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  1. #1
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    Default Joseph Truman (1803 - 1873) - Wednesbury

    My name is Robin Jarvis and I live in Barnstaple, Devon. I normally subscribe to the Norfolk county-wide Forum and this is my first attempt to post on the Staffordshire Forum so please put me right if I have not done things right. My query (rather a long one I'm afraid) is as follows:
    In the 1851 Census my gg grandfather, Joseph TRUMAN, was living at 95 Grove Lane, Hackney, Middlesex. He is described as a coachman, aged 47 and his place of birth is given as Wednesbury, Staffordshire. I have discovered that there were in Wednesbury in the early years of the 19th Century two couples with the surname TRUMAN or variant thereof. In fact in the 1801 Census for Wednesbury two households are listed under the names John TRUEMAN and Stephen TRUEMAN, both in the Wood Green area. In St. Bartholomew’s Church registers there are records for the baptisms of the following children of Stephen and Kezia TROMAN: Stephen (1798), Ann (1799), Esther Wilson (1801), James (1802), Mary (1805), Kezia (1806), Thomas (1808) and Esther (1809). I noted that there was a gap between James and Mary in which my gg grandfather might have been born, but I could find no baptism record for him. A possible year of birth in the range 1803-4 would fit well with the ages given for Joseph TRUMAN in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses. There was also recorded a baptism of Mary Ann TROMAN on 16 Jul 1802 at the age of 2 years 7 months. She was said to be the daughter of John and Elizabeth TROMAN and would have been born about January 1800.

    Sadly I also found burials for John TROMAN in 1801 and Jane TROMAN in 1803, both children of John and Elizabeth TROMAN. I did find a baptism for Jane TRUMAN, daughter of John and Elizabeth at St. Philip’s Birmingham on 16 Feb 1798, but have not yet found a baptism for young John. Another sad discovery was a burial at St. Bartholomew’s Wednesbury for John TROMAN, Snr. on 27 Apr 1801. I have not, as yet, found a second marriage or a burial for his widow Elizabeth.

    Stephen TRUMAN married Kezia TOMMS on 4 Jan 1796 at St. Martin’s Birmingham and John TRUMAN married Elizabeth WATSON on 18 Mar 1797, also at St. Martin’s. I believe that Stephen and John were brothers, both sons of John TROWMAN and Elizabeth WALDRON who married at St. Bartholomew’s Wednesbury on 27 Dec 1752. Stephen was baptised at St. Bartholomew’s on 23 Nov 1761 and John on 9 Jan 1760. In later life both seem to have followed the trade of gun barrel maker.

    Even with the benefit of all the above research, the birth of my gg grandfather, Joseph, remains an impenetrable mystery. I have two theories:

    1. Joseph was a son of Stephen and Kezia TROMAN born 1803-4 and either not baptised or the record of his baptism is missing from St. Bartholomew’s register.

    2. Joseph was the illegitimate son of John’s widow, Elizabeth.

    I am inclined to reject Theory 1 because I would have thought that Joseph, when he had children himself, would have called one of them Stephen and another of them Kezia. As it was, his children were called Joseph Henry, Sarah, Anne, John Charles, William, James and Eliza. I am therefore veering towards Theory 2, i.e. that Joseph might have been the illegitimate son of Elizabeth TROMAN, born after the death of her husband John. The trouble is that I have no idea how I can test the truth or otherwise of these two theories. Do any of you readers have any ideas about what I could try?

  2. #2
    Super Moderator christanel's Avatar
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    Did you see this on FreeReg? Baptism of Joseph Trueman at St Michael's Brierley Hill 24 November 1805. father Joseph Trueman. mother Ann. Brierley Hill approximayely 7 miles from Wednesbury
    Christina
    Sometimes paranoia is just having all the facts.
    William Burroughs

  3. #3
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    Many thanks for your very helpful and quick reply, Christina. I shall certainly follow that Joseph up. I am a bit concerned whether someone baptised in Brierley Hill would give the 1851 census enumerator "Wednesbury" as his place of birth, but I certainly wouldn't rule this one out.

  4. #4

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    If a family had a link to another parish, they didn't always go to their residential parish for a baptism... It would be easy to be born in one and baptised in another!

    Anything to confuse us!

  5. #5
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    Many thanks, Lesley. That's a good point to bear in mind. I think I will try to do a bit of research on the subsequent life of the Brierley Hill Joseph Trueman to see if I can confirm him as an ancestor or otherwise.

  6. #6
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    I rather think I might have eliminated the Joseph TRUEMAN, baptised in Brierley Hill in 1805, from my enquiries. I did a worldwide search in Ancestry and came across an American book called “The Genealogy of the Sharpless Family” by Gilbert Cope. In it there is a reference to a marriage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Joseph TRUEMAN, born Staffordshire, England 17 Nov 1805 to Mary Ann PYLE, born 12 Jan 1816, daughter of Jacob Pyle and Mary MENDENHALL. Joseph TRUEMAN is said to be the son of Joseph TRUEMAN and ANN PARLOT. He died on 5 Dec 1885 at Phoenixville, PA and in one of the US censuses his occupation is given as “engineer”.

    Admittedly it is not specified that this Joseph TRUEMAN was born in Brierley Hill, but his parents’ forenames, Joseph and Ann, are right and the date of birth given in the book is just a few days before the baptism date in FreeREG.

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