Can you help me find a record of my great grandfather’s birth?
He may have been known by an alternative name in his earlier life
QI’m searching for a birth record for my great grandfather Alfred Boardman. Alfred married Ann Jones in 1875 in Birmingham, was widowed and married again in June 1884 to Eliza Lines (see above). Eliza’s sister Ann married a William Boardman in April 1877. William was born in 1850 in Birmingham; his father was Livesey Boardman. William and Ann were witnesses to Alfred and Eliza’s wedding. However, I have not been able to find a connection between Alfred and William Boardman other than the shared surname. According to the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses, Alfred’s date and place of birth are c1852, St Giles, Middlesex.
Mary Moffatt
AThe matching surnames suggest a family relationship, however Boardman isn’t such an unusual surname that it would allow us to discount mere coincidence – but it does need to be investigated by building an extensive family tree for William Boardman.
You have identified a probable first marriage to Ann Jones in 1875, and a census record in 1881 shows Ann and Alfred at 19 James Street in Birmingham. Unusually there is a big age gap between the couple – he is 34 and she is 64, which makes that marriage one for you to look at more closely.
You have Ann’s death certificate from 1883, but don’t appear to have the marriage certificate. So that should be obtained to see if the name of Alfred’s father is consistent, whether either party had been married before, and whether the addresses given and the witnesses to that marriage provide any clues.
I can’t see any definite record of your Alfred Boardman before 1881 and have failed to find him in the 1861 or 1871 census with any certainty, but he does consistently say that he was born around 1850 in the St Giles area of London.
You appear to have undertaken significant research and failed to find Alfred there, so you have to consider that your great grandfather may have been known by an alternative name in his earlier life. He could have been born illegitimately, in which case his birth may be indexed under his mother’s surname. This would make him very difficult to identify without finding further evidence.
Antony Marr