Family historian Melvyn WingTheld needs some help in tracking down his 2x great-grandfather, Matthew. To follow is an account of what he knows. Have a read and think how you might find the answers to Melvyn’s questions.
The earliest record Melvyn has found is Matthew’s marriage to Lydia Bird on 14 February 1836 at St Mary’s Church, Northchurch (Berkhamsted) in Hertfordshire.
By 1841 Matthew and Lydia were in Bletchingley, Surrey with a daughter Sarah, aged five. Their second child, Francis, was baptised later the same year in Bletchingley but they then turned up in Paddington where another son, George, was born and baptised on 4 November 1844. Two more children were born back in Berkhamsted but this is where it all started to get confusing.
The 1851 Census finds Lydia living in Berkhamsted with her mother but no sign of Matthew or any of the children. Matthew, meanwhile, is found in London (St Pancras) living with another woman (called Mary) and four children: George (16), Elizabeth (10), Francis (9) and Amelia (3).
Lydia died in 1854 and Matthew was on the move again, turning up in Exeter in 1861 with yet another ‘wife’, Caroline. Matthew and Caroline later moved to the Isle of Wight where they both died in the 1890s.