Wills family conflicting claims
My great-grandfather was William James Wills, who we believe was born in Truro in 1873. He emigrated to South Africa and married, raised a family and died there. But a new Zealand family have a man of the same name and same parents for their family tree. They have evidence of that man's death in New Zealand. There are clearly two William James Wills. I am trying to work out who is who. I have the originals of my g-grandfather's marriage and death certificates in South Africa, but only a copy of his birth certificate, obtained from a relative who used it to gain British residency many years ago. Unfortunately, I get no response from the New Zealand people. Can anyone suggest how I go about sorting this?
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It is quite important that you are sure of the Truro, Cornwall birthplace, because there were two other births recorded in Cornwall for a William James Wills, at around the same time. “Your” William James appears to be the individual registered at Truro in the March 1873 quarter (mother’s maiden name ARTHUR). There was also one registered at Camelford in December 1873 quarter (extra middle name & mother’s maiden name ALFORD – parents, from census, James & Susan) and one registered at St Austell in June 1874 quarter (mother recorded as FLOYED – parents, from census, Frank & Ann).
At FreeBMD website I found the 1869 Truro (Reg Dist) marriage between Richard Wills and Elizabeth Arthur. They appear to have had two other children: Mary Ann (1869 Truro RD – possibly died 1870) and Elizabeth Jane (1870 Liskeard RD), but I could find no further records for the family.
The other two William James Wills individuals (shown above) have their baptism details shown in FamilySearch, but there are no baptisms in FS for the children of Richard & Elizabeth Wills. I wonder if the family emigrated shortly after William’s 1873 birth, although they still should have been found (minus him) in the 1871 census.
I know none of this directly helps solve the conundrum over the identity of the two individuals / families who settled, respectively, in South Africa and New Zealand, but I hope the detail above might give you some leads on alternative ideas to allow you to follow through with your problem.
(References: FamilySearch - https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.givenName=william%20j*&q.givenName.exact=on&q.surname=wills&q.surname.exact=on&q.birthLikePlace=cornwall&q.birthLikePlace.exact=on&q.birthLikeDate.from=1871&q.birthLikeDate.to=1875&count=20&offset=0&m.defaultFacets=on&m.queryRequireDefault=on&m.facetNestCollectionInCategory=on and General Register Office online birth index at https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp)
UPDATE - At last I did find this family in the 1871 census - https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/5902a564e9379091b1c97cb1/elizabeth-j-wills-1871-cornwall-kenwyn-1870-?locale=en provides a direct link. As you will see, Mary Ann (born 1869) does appears to have died, but sister Elizabeth J(ane) and mother Elizabeth are in the ARTHUR household (Elizabeth's parents). I believe the following must be for (father) Richard Wills - https://www.freecen.org.uk/search_records/5902a670e9379091b1cdde10/richard-wills-1871-cornwall-crowan-1848-?locale=en. William is still not yet born, of course.
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Thank you, Paul. Very kind of you to go to such trouble. I'll keep plugging away in the hope of a breakthrough. His marriage and death certificate both carry the exact name William James Wills, and his recorded age puts him born in 1873. The family story is that he was born in Truro and at some stage sought his fortune in America. But he returned to the UK before emigrating to South Africa and marrying my g-grandmother in 1901. I'm trawling through mountains of shipping lists to South Africa and I'll keep asking the NZ connection. Thanks again, Russell.
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