Hello

[Castanea1985]

Hi

I'm researching my husband's family tree and have found some skeletons in the closet!
We have two generations that served in the Manchester Regiment.

The elder gentleman was known as John Seymour. The following information was taken from his army records:

He enlisted on 17th August 1914 in Manchester and stated that he was 29 years and 13 days old at the time - giving his dob as 4 Aug 1885. This ties in with his age on his wedding certificate. He said he was born in Newbiggin, Northumberland.
His army no. was 3346, then 27678.
Initially he was in the Manchester Regiment 11th (reg/depot)
He was in the 3rd Regiment and posted on 1st March 1916
and transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on 21 March 1916.
He was in the Mediterranean from 16th July 1915 to 28th Dec 1915 and in France from 16th June 1916 to 22nd November 1916.
He had many unauthorised absences and was tried in York in 1916.
He was discharged 10th July 1918.

The trouble is, there are many anomalies in his records. For a starter, we cannot find a John Seymour born at this time from Newbiggin. So we assume he had a name change, before moving to Manchester.

His Marriage:
Mary Jane Sidlow (nee Ashworth)
6 Feb 1913 St. Johns Church, Failsworth, Manchester
witnesses: William Jones and Jane Richardson.

Children:
John Seymour b. 30 Jun 1913 d. 18 Jul 1972 b. Manchester.
Thomas Seymour b. 27 Oct 1916 d. Sep 1981 b. Prestwich.
Ivy Seymour b. Mar 1919 d ? b. Prestwich.

We have no photos of him and no knowledge of his existance before his marriage to Mary Jane in 1913. I was hoping we might find some more information out from this site.
Fingers crossed!

[tonyrod]

Castanea, welcome to the forum, have you tried the 1891,1 john seymour born 1885,listed under durham, one  again on the 1901,  and  five listed on 1911, census, there is i think  a newbiggin in co durham and
one in northumberland ,  tonyrod

[mack]

Ivy Seymour


20th NOV 1915





Deaths Dec 1915   
Sidlow  Ivy  4  Manchester  8d 246

Could this be your Ivy born 1919 getting married?

Name: Ivy Seymour to John Qualters
Spouse Surname: Qualters 
Date of Registration:Sep 1/4 1939
Registration district: Manchester 

Migky 

micky,ivy died in 1915.

mack

[Castanea1985]

Mary Jane's first daughter, with her husband, Frank Sidlow died in 1912.
She went on to have another daughter, Ivy, with John Seymour - hence the second Ivy, who lived a full life.
Yes, I think that is the right - my husband actually remembers Ivy and her husband John Qualters!
Thank you for that.

Johns' first son, John, relayed a story to his son, about his father changing his name from 'Ritchie'?? or something similar. I went down the line of Richardson, because there was a John Richardson b. Newbiggin in the censuses and he also had a Jane Richardson as a witness at his wedding. But John Richardson's birthday is over a year later, than John Seymours. It could have been that he wanted to make himself seem older as there was a gap between him and Mary Jane Sidlow.
If I could find an 'incident' in a local paper for a John Richardson, doing something unforgiveable, I'd feel happier thinking he was our man... as there would be a reason for leaving Northumberland and moving to Failsworth, Manchester!

I'm trying to trace John's early life, and all I've got at the moment is the information from his army records and his wedding certificate.
I just wondered if there were any surviving records of his Liverpool Regiment time, which may give us a clue to his early life.
The only information we have is post 1913 at his wedding. And we don't know what to believe? Do we believe he came from Newbiggin, Northumberland or do we believe he was born 4th Aug 1885? Nothing seems to fit? We can't seem to find anyone registered or in the censuses that fit the bill!!
Any ideas would be great... as I'm not sure which way to go?

[mack]

hiya cas.
i can understand your confusion,it says on his records,that he was born in 1885,but on his medical sheet that was written up,in 1918,he states that hes 37yrs old,which means he was born ab1881
he also says he was married at prestwich register office,on 3-2-1900,witnesses e.pennington+alice pennington
kids
herbert 20-11-1901
ivy 23-11-10
john 30-6-13
thomas 27-10-16
theres another child mentioned,[harold] but no date of birth
also,on one of his casualty sheets,he gives his name as james
 
mack