Thomas Graham, Graham orphanage London? Illegitimate son of Colin Campbell? 1897

[heywood]

You can also look at snippets on The British Newspaper Archive.

[gtoal]

Thanks, heywood.  You folks here really know your way around data sources we never even heard of.  You've found more in a couple of days than we did in years.  It's appreciated.

[Viktoria]

Just seen this so have not read all the posts but when I saw Colin Campbell I immediately thought The Dukes  of Argyll!
Not sure but can look it up, when one of the Royal Family married into the family ,I seem to remember Louise.She was profoundly deaf .
So the Argyll family were elevated a notch to Dukes,at Inveraray but they would be in Edinburgh and London quite a bit.
I think the Campbell Victoria married was John ,but Colin appears quite often in that family.
Just a thought.
Viktoria,

[brigidmac]

regarding the DNA Louisa harris may have had welsh parents or grandparents but not necessarily lived in wales herself

i agree about not looking for GRAHAM or CAMPBELL surnames  among your matches but look for clusters of high matches and see if any locations come up as well as any significant surnames

Its important to link your dna results to your tree sometimes others can find matches by triangulating with matches to their own families , for example if i match someone at 3rd cousin level who does not know their birth father i can calculate probable great great grandparents because of our shared matches . there are some good techniques like colour coding  + success stories on the dna board

[annetoal]

Hi, I'm Graham's wife. I am astonished at the amount of new info you've shared here. Would you mind posting links to where you're getting it all from? When I looked up the 1821 Scottish Census, I found links to road indices but no digitized indexed data. Undoubtedly I'm looking in the wrong place. Would you please help me out?

Thank you so much for all the wonderful information that you've uncovered.

Anne Toal

[annetoal]

There is another baptism
Thomas Harris - parents Alfred, a French Polisher and Louisa
12th February 1891 Abode - Workhouse

Could you please post a link to this source?

Thanks
Anne

[heywood]

Sorry Anne. I found it in Ancestry here:
All London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923

[annetoal]

Thank you very much!

Anne

[gtoal]

As to the baptism record of 12th Feb, it's almost certain that applies to the same birth as 2nd Feb.
Assuming this is the child who grew up to be Thomas Graham, ...
It implies that Louisa Ann Harris that we found from Glamorgan, Wales, may not be the Louisa Harris who was presumably married to Alfred Harris, the French Polisher and that we should search out marriages between any Louisa - surname unknown - and Alfred Harris of an appropriate age.
The Welsh connection was inferred from finding Louisa Ann Harris born in Wales but I would point out that I don't remember any mention of Thomas's mother being Welsh. The Welsh thing may be a rabbit hole. The only reliable documentation we have - Grandad's birth and death certificates - just say Louisa Graham (Nee Harris) (deceased) - I think the "Ann" was a mistake on our part from thinking that Louisa Ann Harris born in Wales was the same person as Louisa Harris.  I suspect we inferred that she was not already married from the combination of youth - and getting made pregnant by the head of the household where she was in service.  So next little adventure would be to identify the maiden name of Louisa Harris.

Note that if she was indeed dead at the time my Grandparents got married, my Gran could only have met her during her engagement, and it does seem plausible that would be when she would want to meet her prospective mother-in-law.  Who, if she was indeed deceased by the date of the marriage certificate in 1920, would likely have died between 1918 and 1920, given that it's likely my grandparents met after his return from the war/de-mob from the army in 1918 or 1919?