Grandfather jailed for bigamy - missing link

[PatLac]

George Pitchers had a sister called Celia...

The plot thickens...

Surname    First name(s)    Spouse    District    Vol    Page
Marriages Dec 1945   (>99%)

Bellamy    Mary C    Bothamley    Peterbro'    3b   633    
Bothamley    Frederick F    Bellamy    Peterbro'    3b   633    
Bothamley    Frederick F    Kennelly    Peterbro'    3b   633   
Kennelly    Mary C    Bothamly    Peterbro'    3b   633

[M3D1C_Dan]

I think I've got him!!!!!

Looking at his attestation on Ancestry pointed to by PatLac he gives the 9th December 1901 date of birth that matches his 1939 entry. His place of birth is Newark, Peterborough, Northamptonshire. I didn't know that there was a Newark near Peterborough!

I started to work my way through the boys on the 1911 with Newark, Northamptonshire as their place of birth. Any that could be accounted for by a death or appearance on the 1939 register I set aside and moved on to the next.

Richard Gilbert Pitchers is the son of a former horsekeeper George Pitchers, has a brother Fred and a sister Rose. He married a woman whose maiden name was Markson. I can't find any record of him after this 1926 marriage.

He appears as Gilbert Pitchers in Woolpack Lane Whittlesey 1911 with widowed father George, at this time a general labourer, and siblings Leah, Priscilla, Lilian, Fred and May.

From freebmd:

Births Mar 1902 Peterboro 3B 218
Pitchers, Richard Gilbert

Births Dec 1907 Peterboro 3B 188
Pitchers, Bertie Fred

Births Sep 1904 Peterboro 3B 213
Pitchers, Rose Priscilla

Jumping back to the 1901 father George, born Banham Norfolk, is working as a "Horsekeeper on Farm" at Newark, Peterborough Without, Northamptonshire.

Gilbert Pitchers in 1921 is at Landi Kotal Camp, Khyber Pass, North West Frontier Province. He is a Private in the Northamptonshire Regiment.

Back at Whittlesey in 1921 father George is with the children that have not yet left home. There is also a widowed Housekeeper, Lucy Mabel Bellamy and her young son Harold Sidney Bellamy.

From freebmd:

Marriages Sep 1926 Whittlesey 3B 1362
Gilbert R Pitchers + Lucy M Bellamy

Births Mar 1915 Whittlesey 3B 913
Bellamy, Harrold Sydney (mmn Markson)

Marriages Jun 1914 Whittlesey 3B 1305
Herbert S Bellamy + Lucy M Markson

Herbert Bellamy was killed in World War one.

I haven't been able to find anything else on Richard Gilbert/Gilbert Richard after that 1926 marriage to his father's housekeeper.

Lucy by 1939 I think is with a George H Kennelly at Redbrick Farm, Newark, Peterborough. They are shown as being married but I've not yet found the marriage. She seems to have 'lost' a few years from her age given in 1921 but there is a Kennelly daughter with them and this girl's 1938 entry on freebmd has the mother's maiden name given as Markson.

Lucy is a bit of a mystery too. The green ink on the 39 indicates that she later used the forenames Hannah Lucy. There is a 1971 death in Peterborough district of Hannah Lucy Kennelly in 1971 with date of birth 13 Aug 1894.
Several trees on Ancestry have her starting life as Hannah Lucy Hazell in Reddish Lancashire in 1894 but I can't work out how, if that's her, she came to have the surname Markson.

If I'm right that your Gordon Roland Markerson/Markinson is actually Gilbert Richard Pitchers then the 1934 marriage to Phyllis was likely bigamous too! He seems to have kept his initials and created a surname based on the maiden name of his wife!

My curiosity got the better of me and I sent for Richard Gilbert Pitcher's birth certificate. I had to use the reference from freebmd as I couldn't seem to find the same one on the GRO index.

The PDF arrived today and guess what? His date of birth is Ninth December 1901. BINGO!!!

