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Thanks, Stan,

That's interesting. The job advert indeed suggests that the term "fancy" refers to the colours rather than to the work being dyed. I'd not thought of that possibility.

Thanks, Sunnee_Dee. That's an intriguing thought but unfortunately the Emma Parker living in Stapenhill Road, Burton-On-Trent, is 7-8 years too young to be my grandmother. I'm reasonably certain that my Emma Parker was an inmate of the Birmingham Workhouse in the 1911 census. She was born in 1882 and appears in the census as a single woman, aged 28, born in West Bromwich. I've traced her back in earlier censuses.

She would have been about 7 months pregnant at the time of the 1911 census so may have found it difficult to get employment.

Thanks for taking the time to do a search.

Thanks, the death certificate I have confirms he died at the family home. However, he'd been ill for a couple of years so one can't rule out that he had been living somewhere else around 1910 but returned to South Road as his health deteriorated.

I can certainly approach the Warwickshire Record Office, and the central library in Birmingham, but I'm interested to know if anyone has any experience of maintenance claims and court records. It's an area I know nothing about.

Hello All,

My father, Herbert Harry Parker, was born out of wedlock in the Birmingham Workhouse Infirmary (Dudley Road) in 1911 to Emma Parker. For a few years now I've been trying to confirm the identity of his father (my grandfather). The only clue comes from my father's wedding certificate from 1949 where he names his father as Herbert Harry Hailstone. A groom fabricating a father's name on a marriage certificate was not too unusual for those born out of wedlock but it only serves to deceive if the surname given is the same as that of the groom. As he gave his father the surname Hailstone, rather than Parker, I believe that this was his true father - nevertheless, I would like some corroboration of this.

The name Herbert Harry Hailstone is unusual and there appear to have been only two around of about the right age when my father was born - one lived in the Isle of Wight and the other in Birmingham. I've extensively researched the Birmingham one but not found any confirmatory evidence that he was my grandfather. On the other hand, neither have I found any evidence that he could not have been my grandfather. Sadly, he died intestate in 1915, unmarried and aged 35.

With regard to my father, workhouse records that might have been of help no longer exist and no baptism has been found. I've had my Y-chromosome DNA sequenced but I've not found a match so far (although I've not been able to compare my results with the DNA from any men with the name Hailstone so this route could still bear fruit).

A friend of mine is wondering whether it is possible that Emma Parker may have applied to the magistrates' court for maintenance payments where obviously she would have needed to reveal the name of the father. Does anyone have knowledge of maintenance payments around this time, and whether records for the Birmingham courts are archived anywhere?

Alternatively, does anyone have any other ideas on how I could move forward?

Thanks, Roger

Thanks for that, Guyana