Unfindable couple / Male was in Navy

[Neale1961]

2. Joseph Brooks Snr who died in 1922 i cannot seem to link him to any parent names or follow his family tree, Ancestry keep suggesting his father as someone with the surname Field and mother with the surname London.

 I think in 1891 census Joseph (15, born Bermondsey ) is in the Barnados Boys Home at Stepney Causeway.

[bradwaterss]

Yes, i have just seen that - Interesting..! Thanks for finding.

[mckha489]

Possibly this death?  We know they were not averse to relocating for burial (as in the case of James Carl). Were any other of the Harmer family in Grimsby?

Deaths Sep 1964   (>99%)
HARMER    MARY E    87    GRIMSBY    3B   167

[bradwaterss]

I thought this was rather coincidental however have no idea why she of been 3/4 hours away - I cant see any census proving this however on FindMyGrave she is in the same plot as 3 of her children i believe.

[Neale1961]

I hope this is not too confusing - I am noting things down briefly, as I am short on time.
Please ask if unclear.


Elizabeth LONDON (b 1840 Norfolk) married John BROOKS in 1859 Martham, Norfolk

1861 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M76C-YDS?lang=en

Joseph FIELD was a lodger in the BROOKS household in 1871 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VFNV-5SR?lang=en


John BROOKS died in 1872

Then widow Elizabeth becomes Elizabeth FIELD “married” to Joseph FIELD
1881 census
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27Q-62VW?lang=en

Edith FIELD 17 is really Edith BROOKS
Alice FIELD 10 in really Alice BROOKS

Births of other children
FIELD, FLORENCE  MAUD MARY    Mother - LONDON 
GRO Reference: 1874  J Quarter in SAINT OLAVE SOUTHWARK  Volume 01D  Page 279

FIELD, JOSEPH  THOMAS     Mother- LONDON 
GRO Reference: 1876  J Quarter in SAINT OLAVE SOUTHWARK  Volume 01D  Page 240

FIELD, KATE                         Mother- LONDON 
GRO Reference: 1878  S Quarter in SAINT OLAVE SOUTHWARK  Volume 01D  Page 226   

FIELD, ETHEL MAUD registered in 1880, same mother.

Joseph Thomas FIELD birth date on school enrolment in 1883 is given as 27 Apr 1876
This is 1 year off his dob given when your Joseph Thomas BROOKS joined the navy. He may have lied about his age to get in earlier.

Your Joseph T Brooks named his father as Joseph on his marriage with same occupation of fireman (so he may have also been a stoker / seaman). Witness at the marriage is his sister Kate.


There are various seaman’s records for the father Joseph FIELD. He appears to become unfit for work from about 1886. Then there are workhouse records for various family members.


I don’t know why your Joseph decided to become a BROOKS, but he was using that name by 1891 (at least) when in the Barnardo’s home. (If applying for his Barnados records, they might be under either surname).


Joseph’s younger sister Ethel Maud FIELD also went by the surname BROOKS. In 1911 she is working in the furniture business with the Hall family.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWGQ-JGQ?lang=en
The Mrs. Alice Hall had died in 1899, and was Ethel’s half sister Alice Brooks born 1870 Norfolk.
Thomas P Hall was the brother of Martha Hall who married your Joseph Brooks (aka Field).

[Neale1961]

Elizabeth LONDON bapt 27 Sep 1840 Runham, Norfolk
Daughter of James LONDON (aka LUNNING) and  Charlotte LARKE (married 1823 Runham)

Birth rego.
LONDON, ELIZABETH       Mother - LARK 
GRO Reference: 1840  S Quarter in EAST & WEST FLEGG  Volume 13  Page 104

1841 census London family
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M792-ZYF?lang=en

  -   James London died 1878 Yarmouth

1881 census for Charlotte London
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q278-915B?lang=en


Children of Elizabeth LONDON AND John BROOKS
BROOKS, ANN  ELIZABETH     Mother - LONDON 
GRO Reference: 1860  D Quarter in EAST AND WEST FLEGG  Volume 04B  Page 35

BROOKS, EMMELINE       Mother - LONDON   
GRO Reference: 1862  M Quarter in EAST & WEST FLEGG  Volume 04B  Page 37

BROOKS, EDITH       Mother - LONDON   
GRO Reference: 1864  M Quarter in EAST & WEST FLEGG  Volume 04B  Page 43

BROOKS, WALTER   (& he died age 2)    Mother - LONDON 
GRO Reference: 1868  D Quarter in YARMOUTH NORFOLK  Volume 04B  Page 20

BROOKES, ALICE  HANNAH                                              Mother - LONDON   
GRO Reference: 1870  D Quarter in YARMOUTH NORFOLK  Volume 04B  Page 26


•   Alice Hannah Brooks married in 1891 Hackney to Thomas Panter HALL; Alice d 1899.
(His sister, Martha Hall who later married your Joseph was witness. And when Joseph married Martha in 1901, Thomas Panter Hall was witness)

•   Ann Elizabeth Brooks married in 1881 Bermondsey to Thomas WHITTLETON
(Joseph and Alice FIELD were witnesses.)

•   Edith Brooks married 1881 Rotherhithe to George Trew PERRY, occupation Butcher
(This is the Mrs E. Perry who in 1888 admits her ½ siblings Joseph Brooks age 12, and Ethel M Brooks age 8 to the Brighton Road Poor Law School.
As far as I can find, before this date, Joseph and Ethel were enrolled in schools under the surname FIELD)

——————-
Photo of Martha Brooks nee Hall, wife of Joseph.
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/LVD8-6BK

[bradwaterss]

@Neale1961

These are some amazing finds and they definitely all add up and make sense thank you so much for finding, I think I can follow the family tree up now!!