I'll try and snip part of the cert. What does everyone think? Is it case solved or have I lost the plot?

Best wishes, Tony.

A few things of coincidence here.

Richard Gilbert Pitchers - this is my father's father, My father's name is George J.P. Markinson (similar initials for his middle names there... maybe?). My father's brother, Charles, named one of HIS son's Richard, although I wouldn't have thought he would have known the TRUE history of his own father's birth name.

Richard/Gordon, whatever his real name is, his father was indeed a George (or so Ancestry is suggesting on their 'HINTS', which would make sense as to why my father was Christened George. The hints stop here as far as Ancestry suggestions go.

On a plus side, both my mother and father have taken the Ancestry DNA tests and I am currently awaiting their results. It'll be interesting if any of your research correlate with these result findings. I'll keep you posted.

The other point is that if Gordon's marriage to Phylis Oakley 3rd Feb 1934 makes Gordon 33, that's plenty of time in those days to accept that he could indeed have been married and fathered children to a previous marriage. When I look back through history of marriages, there are a lot of people married in their late teens early 20s.

I'm still relatively green to researching my history, and I don't know how you managed to research the findings you have done Tony, but I applaud your skill and thank you.

I'm not sure if I should build these potential findings into my tree now, start another with these names/DOBs and see what results, or what.

Please feel free to DM me if you need any specific info I haven't included as I'm sure you are just as interested in this as I am.

Regards

Dan

[M3D1C_Dan]

One other thing that's been niggling.

From the newspaper report we know he was 'bound over' in 1946 for the bigamous marriage to Nora Reddington.

He is not imprisoned until 1949 - What for?

Tony.

Where was thew imprisonment information originating?

[antonymark]

I've had this email from the Wakefield Archives in West Yorkshire today who handle the prison deeds for Armley Prison. It might be something to go on.

We have now undertaken a search of the Armley Prison collection (ref. C187) and I am afraid we were not able to find an entry for Gordon Richard Markinson.  There was, however an entry for a Gordon Rowland Markerson imprisoned at a similar date to your enquiry.  This gentleman seemed to match the description you had given and was imprisoned for a similar offence.  He was admitted to the prison on the 22nd of October 1949 and was released on the 9th of January 1950.
 
I have undertaken a search on the website freebmd.org and was able to find a marriage entry for George Markerson to Phyllis Oakley in March of 1934.  I was not able to find a birth entry of registration of death for Gordon R. Markerson.

Morning,

The 1949 imprisonment date came from this contact from the prison archives back at reply #51.

It only struck me when having a thorough re read of the whole thread that the newspaper report found was from 1946.

Tony.

[M3D1C_Dan]

So I've set up another couple of trees from scratch with the info Tony has found and used the suggested hints on Ancestry to see what it throws back.

I started with the Gilbert Richard Pitchers - Lucy Bellamy connection and worked it from there. The results I've compiled have been from the BDMs and other access Ancestry uses, as well as having a nosey at where some of the info sits in the publicly available trees from other users.

Gilbert R Pitchers -m- Lucy M Bellamy 26th July 1926
Makes Gilbert 25 years old

Lucy M Bellamy born April - June 1872 in Peterboro'
3b 269


From the GREEN FAMILY TREE:

Lucy M Bellamy (nee MARKSON) born 13 Aug 1894, Stockport, Cheshire - Died July 1971 Peterborough

Marriage to Herbert abt. 1891 in Fletton, Huntingdonshire

Son from marriage - Harold Sydney Bellamy 7 Jan 1915, Whittlesey, Died about April 2003, Alford, Lincs

_________

Back to the Pitchers household in the 1911 Census.

