Is this my grandfather’s family?

Q My grandfather’s name was William Ernest Newman, born 3 June 1895, but on the 1939 Register it seems to say 3 January 1896. I have also seen 1897. He died 12 April 1959.

William Ernest married my grandmother, Emily Florence, at St Frideswide, Poplar, in 1922. William Ernest is a widower, aged 26, and the marriage certificate gives his father as William Ernest Newman, occupation coal porter.

The family was told that his mother’s maiden name was Deadman and there was a second marriage to a man with the surname Mitchell. Grandad William Ernest enlisted in the army under his mother’s maiden name of Deadman, but we have no idea why. My Uncle says he remembers visiting an Aunt’s house, William Ernest’s sister, in Poplar, who he thought was called Liza. So it seems that William Ernest’s mother was a Deadman, then Newman and then Mitchell. This is something the family is very sure about. I have found this family on the 1901 census and it includes the names of Newman and Mitchell: William S Newman, 45, his wife Sarah S, 35. I wondered if the ‘Sarah’ recorded on there was indeed a Deadman before marriage.

On an 1891 Census I found J. Summerland, 28, with his wife, Eliza Kate, 27, Ellen A, 3, Lily Anne, 4 months, and Ellen Newman, 21, recorded as single and ‘sister’. Are these connected to my grandfather’s family?

The potential problems are as follows:

1. William Ernest Newman married Sarah Deadman 25 August 1898 in Poplar but William’s father is shown as William Thomas Newman, not William Ernest (as shown on my grandfather’s marriage certificate.

2. An Ancestry tree states that in 1897 Sarah Deadman had a son Ernest William, not William Ernest.

3. Sarah Deadman, on the 1891 Census, is 19 years old and would therefore be 32 years old in 1904, but it states she had her daughter, Lily, in 1903/1904 aged 41 years.

4. The biggest potential problem is that if this is correct it would make Sarah Deadman my grandfather’s mother, not step-mother.

Pauline Rouse

AThis is a complicated family structure and care needs to be taken to cross-check names, dates and places.

Cross-checking the sources

Although the father is given as William Ernest Newman on your grandfather’s marriage certificate, all other sources confirm his name was William Thomas Newman, as shown on his own marriage certificate. The incorrect middle name on your grandfather’s certificate could be a mistake by William or the registrar.

Verifying online family tree information

You give your grandfather’s date of birth as 3 June 1895. The 1939 Register shows his date of birth as 3 January 1896 and this leads to your second potential problem which says ‘An Ancestry tree states that in 1897 Sarah Deadman had a son Ernest William, not William Ernest’. But this 1897 Ernest William on the Ancestry tree is not your grandfather. The General Register Office has revised its birth index to include the mother’s maiden name and this 1897 Ernest William registration shows his mother’s maiden name as Manktelow.

So what is the correct birth date & name?

So where is the birth registration for your grandfather? His parents, William Thomas Newman and Sarah Deadman, didn’t marry until July 1898 so almost certainly William Ernest’s birth is the one registered in the March quarter of 1896 as William Ernest Deadman. There is no mother’s maiden name given so it shows an illegitimate birth. This is a perfect match for the 1939 Register birth date of 3 January 1896. The family story states that William enlisted in the army under-age so perhaps the birth date of 3 June 1895, exactly eighteen months before his actual date of birth, comes from army records. William probably enlisted as Deadman because that was his official birth surname.

Comparing the handwriting

Your third potential problem states that ’Sarah Deadman, on the 1891 census, is 19 years old. However, the age on the census is 29, not 19 – compare the ‘1’s and ‘2’s on the rest of the page.

This 1891 census entry is extremely interesting as it shows that William Newman is the head of the household. With your grandfather born before his parents’ marriage and with his birth registered as Deadman, it might have been difficult to prove that William Newman was his father but this census entry provides strong evidence for the paternity.

Considering the other records

Sarah registered a daughter, Eliza Kate Deadman, in 1890, presumably the Aunt Liza your uncle remembers visiting. A second daughter, Annie Ellen, was registered as Newman in 1893. Lily’s birth is registered in the September quarter of 1903, mother’s maiden name spelt Dedman.

Censuses give William Thomas Newman’s birth as around 1856 in Bishops Stortford. A birth registration in the March quarter of 1857 in Bishops Stortford, mother’s maiden name Perry, matches this and George Newman married Eliza Perry in Bishops Stortford in 1855. Censuses entries show William Thomas to be the son of George Newman which matches William’s marriage certificate and also show that he had five siblings. The family moved to the West Ham area after the birth of Andrew John with George dying in West Ham in 1870, aged 37.

Eliza Kate married Joseph Summerland in 1886. The 1891 census you have is indeed part of your family but Joseph died later that year and Eliza married Richard Mitchell in 1893. Three boys were born between 1893 and 1898 before Eliza died in 1899 aged 37.

The 1901 census you have is definitely for William Thomas Newman and Sarah, née Deadman, with three of their children, despite the middle initials. Richard Mitchell is the widower of William’s sister, Eliza Kate, so William’s brother-in-law as stated.

William Thomas died in 1910 and, with Richard a widower, Sarah Newman and Richard Mitchell were free to marry in 1913.

I think Sarah Mitchell, a widow, is on the 1939 register at 9, Brixham Road, West Ham, with a birth date of 4 March 1863. Censuses show her birthplace to be Albury, Hertfordshire, and these entries come together in a birth registration for a Sarah Dedman in the March quarter of 1863 in the Bishops Stortford registration district which included Albury. Censuses show her as the daughter of Thomas Dedman and Kate Perry and this matches the father’s name on her 1898 marriage certificate.

The two Newman/deadman wives, Kate Perry and Eliza Perry, both born near Bishops Stortford, might be related.

Your final potential problem is that given all these relationships, Sarah Deadman is indeed your grandfather’s mother, not his stepmother, but your father and uncle would presumably have been quite young when visiting Sarah as Granny Mitchell so the different surname might well have confused them. ME