William Francis OLIVER, born October 1850 (General)

by unknown, Tuesday, May 06, 2008, 04:04 (6052 days ago) @ slowhands

Now that I have 5 mins to myself, I've been through the fruits of your hard work properly. I think you're right that we have to start to doubt the Cinderford birthplace, though it remains a constant throughout his "paper trail" even when he apparently abandons his "Francis" on entering the navy.

The two East London families will bear further investigation, I think. I'm even wondering whether he might have emigrated during his 12 missing years 1882-1894, found that it didn't work out and come back. After all, he must be SOMEWHERE! He cannot have been missed off every census/index apart from the 1881. Even given the exceptional talents which my family seem to have for ending up left off transcriptions and indexes (or with misspellings like Olovers, Laibach and Lewbridge!!), he can't have escaped altogether.

I think I shall have to try some ships' lists and see what I can find.

I did notice that there are some Olivers who appear in the baptism lists for Cinderford a little later than 1850. I wonder if there's a connection there? I'm clutching at straws now!

Sian.