George Pitchers aged 44 - Widowed - General Labourer - Born April 1866, Banham, Norfolk
     - Married to Sarah Elizabeth Dolby, born 1872 in Helpston, Northants - Died April 1909 Peterboro'

Also in house at that time:

Leah age 11 (Born in Peterboro')
Gilbert 9 (born in Neewark)
Prescilla (also listed as Rose Prescilla) 7 (Eastfield)
Lilian 5 (Eastfield)
Fred 3 (Peterboro')
Mary 1 (Peterboro')

George died 9th April 1945 (Fountain Family tree)

Gilbert listed as 16years and 4 months, simgle, Newark, Private/Soldier in Northampton Rgt (page 38)

the connection to Hannah Lucy/Lucy Mabel Hazell/Markson (a few names to go at here) - from the trees I could access, no connection to any marriage or children from this relationship

George Pitchers -m- Sarah Elizabeth Dolby 21 Feb 1898

George's father, William -m- Elizabeth in the 1871 Census. Liced at 8 Hempnall Rd in Woodton, Norfolk.
Also in house at that time

William - Head - General labourer - Widowed from Elizabeth
Robert
Mary A
John
Herbert G
Matilda
Walter
Frederick

Not sure if this helps but it's a bit more to go on (maybe).

I guess it depends how well you want to trust what Ancestry hints as connected suggestions but will certainly be interesting if the DNA results connect any of these tree lines I found this info from to my own.

As I mentioned above, I'm by no means good at this but I'm trying to learn so any pointers would be greatly appreciated, and once again, thank you for all your input. Just wait till I get to working down my Mother's side – her father had told her (take from this what you will) that he was related to Mary Queens of Scotts

[M3D1C_Dan]

I'd forgotten all about that quote on the imprisonment

[antonymark]

Researching Mr Pitchers is the way I'd go next. If he can be found having a life after that 1926 marriage - a 1939 register entry or death record - then he can't have become your Gordon Roland/Richard and my theory would be disproved. I'd keep him out of your own tree until more research has been done.

Richard Gilbert/Gilbert Richard Pitchers does appear in a number of Ancestry trees but none of them have anything on his life after 1926. You could consider messaging the tree owners to see if anyone has any family stories about him. Something about "Uncle Gilbert that disappeared" would be gold dust!

Your Dad having taken a DNA test is very good news and if you're very lucky his match list will point quickly to the truth. There are lots of Rootschatters with DNA expertise that will help.

As others have said please do be wary of Ancestry hints. They can be helpful but reflect what people have built into their trees and can mislead.

Happy hunting!

Tony.

[PatLac]

One way of knowing where Lucy Mabel's surname Markson came from is to find her first marriage record to Herbert Sydney (Sidney) Bellamy.

Hannah Lucy Hazel(l) had a brother Mark and a brother Harold. Maybe she used her brother's name to create a new surname (Markson) and gave her first son the other brother's name, Harold.

In 1911 Lucy Hazell (17) was living with brother Mark and wife, and brother Harold in Stockport Third, Reddish, Cheshire. No sign of her after that, unless she is one of two H. Hazell who emigrated to Canada.

If Richard Gilbert Pritcher was Gordon Roland Markerson/Markinson, he might have borrowed from her the idea of faking his name.

[antonymark]

One way of knowing where Lucy Mabel's surname Markson came from is to find her first marriage record to Herbert Sydney (Sidney) Bellamy.

Hannah Lucy Hazel(l) had a brother Mark and a brother Harold. Maybe she used her brother's name to create a new surname (Markson) and gave her first son the other brother's name, Harold.

In 1911 Lucy Hazell (17) was living with brother Mark and wife, and brother Harold in Stockport Third, Reddish, Cheshire. No sign of her after that, unless she is one of two H. Hazell who emigrated to Canada.

If Richard Gilbert Pritcher was Gordon Roland Markerson/Markinson, he might have borrowed from her the idea of faking his name.

A picture of the certificate is on one of the Ancestry trees.

21st April 1914 District Registry Office Whittlesey.

Lucy Mabel Markson, Spinster

Father: John Markson, Undertaker (deceased)

 

Tony.