That's really interesting - and probably why I'm stuck!
I know that Frank Orlando Henry Delmar (VanToll - his mother's married name, which she used on census returns) was born in Greenwich, 1857 - my parents have his birth cert and can't quite read the street name, at first they thought Grind Street, then B---d Street, then gave up. I looked for a marriage cert for his parents (Henry Delmar and Emma Delmar - form Lamb) and have Henry Delmar VanToll and Emma Lamb in 1851 in Paddington. On that, Henry's father had exactly the same name and occupation, so there are 2 Henry Delmar VanToll's in existence.
I searched through the 1837online death index from 1851 to 1867 (what a cost!) and found only one VanToll registered death: Henry Delmar VanToll in 1854, Aylesford, Kent. Well, knowing that Frank wasn't born until 1857, it must have been Henry senior's death.
The cert arrived and said that Henry was 28 and died on board a barge on the River Medway after 2 days of diarrhea and 14 hours certified cholera (poor man). When I saw some info on an epidemic the same year and the word Broad Street, I made what now seems to be a very big, incorrect assumption! That Frank was born in Broad Street and his Henry must have too and contracted the fatal illness and been stuck out on a floating barge with other victims.
Clearly, Henry, age 28, couldn't have been Frank's father, but maybe Emma had him illegitimately and used her late husband's name. Why she didn't add the last name VanToll onto any name on Frank's birth cert I don't know. But I'd better not make anymore assumptions!
