LOCATING FAMILY OF JULY 1850 BYRNE SETTLERS BEFORE THEY LEFT LIVERPOOL FOR DURBAN.
Hi fishers of fam,
My ancestors, William and Mary Roberts left Liverpool in July 1850 on the Devonian bound for Durban. They had four kids with them, Richard, Edward, Catherine & Elizabeth. We know Mary was born in Liverpool in 1821 from her probate. We know William and Mary married in Liverpool in May 1842 from their marriage record. William was a Joiner and his dad Richard was a Warehouseman. I found an almanac listing a warehouseman named Richard Roberts in Manchester around 1840. I found an 1851 Manchester census record for a Richard and Ann Roberts, stating Richard was a Warehouseman. Obviously William is not on it as he emigrated the previous year. I cannot track the 1841 census for this family to see if it could be William's family. Is there another way to try prove these could be William's parents outside of census records? The ages of the parents are okay if William was born around 1819, although that makes a big gap to the next oldest child on this census, Mary-Ann, age 23. This could be William's family, but how do we try verify it further? Thank you kindly.
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As you have had no response to your query I thought I would have a try, but ROBERTS in Manchester is not going to be the easiest of family names to search on. However, I don't suppose there were too many Richard Roberts individuals who had a Warehouseman occupation, so I would be fairly sure of the suspected identities.
The gap of about 4 years between William (1819) and Mary Ann (1823) seems hardly a big gap to me - there could have been a child (or two) born in between who (like William) had left the family household by 1851.
Like you, I was unable to find a Robert and William Roberts (to match - father & son) in the 1841 census for Manchester.
Have you tried a search (in FamilySearch, or perhaps Ancestry or Find My Past) for children baptised to a Richard & Ann Roberts in, say, the 1812-1827 period? Better still if you can gain access to entries in the original parish registers, which should (hopefully) show Richard's occupation as Warehouseman.
In summary, larger towns / cities are not the best places to locate ancestors, especially as they tend to have more than one parish / church within their boundaries. Neither is it going to be easy to narrow down your relatives when they had a relatively common name like Roberts.
For small parishes in rural areas, there is often "parish chest material" to supplement the registers, but searching the records of Manchester (or perhaps Liverpool) will probably present bigger problems than if your family had come from a smaller location in Lancashire.
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I have returned to your query next day (to above response) and found this in a FamilySearch search, results being at https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&q.birthLikeDate.from=1812&q.birthLikeDate.to=1827&q.birthLikePlace=Manchester%2C%20Lancashire%2C%20England%2C%20United%20Kingdom&q.birthLikePlace.exact=on&q.fatherGivenName=richard&q.fatherGivenName.exact=on&q.motherGivenName=ann%2A&q.motherGivenName.exact=on&q.surname=roberts&q.surname.exact=on.
It would be interesting to find if images of the original baptism entries are online, as these might confirm whether (through Richard's occupation, perhaps) if these children belong to the same couple. However, the only WILLIAM Roberts shown as being born at this time has parents recorded ad Richard and ELIZA:
(I did a search with no mother's name and still got just this one William baptism.)
Of course, changing the search inputs might reveal more events in the Manchester area (i.e., for events at parishes that are not actually designated "Manchester"). You might wish to continue your searches (on other websites, too) along these lines.
I have just thought of one other source that might be of some help: when I was researching the artist L.S. Lowry's Manchester roots, I came across a collection of Rate Books*, which included details of addresses at which his grandfather lived. (* Not on FamilySearch, it appears - on Find My Past, I believe.)
Hopefully, another researcher (familiar with research in this part of England) will see your post and make additional suggestions.
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Oh, I see you are already aware of one of the records for William shown above - and have attached to G4PB-ZPT, whose parents are shown as Richard and Eliza(beth) - not Richard and Ann, as (you) found in the 1851 census.
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Just found the census record to which you must be referring:
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Many thanks for your detective work and other avenues to explore. Was playing with Williams mother possibly being an Elizabeth, but not too much on that one. That 1851 census is good possibility, found it on Find My past. Will update you when I find anything more.
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