LYONS/Nottingham

QIn our December 2014 issue, Stuart Clarke was trying to find the birth records of his grandfather Robert Lyons born in about 1872.

AEnid Dalton got in touch to say she’s discovered Robert was in the Pioneer Corps of the Royal Engineers and was discharged on 18 September 1917. “In the records it gives his children, some of whom are not on the census records. It also shows the death certificate for Cecil Lyons, his young son, who was born in 1911 and died in 1915.” She also notes on Ancestry that there’s a record for a Robert Lyons who left England for America when he was six months old. Is this why he can’t be found in earlier census records?

However, Catharine Stevens thinks she might have solved Stuart’s query. “Robert’s Attestation papers for WW1 give a birth of 4 June 1870 but the 1939 NHS database gives 4 June 1872. Looking at FreeBmd for these dates, Lyon and Lyons gives three possibilities: Robert William James born June 1870 in Lambeth, son of Robert and Sarah – but he’s married in later censuses; Robert born June 1870 in Louth, son of Charles and Sarah – again on later censuses he’s with a spouse; and Robert Dixon Lyon June 1872 in Bridlington baptised 19 June 1872 at Bridlington, son of Elizabeth Lyon.”

She found this last Robert on the 1881 census – called Dixon – at 57 Sowerby St Bridlington, living with his parents Robert Dixon, 41, a hawker, and Elizabeth, 31, plus five siblings. “Robert’s father on the marriage certificate is also Robert so this would fit,” says Catharine, adding: “His parents don’t marry until the Dec quarter of 1875 in Bridlington. One daughter Kate is in Bridlington Workhouse in 1891. A possible death for Robert Senior in December 1887 and Elizabeth March 1886 at Bridlington might explain that.”