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That's interesting to learn about the wills - in which case, absence of Francis from Harriet's in 1848 is indeed significant.

On rest of family, I did look into her father - looks like a well established and moderately prosperous trading family in Yorkshire. His will simply left £200 to his unmarried daughters Mary and Martha. (As an aside, there's a question how Harriet from solid Yorkshire background ended up in London marrying an exotic wine trader from France / Spain, enemy nations at the time.)

I also looked at her brother Samuel Dixon, suspecting Peter changed his name as a result of a bequest. But he just left £200 to what looks like his own son, so no Gassiot cross over there as far as I can tell.

However there are lots of siblings and uncles/other branches, so worth me taking a good look.  I was pleased to find an account of Harriet being buried in the family graveyard plot in Beeston - but no sign of John Peter the husband with her, so he's long gone and elsewhere.

And my sense on that whole fire and orphanage thing is similar to yours - doesn't fit known facts but not made up, so where's that coming from? I've done extensive newspaper key word searches for Gassiot, picked up lots about the business and Edinburgh (thanks to GR2 for checking on that), but nothing on a dramatic fire. Can't think where else to look.



 

This is great, thank you both.

Conscious you're travelling some of the ground I've covered - but finding some new things! (especially that 1828 passport for Francis) - let me give the background which I should have done first, apologies.

Taking a couple of steps back, my own focus is John Peter Gassiot, eldest surviving son, 1797-1877, a notable figure in Clapham, where I'm based. Am pretty confident about him / well researched.

I've also researched his mother, Harriet Dixon (B, M and D, probate etc) and his father John Peter Gassiot (only M, not birth in ?Fr/Sp, nor death ?here). I've found lots on his various failed wine import businesses, his move to Edinburgh perhaps to avoid creditors, and am guessing he died around mid 1820s (nothing found on that).

Their children were:
Peter b1796, presumed death before 1799
John Peter as above
Peter 1799-1862, life fully researched (Royal Marines, marriage, children, etc including his adoption of a family name on his mother's side)
Then there is Samuel, b1813 Edinburgh - ?died, a real mystery
and also two children cited in the original American research -
Marie, claimed birth 1801, no source cited, no records found
and Francis who went to America where there's an extended family.

Those catholic baptisms feel highly significant and explain the absence of the usual parish records except marriage (Samuel in Edinburgh is the outlier.) A baptism for Francis c1802 onwards would be a major breakthrough. I've trawled every single entry in the RC St George's register (hence found the earlier Peter one, mistranscribed).

There is an entry record for Francis in November 1828 into Philadelphia (no age) and lots in American sources thereafter, including this passport application from 1836 (no age): https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1174/images/USM1371_1-0081?pId=1117654
There's also a New York entry record in 1833 where the cited age implies birth of 1804.

The 1828 passport application feels very significant and is not mentioned elsewhere as far as I know.

Hope that puts things into context and explains my focus on Francis and that strange reference to 1816 (and the claimed birth date as 1809). 

At risk of overwhelming you, here's a write up which the family in America have of their origins. It's a mixture of facts and if not fiction, then misunderstanding and surmise. http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~gassiot/genealogy/history/roger.htm

You can see the problem. So I'm trying to bottom out the English (and now Scottish) components. Tricky enough, before embarking on France and Spain. The American end looks well worked over, albeit differing names and dates.

Anyway, thanks again, keep the ideas coming - it's a tough one! 

Interesting! Could very well be part of the extended family, given timing and names, perhaps a cousin. The previous research locates the family origins to Spain and France, with the father of the two boys coming to London around 1790. I'm trying to bottom out the family here before trying to go back another generation. And that 1816 reference is the only concrete mention of Francis - who later emigrated to America, hence the interest in him.

Bizarrely I've just received one of those 'order confirmation' emails - for an order placed three months ago to the day.

This situation is generating the full range of emotions - from anger, to incredulity, to laughing out loud (although hasn't yet reached _pity_ for the people behind the scenes grappling with the capricious beast they seem to have created). 

Thank you for looking that up, Alan. A neat run with consistent parentage for Hannah, John and Marian would be too much to expect given they are not showing up elsewhere- though I live in hope(!).

However that one for John (mother Jemima) ties in with a marriage that I have found elsewhere - I shall follow that up.

The other explanation is that the parents were dissenters or chapel rather than church, in which case no baptisms here and very hard to link to any marriage.