OK I give up!

[Ayashi]

Families can make such a mess sometimes! One of my ancestors had two illegitimate children by a man she didn't marry (subsequently marrying my ancestor instead). She pretended to be married to the father the first time and both christenings name him, so I know who he was. For some reason her later husband took some responsibility for the oldest of those children (girl) but not the second (boy) as far as I can see. The girl later vanished off the face of the Earth. More recently I discovered that she emigrated, married, lived and died in Canada. On various documents she gives her maiden name as her bio-father's, her step-father's or a double barrelled version of both... one document gives her mother's maiden name wrongly as her mother's stepfather's surname... and on her marriage she names her brother as her father even though her father's name was known  I'm glad I approached this from the other direction or I might well have been horribly lost.

[Dundee]

The one thing that might help is if there are any relatives of the son born  in 1882, William but may as people have said taken his late brothers name.

There are a number of people with family trees on Ancestry.

Debra 

[Sueh2]

Just received Emily’s birth certificate and she is a match, what a tangled web!

Thank you very much Debra for your input, she was hiding right in plain sight.

There is a little more I should add. In 1891 (with her grandparents )she lived just a short walk from our cottage. I had come across her in a different search when I was doing some local history research.

Widowed grandfather married the servant and went on to have a whole new family, again just up the road from us.

Again your new eyes have put to rest this problem. Thank you

[theslider1000]

Wow Sue ,so you live close to where Emily and her relatives lived in the 1880/90s .

[Sueh2]

Absolutely, I cannot believe the coincidence. It’s a rural area and I did some research into the previous occupants of our 1850s cottage. The research widened and I ended up looking at the surrounding area. Emily is there in my notes.

 But this was some years before I started on my husband’s family tree and he comes from Yorkshire. Emily would have been his gt aunt by marriage. Unbelievable really.

[Dundee]

It's a good thing you didn't give up then.

The mother, Elizabeth Ann, was born in Kilkhampton so I wonder if fuzzy memories were responsible for the 'Northampton' reference to place of birth?

She was baptised with the extra middle name 'Perry'. 

John Thomas PERRY living in Stratton at the time might be a good suspect for Emily's father.  He was single and the same age as Elizabeth.

Debra 

[Sueh2]

I too had thought about Kilkhampton/Northampton but not sure.

And like you I had found John Thomas PERRY and considered him as Emily’s possible father. PERRY is much more common in West Cornwall but there is only the one Perry family in Stratton at the right time.

[Sueh2]

Just had a further look at John Perry, he became the postmaster in Stratton which I imagine was quite a respected position within the community

[tedburn history]

As you have been searching for so long you have probably seen this family.

Elizabeth Ann COLWILL had several illegitimate children in Stratton, Cornwall.

COLWELL, SAMUEL  CHARLES POOLY
GRO Reference: 1878  S Quarter in STRATTON  Volume 05C  Page 5
(This child died soon after birth)

COLWILL, EMILY  ANN
GRO Reference: 1880  D Quarter in STRATTON  Volume 05C  Page 4

COLWILL, WILLIAM  CHARLES LEWIS BECKLEY
GRO Reference: 1882  D Quarter in STRATTON  Volume 05C  Page 5

COLWILL, NORA  GRACE
GRO Reference: 1885  J Quarter in STRATTON  Volume 05C  Page 3

The children's baptisms are here

https://www.cornwall-opc-database.org/search-database/baptisms/

In 1881 Elizabeth Ann is in the workhouse with Emily and then I think Elizabeth died at the workhouse on 17 June 1887 aged 28.

In 1891 William and Laura G. are still in the workhouse and Emily is with her grandparents William and Grace in Lanivet.  Grace's maiden surname was BECKLEY so that would be where William's middle name came from.  Emily's age is 8 when she was closer to 11.

Nora Grace was registered with that name but baptised Laura Grace so it is hard to know which name was correct.  I cannot see any further sign of a Laura, but Nora appears in 1901 in Torquay.

She was baptised on 4 June 1885 and you know that your Nora was born 9 Apr 1885 (maybe, if she wasn't making it up).  For the cost of a birth cert it would be interesting to see the date of birth of that child.

Emily's year of birth is not correct but I do wonder if either she didn't know how old she was or put her age up to marry.  She was baptised with the extra middle name 'Perry'.  Your Emily was supposedly born on 9 November and this Emily Ann was baptised on 3 December, so that would work as well.

This is interesting - we have had a few instances on these boards where people's ancestors were in possession of the wrong birth certificate......

William born 1882 starts using his second name Charles from 1901 (I think he is in Devonport) and marries Margaret LEACH in 1903 at Launcells in Cornwall.  He does not name a father and says he is 19.

In 1911 they are still at Launcells and he says he is 29 and born in Stratton.  In 1921 he is still Charles and is 37, born in Launcells.

Roll along 1939 and he suddenly becomes Samuel C. born 21 Sep 1878 and he dies as Samuel Charles Pooley COLWILL (see his deceased brother's birth reg above) in 1954.  Did he apply for a birth cert search sometime between 1921 and 1939 and received the wrong one?

Have you had your DNA 'done'?

Debra 

I am searching this tree for a friend, the information they have is slightly different.
Charles Colwill, born1878, in the Stratton workhouse to Elizabeth Ann Colwill, his birth cert does not show a father. His sister Emily Ann who was born 2 years later was brought up by her Maternal grandparents in Kilkhampton, did he as well??? 1901 census shows him on Samuel Skinners farm at North Barton, Launcells as a teamster. He married in 1903, apparently he was 19 and she was 15?? They lived at Grimscott near Launcells.