RootsChat.Com

I've tried the Hartell family back to the mid 1700s using existing trees and then tracing the baptismal, marriage and burial records and am now at Joseph Hartill and his two wives, Jane Fernyhough and Anna Maria Seckerson.
Joseph's father was also Joseph and his mother was Anna Maria. (Hartell seems to have started as Hartwell then became Hartall, Hartill and Hartell. Anna was sometimes Hannah)
Joseph senior was shown as being born in either 1745 or 1755 in Stafford but despite searching from 1734 to 1760 I can't find a baptism for him. His fust marriage was to Jane in 1775. Jane died in 1777 and in 1779 he married Elizabeth.
My eyesight not being brilliant and working from a temperamental mobile phone, I'm wondering if I've missed something. Can anyone find my missing Joseph senior please.

Mary Hartnell had s daughter born out of wedlock. Sarah Hartnell Godson. Sarah's baptism shows Alfred Godson as her father. This is not replicated on her birth certificate.

Alfred and Mary marry on 26th September1867, the same day that their son is baptised.

Alfred dies later in 1867 and in 1871 Mary marries James Cartwright junior. They have a number of children including a son Joseph, born 1882 according to the 1891 census. However, that listing is the only mention I can find of Joseph apart from a newspaper article in 1910.

I can find no trace of his birth nor baptism on FindMyPast nor Family Search nor free bmd nor GRO. Can anyone help track Joseph down please.

Thank you for posting that. I haven't seen the full article only that he was found acting dazed in someone's house. It gives a bit more of an insight into this man. I wonder if he was formally adopted, it fits in with Grandma's story of her being persuaded to return to Leicester but handing her baby over to his father's family to raise.
In aware that he did something unforgivable when he returned to his mother and half siblings and theee are a couple of things it could be but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to prove any them but they all held a grudge against him, even my older cousins, who refused to discuss it with me. Its nice to know he wasnt a regular offender though.

Sorry, I didn't explain things very well.  My Grandma wasn't a bigamist. Her mother in law was. This is why Albert had an assortment of surnames.

Hi there,
I'm currently working on the family tree of my late mum's half brother.  All are deceased.

My Grandma, Annie Elizabeth Prince was born in Leicester in 1891. By April 1914 she had married Albert Godson/Beckett, was heavily pregnant and was living in Stafford. Their son was born in May 1914 and a month later Albert died of tb..

His parents persuaded Annie to leave the baby with them and return to Leicester,  where she eventually met and married my Grandfather.

The difficulty is that Albert's mother was, I believe, bigamously married to his father. 

Annie used the surnames Prince, Godson and Beckett as her maiden name on the birth certificates of the children she and my grandfather had. I think Albert also alternated between Godson and Beckett.

I can find Albert on the 1901 census, living with the Cartwright family but can't find him in 1891 or 1911.

I  have his death certificate and am wsiting on the marriage certificate.  I believe Albert was born about 1886 in Stafford or Staffordshire but can't trace his birth.


I know that by the late 1940s, the son, who had been named Arthur Andrew Reginald Godson (known as Reg) was living with his mother and the children from her second marriage in Leicester and I know that he was part of a rather large skeleton in my grandma's cupboard as my mum spoke a bit about him. My dad met him but was not aware of his actual relationship to my mum and her siblings.

I can't find him on the 1921 census although he's listed on the 1939 register. He never married as far as I can tell.

Please can anyone find Albert or Arthur/Reg  in the census or baptisms or births? Nothing comes up on GRO, free BMD, FindMyPast nor FS and I currently don't have Ancestry.

Thanks in advance.
June.