased. Helpfully, Matthew, a widower, volunteers the information that he had eight children, all still living in 1911. This means that between them, the 1871 and 1891 censuses name the entire family, which is very fortunate given that those children on the 1871 census are absent on the 1891, and that the 1881 census was not found.

The family was born at locations which hint at their peripatetic lifestyle. If the census can be trusted, the father Matthew was born at Chiswick, Middlesex (circa 1846) and his wife Rhoda at Yalding, Kent (circa 1846). They married within the Aylesbury registration district in March quarter 1865. Their children were born as follows (places as per census returns and all years approximate): Matthew in Barnet, Hertfordshire (1866); Benjamin in Oxford (1870); Henry in Far Cotton, Kent (although Far Cotton is actually in Northants) (1875); Salome in Glasgow, Scotland (1878); your grandfather Ernest in Aylesbury, Bucks (1880); William in Mile End, London (1882); and both Rhoda Jr and Beatrice in Northampton (in 1884 and 1886 respectively).

I wonder whether William’s place of birth of ‘Mile End, London’ is correct, as your grandmother’s place of birth is given as Mile (or Mill?) End, Bucks in the 1911 census. This could just be a coincidence; however, it is possible that ‘London’ was something added by the census enumerator, thinking to tidy up or correct the information given by the original householder. This kind of clerical mis-correction is not that uncommon, as I know from experience of my own genealogy – there is a village called Hernhill (sometimes spelt Herne Hill) near Faversham in Kent, where I live, but it is not unusual to see this place of birth ‘corrected’ to Herne Hill, London by enumerators filling in the place of birth field in census returns from outside the area.

The next step – assuming you agree with the findings above – would be to obtain a copy of the 1865 marriage certificate, which will give the names and occupations of the respective fathers of Matthew and Rhoda. From there, you could try to find the births or baptisms of Matthew and Rhoda and identify them on the 1851 census return (when they would have been children) and their parents on the 1841. If they were travellers, or if their parents were also involved in hawking or peddling, however, you may expect to continue encounter difficulties. Incidentally, if you are curious about the possibility of having gypsy ancestry, you might like to contact the Romany & Traveller Family History Society – certainly, Coleman is a known gypsy name, but I am not sure about Herbert.

Good luck with your continued research!’

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