This database is online and you can narrow it by place - ELY. http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/community/BMD/camdex or for just births [they also have marriages and deaths]: http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/ridbirths.nsf/search?OpenForm I see what you mean with the census though there is a George and Susan Watson [he was b Ely] who have a daughter Emma and grandson James [b Ely] living with them in 1881. James was born 1877. They are living in Soham. George is sometimes listed as being born Stuntney which is between Ely and Soham. He does seem to have a son named Samuel b 1846 who is in Bloomsbury, London in 1881 as a stableman and who has a brother John bca 1859 living with him, he was a laborer at the waterworks. They give Stuntney as their place of birth. Could grandson James b 1877 be a son of the unmarried John? In 1891 James, 14, is still with grandfather George along with an unmarried daughter Mary Ann [old enough to be his mother] and another grandchild Elizabeth, 11. In 1901 the only fellow who could perhaps be the Ely grandson [if the grandparents said he was 4 when he was really 8] seems to be James Watson, b 1873, in Stuntney [Ely], working as a railroad porter in Ely. He has a wife Annie [Hill, md 1896] but no children. He is also there in 1911. There is a James Watson who died in Ely reg dist in 1960, aged 87, so born 1873 and this man. It seems a bit strange to put down Ely as your place of birth unless it was accurate or close enough. And there certainly are Watsons around. Liane
Thanks Liane - they certainly were a strange bunch. I think they could possibly have been Official Census Evaders rofl!Robert James could well have been this grandson - I have come across him before - particularly as I don't ever remember Da talking of his fathers parents. He talked of his step mother who apparently detested him which ended with him running away at the age of 10 to the mines. Amazing how he managed to be educated later and become an Engineer, graduating from the Rolls Royce College!I shall continue the hunt! Sonja 'Children may never remember what you said or what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel.' > From: lfenimore@columbus.rr.com > To: west-riding@rootsweb.com > Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 20:45:52 -0500 > Subject: Re: [WRY] Still trying to trace this WATSON family > > This database is online and you can narrow it by place - ELY. > > http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/community/BMD/camdex > > or for just births [they also have marriages and deaths]: > > http://www2.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/db/ridbirths.nsf/search?OpenForm > > I see what you mean with the census though there is a George and Susan > Watson [he was b Ely] who have a daughter Emma and grandson James [b Ely] > living with them in 1881. James was born 1877. They are living in Soham. > > George is sometimes listed as being born Stuntney which is between Ely and > Soham. He does seem to have a son named Samuel b 1846 who is in Bloomsbury, > London in 1881 as a stableman and who has a brother John bca 1859 living > with him, he was a laborer at the waterworks. They give Stuntney as their > place of birth. Could grandson James b 1877 be a son of the unmarried John? > > In 1891 James, 14, is still with grandfather George along with an unmarried > daughter Mary Ann [old enough to be his mother] and another grandchild > Elizabeth, 11. > > In 1901 the only fellow who could perhaps be the Ely grandson [if the > grandparents said he was 4 when he was really 8] seems to be James Watson, b > 1873, in Stuntney [Ely], working as a railroad porter in Ely. He has a wife > Annie [Hill, md 1896] but no children. He is also there in 1911. There is a > James Watson who died in Ely reg dist in 1960, aged 87, so born 1873 and > this man. > > It seems a bit strange to put down Ely as your place of birth unless it was > accurate or close enough. And there certainly are Watsons around. > > Liane > > > > Some useful websites - > FREECEN - http://www.freecen.org.uk/ > FREEBMD - http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ > FREEREG - http://www.freereg.org.uk/ > > Want to know where a place in Yorkshire is - Try Genuki > http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to WEST-RIDING-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message