I've got myself in a muddle and I'm struggling to figure it out! I would really appreciate some help.
I applied for my grandfather's military record years ago because i wanted to start tracing my Martin line back yet the family knew very little about him other than that he was in the RAF in ww2 and that his fathers name was Walter Martin (engineer) from his marriage cert to my Gran, he was apparently a bachelor when he married. When i got his RAF record it had his birthday down as 9th sept 1898 and said he'd been born in London, my uncle had thought he was born in India and come into the UK when he was around 2 years old and educated in Scotland! It also showed that he had been awarded the Military medal in WW1, the London gazette had the award noted and gave his hometown as Leytonstone. I located a family on the 1911 census with a Charles Theodore Martin in Leytonstone but mother was a widow so went back to 1901 census and found the family and the father was a Walter, Bingo! I thought, even though the census gave estimated year of birth as 1895, I know ages can often be out. I applied for the birth certificate and the D.O.B came back as 10th Sept 1895, yes a little off but I still thought I had the right family. I've been researching these Martins for years. Had my DNA done and found links to the offspring of the sisters of Charles Theodore Martin of the 1911 Leytonstone family.
I posted on here a while back about my grandfather when I came across a Charles Theodore Martin of the 1939 register with a birth date of 10th sept 1895. I thought it must be my grandfather as i couldn't see any other Charles Theodore on the register, but he was listed with an Emily Elizabeth Martin! I got their marriage cert and it showed that his fathers name was Walter, an engineer. It also showed that he was a widower! Marriage took place in 1938 and yet he married my Gran in 1941! I then started thinking he was a bigamist! Someone on here also pointed out an article in the newspaper archive from 1934 about a Charles Theodore Martin who won the military medal who had been committing crimes under various aliases! A double whammy! The newspaper article notes that he had lost his wife not long after marrying her. I went looking for the marriage to the wife that came before Emily Elizabeth. Found a marriage for a Charles Theodore Martin to an Agnes Dorothy Massey in 1922 Kent. The father's name was again Walter who was an engineer, this time listed as a bachelor. Agnes Dorothy Martin passed away in 1934 in Reading so that would be 12 years after marriage not quite what the article had suggested but then who can trust what a con man came out with!!
I then turned my attention to Emily Elizabeth to see what had happened to her, got her death cert in. She passed away in 1967 Surrey, she was listed as a widow of Charles Theodore Martin. My grandfather passed away in 1959. I got to thinking did she know he was a bigamist or had she presumed he had died in ww2 when the war finished and he didn't return to her?!
I then noticed a death of a Charles Theodore Martin in Windsor 1954, applied for this and it is the death cert for the Charles Theodore Martin who was married to Emily Elizabeth! So I have clearly been wrong, my Grandfather was not the man who married Agnes and then Emily, he was not a bigamist. But whose birth cert have i got? Whose family is the one in Leytonstone 1911 that i have been researching? I can't see any trace of another birth of a Charles Theodore from around this time, it's actually quite a rare name with the Theodore in the middle.
I have to be related to the Leytonstone family as i have DNA connections to other family members. However all this made me go back and look at the connections. I have what I believe is a 2nd cousin but they only share 37 cM with me! Another relation from the family thought to be a second cousin comes in sharing 121 cM again not very high and perhaps not enough to be a 2nd cousin?
I'm so confused by it all!
