Thomas Chapman and Elizabeth Harvey

[harleyallison]

That is unbelievable that you lived at the same house,it is a small world.Thomas must have been working on the railway in Watlington and as Mutley said moved to Llantrisant when the worked stopped.
I have never come across Amelia Chapman in any census reports.Is she a daughter if so where is she?
I also have Chapman family that was living in Cymmer,that Chapman line came from Somerset though.Florence Chapman married one James Chapman born Somerset.I did think that they may have been cousins as they were living just streets apart.But i can not even go there it is too much at the moment.I just want to consentrate on finding Thomas and Elizabeth first.

[Waitabit]

This is getting good. keep it up!

Amelia? perhaps one of the children who died?

[Mutley]

I only know of Watlington because Mr. Mut was born there albeit in the 1930s and he said there was not much there then!
But for the puddy tat to live in the same house in Cymmer. Amazing! Tis a small world we live in, indeed.

Oh! I shall be very interested in Mary Ann's birth address now. (c'mon Mr. Mut, stop rolling your eyes and take a look at this address, do you know it?)

This afternoon I had a bit of spare time and was trying to find any Chapman children born in Willesden about 1840 +/-5,
I wondered if Thomas may have had siblings.
There was a John and a Margaret Eliza, they had Elizabeth 1833, Ann 1840, Thomas 1841 and Edward 1843, there may have been others. Baptisms were at Willesdon St. Mary. John was a Labourer.
I need to first check the thread and see if they have been mentioned and then check the census to find them.
I will let you know if I get a favourable result.

[harleyallison]

I have now received Mary Ann Chapmans birth cert.It states mother as Elizabeth Chapman formerly Harvey.No address just Watlington,the father Thomas Chapman's occ is a Farm Labourer so he couldnt have been working on the railway as we thought.
What can I do now ?Where can I look ?
Please can you give me some of your expert advice on finding my family.It needs more that a sledge hammer to break down this brick wall.

[harleyallison]

Which now takes me back to the only marriage for Elizabeth Harvey and Thomas Chapman that i can find is in Stepney 1868.I have traced this Thomas Chapman back through this marriage to find that it was a different one,born elsewhere and in a later census living somewhere else not in Wales where my Thomas was living.
Also the birth of Mary Ann in October 1867 comes before the marriage date in 1868.Ok Thomas and Elizabeth could have gone to Watlington to have their daughter as the were not married at this time, and then married later.But this does not tie in with it not being my Thomas and Elizabeth's marriage in the first place.
Oh i am so confused.Please can someone check back from Thomas and Elizabeth's marriage for me to see if/what i have done wrong as i must have done something wrong as nothing makes any sense.I do have a copy of this marriage and another child of Thomas and Elizabeth's birth cert to confirm that the mother's name was Elizabeth Harvey.
Help i am going crazy:

[harleyallison]

Thank you Mutley.I thought everyone had given up on me.

[Coromandel]

It is only a few hours since you posted your message about the certificate so you may have to be patient and wait for a bit longer for people's responses. I don't think Saturday is very busy round here, as people have so many chores etc. to do that take them away from BG. (I ought to be doing my chores too, but can always find something more interesting to do than housework.)

I would love to be able to help more but don't have access to Ancestry etc. from home so can't do anything to help with regard to censuses, London parish registers, etc. All I can do is speculate . . .

1st possibility: the Thomas Chapman / Elizabeth Harvey marriage you've found is the right one, and something has gone wrong with the chain of logic which made you rule it out. As I said, I can't access the London parish registers or census to check out the details myself.

2nd possibility: there is another Thomas Chapman / Elizabeth Harvey marriage that we haven't found yet (the GRO index wasn't perfect and FreeBMD isn't a complete or perfect transcription of the GRO index). Have a read of Colin D. Rogers' book 'The Family Tree Detective' for explanations of the problems and for ideas for search strategies. You can probably order a copy through your library.

3rd possibility: Elizabeth Harvey married someone else before she married Thomas Chapman; you could try searching London parish registers on Ancestry for a Thomas Chapman marrying an Elizabeth whose father was a Harvey (but not putting in a surname for Elizabeth) in case this picks up anything.

4th possibility: they never got around to marrying, but registered their children's births as if they were married.

I hope that gives you something to think about while you wait for a more helpful person to come along.

[harleyallison]

Thank you Coromandal,thats great
I will try the 3rd possibility.

[Mutley]

I have become quite confused now, I seem to have three Thomas Chapmans so...
I thought before I go hunting again I would write down as much of the threads as I could and try and make some sense of it all.

On the other thread it says that Thomas Chapman's father was George the carpenter and Elizabeth Harvey's father was John the cutter. However, I believe this information is from the 1868 marriage which is not your couple.

Do we know who the parents of YOUR Thomas and Elizabeth actually are?

[harleyallison]

No sorry i do not know who the parents of my Thomas and Elizabeth are.
I have looked for a marriage and the only one which keeps coming up is the one in 1868 Stepney.This is where i have had Thomas Chapman's father as George Chapman and Elizabeth Harvey's father as John Harvey from.
THANK YOU FOR HELPING.