William Jesse White - alive or dead?

[brentor boy]

Janet - thanks for your interesting and intriguing post. Again close but not conclusive. The father's name matches, as does the country of birth, but not the location. Also the date of birth differs slightly :- 3 April 1867/ 8 April 1868. Almost near enough but not quite.

I understand and accept the restrictions in respect of look-ups but are you able to tell me if WJW the soldier enlisted in the REs after 1894 when WJW the sailor deserted fom the R N?

From my as yet incomplete research I believe that father Henry Jesse White was born in 1838 so the service record seems likely to be his. Genius, in post#3 suggested he might be a soldier.

Genius:- Details of Jessie Ada's baptism are on Free Reg and confirm WJW, Stoker in HMS as the father. And yes that is my family in the workhouse. A year later Frederick Charles was sent to Canada as a Dr Barnardo Home Child. Interestingly the family's admiitance to the workhouse was just a month after Wiliam Henry Hayman, Ada Emma's second husband, himself married for a second time. Violet and Frederick Charles were his children. It was just before a third child, Ernest Edward was born in August 1905

[elsinore]

brentor boy, you really should try to view the FMP army record for WJW. There are 24 pages, some of them are blank but some have very revealing information which should help you to draw some conclusions!
If you don't have a subscription to FMP, you can opt for “pay as you go” for only £6.95, or maybe a local library will give you free access to FMP.

Peter

[brentor boy]

Many thanks to all who contributed to this thread - by scrutinising my research, alerting me to fruitful sources or adding to my general knowledge.

The information contained in his Army records makes me feel confident that I can now develop a fairly comprehensive account of WJW 's life; his truncated careers in both the Army and the Navy, his abandoned family and his bigamous marriage. I recognise that there are discrepancies in some dates and ages but I am satisfied that there is sufficient agreement and "fit" in so many other areas that his identity is beyond reasonable doubt.

When I first posted I thought he might have just dropped off the planet. I now realise that I didn't know the half of it! Thank you all.

[janbooth]

Glad to be of help - the Service record is very informative, isn't it, and there are so many parallels to your WJW that I thought they were almost certain to be one and the same. He obviously led an interesting life to say the least! And if you viewed the information re Henry Jesse on FMP, you now have his Service record and his mother's first name which should hopefully enable you to go back another generation. In case you do not already have this information, have just found the parish register image of a marriage on FMP which took place at Thanington in 1838 of Edward WHITE which I think will interest you.

Janet

[Megan Roberts]

I know that there is an issue as to who WJW's father was.

Findmypast has a baptism for the birth registered in Blean in 1868, which gives the parents' names as William & Emily. They can all be seen in the 1871 census in Blean: RG10 Piece 973 Folio 83 Page 13.

I have spotted a couple of other marriages which you may or may not be aware of:

1892 William Jesse F White married (Woolwich district July quarter Vol 1D Page 2003). Although the initial “F” has appeared given that Woolwich was closely connected with the military, I would have thought that it would be worth considering purchasing this certificate to see if there is a connection. I know that this is only months after his marriage to Ada Ward in Chatham, but ..............

1903 (West Ham district Jan quarter Vol 4A Page 276)

Ancestry has his naval record. They have transcribed his place of birth as “Damfeeling” – I suspect that you have been getting that as you have chased his story down!