I guess we may never know why they changed their names to Brooks? Perhaps at the time both parents were dead the sisters had to look after them and as they were a brooks they gave them that name?

What do you think to the below on perhaps a reason why 1886 is listed as death date by a lot of other family trees? I can’t find anything online about this? The dates make sense so I believe this is him

Canada, Seafarers of the Atlantic Provinces, 1789-1935

Name   Joseph Field
Record Type   Crew
Age   39
Birth Year   1846
Birth Place   London, England
Vessel Name   Lydia
Vessel Type   Ship
Voyage Departure Date   25 Nov 1885
Voyage Departure Port   London, England
Voyage Arrival Date   10 May 1886
Voyage Arrival Port   England
Vessel Registration Number   Y874034
Vessel Registration Place   Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
Year Vessel Constructed   1874
Date Joined Present Ship   15 Dec 1885
Place Joined Present Ship   London, England
Crew Number   18
Literacy   Signed name
Completed What Signed On To Do?   No
Discharge Date   25 Feb 1886
Discharge Place   Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Discharge   Deserted
Registry of Last Ship   English
Company From Last Ship   0
Capacity (Rank)   Able-bodied Seaman
Payment Type (Time)   By the month
Wage   215
Wage Currency   Sterling

[Neale1961]

Brad, You're back! Good. I thought you might have disappeared, just as things with the FIELD family are looking interesting.

Yes the record you attached is for the correct Joseph. He was discharged Feb 1886.

•   In June 1886, he was admitted to the Dreadnought Seamans Hospital (off the ship Lydia). He was in hospital for 50 days and the notes say “incapable of further relief. Unfit for work” I cannot read the scrawl that records the nature of his illness.

•   From 9 Sept 1886 to 26 Oct 1866 Joseph was in the City of London Workhouse. “Not able bodied”. He was discharged at his own request.

•   It is 1886 where his children start to appear in workhouse records, so he obviously was not able to earn a living.

•   I don’t think he died in 1886. I have NOT found a death record for him in the few years after he stopped work. I haven’t looked at any ancestry trees (they are often incorrect), but my guess is that nobody actually has a death record for him. There is more work to do there to find out what happened to him.



It will be very useful for you to follow Joseph Field’s career as a seaman, so you get a better understanding of his life.
•   In the 1871 census for Yarmouth, Joseph is a fisherman, and lodger with the Brooks family.

•   In July 1873 in Yarmouth, Joseph Field joins the Royal Navy Reserve.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8177173
This wonderful document is important for you to get. It is free to download once you have signed in.
It gives you detail of all the ships he served on. It gives his physical description, including his tattoo. Importantly it gives you his parents’ names, and his date and place of birth.

•   Joseph is discharged from the Navy in 1875 due to “defective vision”.

•   Straight away Aug 1875, he joins the crew of the Aurora out of Greenock in Scotland, as Able seaman.

•   There is a record from 1880 Dorset Crew Lists, where Joseph Field is on the ship “Orleans” working as a fireman, or stoker.

•   Then another record for the same position on the same ship in 1881. (Fireman was the occupation that his son gives his father when he married.)

•   Then Joseph joins the ship “Lydia” in 1885 (the record you have posted above).

[Neale1961]

We know by now that Joseph FIELD was born in Islington, London in 1847, the son of Thomas and Mary.

So, I went looking to see what else I could find. ………

It seems that Joseph Field spent most of his early life in the workhouse, as well as in older age!

There are scores and scores of records from the Islington Workhouse and Poor Law Board of Guardians for Joseph Field (from age 1 to about age 7, ie 1848-1854), his mother Mary Field and his younger sister Mary Ann Field.

As you read through them all, you pick up various bits of information which ultimately gives you the complete picture.


A very brief summary:-
•   In March 1848 we find Mary Field, 18,  born Islington, married, workwoman, with her son 2 year old Joseph, and her daughter Mary Ann 1 month old. Destitute - Her husband has deserted her.

•   By Feb 1849, we discover that the family is back in the workhouse, again destitute because the father / husband is in prison and has been sentenced to 7 years transportation.

•   Along the way we have records confirming that Joseph born about 1846 / 47, and Mary Ann born 1848 are both legitimate children of Mary Field.

•   We then discover that Mary has an illegitimate son named John born in 1852.



Then I went looking for the husband ……………..

Thomas FIELD born 1825 Islington, occupation Sawyer.
•   Was convicted of house breaking and sentenced to 7 years on 29 January 1849  at the central Criminal Court

•   Thomas Field and Henry Watson broke into the dwelling house of William Abel, and stole a silver mug and other articles valued at £20. Field had previous convictions. Both guilty, but Watson only received 1 yr sentence.

•   Thomas Field was initially held on the York Hulk

•   Assigned with Convict No. 471

•   In March 1851, he was transported to Western Australia on the “Pyrenees” arriving in Freemantle on 28 June 1851

•   Recorded as being semi-literate

•   His Ticket of Leave was granted on 28 June 1851

•   His Conditional Pardon was granted on 23 April 1853

Proceedings of Thomas’ trial at the Old Bailey.
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=def1-534-18490129&div=t18490129-534#highlight

Link to the Millbank prison register (includes some important detail)
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-813058571/view
This confirms he had 6 previous convictions. Importantly it confirms his wife was Mary Field and his children were Joseph and Mary – address 2 Swan Yard Islington

Register of prisoners on the Prison Hulk, “York”
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-812073158/view


Physical description of prisoners. Scroll down Thomas Field (prisoner 471)
https://www.perthdps.com/convicts/conwad03.htm