Where was my relation born?
QI’m looking for information about a birth for Thomas Moreton or Morton, on my mother’s side of the family.
Thomas Morton married Ellen Thomas at St Mary’s Church, Chester, on 8 November 1828. On the 1841 census for Runcorn, Thomas is 30 and born in Cheshire. He is living with his family – Ellen, 30, and children Robert (12), William (10), Thomas (8), Margaret (4) and Mary (1), all of whom were born in the county.
In 1851 he is in Mill Brow Row, Halton (still Runcorn), with some of his children, although the name is spelled “Thornton”.
I have traced the family forward. Some of them lived on the canal, but Thomas didn’t. He was a quarry worker, and died on 29 October 1852 in Halton, of phthisis. His death was registered by his widow. Emmie Jones
AYou suggest your ancestor’s name has been misspelled, becoming “Thornton” rather than “Mor(e)ton” on the 1851 census. This seems unlikely. Additionally, the Thomas Thornton on the 1851 census is 51 years old – 21 years older than the 30-year-old Thomas Moreton listed on the 1841 census. I believe that they are two different people.
Thomas Moreton’s 1852 burial record suggests he died aged 44, again ruling out the possibility that he is the same person as Thomas Thornton, who would have been 52.
Meanwhile, Thomas Moreton’s burial record gives his estimated year of birth as 1808. This would make him 20 when he married in 1828. The Thomas Moreton aged 30 on the 1841 census is probably the same man, since this census rounded ages down to the nearest five years.
The key question to address is where he was born. The 1841 census tells us that it was Cheshire, but gives no further details. Search for baptisms of a Thomas Moreton approximately 30 years earlier in Cheshire. Findmypast.co.uk suggests two contenders – one in Wilmslow (b1810), and the other in Great Budworth (b1809).