I know this topic is a "long shot" and I'm sorry for, and not a little embarrassed at, getting my names mixed and causing confusion from the start. However, I'm already the wiser within a few hours of posting and truly grateful to all and hopeful I've not caused too much trouble and that I may be forgiven for my laxity.
My grandmother, b1886, was adopted and spent much of her life searching and died knowing no more than what was on her birth certificate. The advent of the internet made solving this century long mystery possible and I soon worked back as far as a marriage in 1804 between a Thomas Bowness and an Ann Todd. Of this Thomas I learned only that he was a mariner, ship owner and native of London and left this on the shelf for occasional review.
With more information found on the web, increasingly common factors appeared to connect my Thomas Bowness and the fishing tackle family in London. Initially it was only that my Thomas had children called Susannah, Mary, George, Caroline and Thomas, as had potential parents Thomas and Susannah named theirs and their son George, in turn, did too. Searches of the London Gazette produced other lifestyle similarities in terms of legal wrangling and financial difficulties in both these Bowness families while no other branch of my family ever faced such matters. They both wed by licence, not banns and potential brother George indentured his son Thomas to become a mariner. as was my Thomas.
All these could be coincidence, but as time goes on the number of coincidences increase while finding nothing to indicate the contrary.
Eric.