William Clarke -- Blakeney/Awre/Lydney (General)

by mrsbruso , Thursday, November 04, 2010, 02:54 (5138 days ago)

Waiting on a death certificate for William Lewis, and with that mystery possible solved (thank you Slowhands) I am investigating another mystery.

My g.g. grandfather, Richard Clarke (born abt. 1821,aged 20), is living in Blakeney in 1841, according to the census. Sharing houseroom with him is William Clarke, (born abt. 1781, aged 60) and Henry Clarke (born about 1832, aged 8).

This is what I've found so far, but I'm not sure that I'm on the right track . . .

A marriage for a widower, William Clarke, to Elizabeth Griffiths, Newland July 12, 1815, both living in St. Briavels Hundred.

This is followed by the birth of a number of children:
1817: William, baptised Feb 9, William and Elizabeth, Blakeney
1818: Ann, baptised Feb 22, William and Elizabeth, Blakeney
1820: Richard, baptised Nov 7, William and Elizabeth, Blakeney
1827: Eliza, baptised June 24, William and Elizabeth, Blakeney
1831: Henry, baptised April, William and Elizabeth, Blakeney
1835: Charles George Goss, baptised Sept 6, William and Elizabeth

Records can appear in Awre or Lydney . . .

So why are William, Richard and Henry living alone in 1841? Who was William married to previously? Did they have children? Who were William's parents? There are other Clarke's in the area during this period, and I have noticed a habit of them all using the same forenames over and over . . .

Richard leaves a tidy paper trail until his death in 1882 (New Road Blakeney and the Lunatic Asylum at Gloucester -- now that's a bit of family history nobody every mentioned to me before I found his probate record), but William and Henry disappear by the 1851 census. I can't find their deaths or burials noted, at least not in the Forest.

I'm also not sure if this William is related to the one mentioned in other threads.

And since William and Elizabeth's marriage certificate doesn't include all the possible information, I think I am at an stuck, at least for the moment.

That said, I think I've made more progress in the last six weeks than I have in the past two and a half decades. . .