Reidirected to here for a family tree question

[stevie m]

Hi,

I have been pointed in this direction to ask a question. As yet I haven't subscribed to a genealogy site and have started to research my grandmothers paternal side.

Her father Arthur Whiteford(whittford), Studdard(Stoddard) Tom Thatcher, (b~1877- d 1960 in Worthing), comes up on "Family Search"

https://familysearch....2Bsurname%3Athatcher~

And all tallies well including wife and bretheren. But thats it I can get no further. My understanding is his father may have been a doctor possibly in Lambourn,Berks. but I can't get a birth certificate as I haven't really got enough relevant info. Can someone help if even by pointing me in the right direction please

[stevie m]

If it helps, my understanding from my father and his remaining sibling is that Arthur and his parents were of english origin.

[dotty.]

There is no entry anywhere for an Arthur Thatcher with a father Walter and mother Louisa. There is no entry anywhere for a Walter Thatcher that could possibly be the father of an Arthur Thatcher. There is no close name variation that gives any possible other leads.
All the information I have found does link together all the known facts with some relatively close similarities to the supposed/unconfirmed facts.
The information in the marriage entry in Ayr is the one and only source that names a Walter and Louisa as the parents of Arthur and it is also the only known source where there is a mention of a GP .
Experience is telling me very strongly that the Steptoe family is correct and that Arthur 's mother was Sarah Steptoe and not Louisa Elliott.
The Ancestry member with the tree that includes ~Arthur and ~~Joseph Thatcher is one of several that use the same information but all ofr them have followed the same line and it does make sound research as far as I can see.
I have not found Arthur anywhere on the 1901 and it is possible he had married previously to marrying in Ayr. The Thatcher family in Lambourn was quite large, Arthur gave his birthplace as London on the 1911 but there is no birth registered for anyone close to that name in any of the London districts in the right decade.
Negative research is always as valuable as a good find in cases like this, as to disprove the theory about Arthur Steptoe, we would have to have found an Arthur Stoddard Whiteford Tom Thatcher, and it is such a distinctive name we coulsd not have missed him.

[craft1948]

I'll back Dotty on this..................

[dotty.]

i still don't understand why we haven't found the couple married on the 1901 as they were married in january 1901 in scotland, what month was the Scottish 1901?

[craft1948]

I've checked the 1901 scottish census dot................

[dotty.]

i'm just wondering if in fact Sarah Steptoe had a relationship with the son of Captain Thomas Henry Stoddard in the mid 1870s, the son was called Whiteford Arthur Clemens Stoddard and was born in 1859 in Surrey. Could it be that Whiteford was in Lambourn in the mid 1870s? Maybe at school? was there a private school there?

[dotty.]

oh, Eton mmmm

[dotty.]

ooooo, this is interesting, Whiteford Arthur Clemens Stoddard arrived in Katikati New Zealand on the ship Jocelyn in 1878, he would be almost 20 years old, he went with his mother and father and sisters/brothers plus a few other relatives as settlers. and amongst them was his brother Doctor Frederick Wahab Stoddard. Whiteford was at the settlement until at least 1893 as he was on the electoral roll.
yet another coincidence?

[dotty.]

actually, I think whiteford was a doctor too.........

[dotty.]

sorry sarah steptoe was the mother of annie steptoe and it was annie that gave birth to arthur. i wonder where the brother of whitehead was in 1874? the GP?

[dotty.]

i mean whiteford! I have whiteheads in my tree

[dotty.]

ok so i have now found the stoddard family on the 1871 census. they are in Panbride in Angus, whiteford is transcribed as whittifore a c stoddart, one older brother is in the militia and another one is at cambridge.
Name: Whitifour A C Stoddart
Age: 11
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1860
Relationship: Son
Mother's Name: Clara S Stoddart
Gender: Male
Where born: England
Registration Number: 316
Registration district: Panbride
Civil parish: Panbride
County: Angus
Address: Hotel
Occupation: Scholar
ED: 4
Household schedule number: 55
Line: 10
Roll: CSSCT1871_59
Household Members:
Name Age
Clara S Stoddart 39
Christiana C M Stoddart 61
John W S Stoddart 22
Francis W M Stoddart 20
Florence E C Stoddart 13
Whitifour A C Stoddart 11
Elizabeth Mitchell 28

his mother Clara is 'caring for officer's wives', not sure if the entry helps in any way at this point, it doesn't put the family in Berkshire. though the father and one brother are missing

[stevie m]

Hi Dotty, Craft, thank you for your fantastic efforts, I was also trying to get in contact with my elderly godfather who knew my grandparents quite well, he lives in New Zealand, I managed to glean from him that my grandmother told him that as far as he remembers Arthur Tom was an only childwhose father was a doctor, Arthurs wife mary williamso stewarts father was a gamekeeper in ayrshire. Arthur always referred to himself as Tom first. Sorry thats all I have

[dotty.]

well, and here's the thing, the GP in Lambourn on the 1861 and 1871 census was David Kennard, snr and jnr, snr in 1861 and jnr in 1871.
so, looking at the household for the Kennard family in 1861, they have 2 female servants, Mary Ann Elliott aged 23 and Louisa Malt aged 13. Louisa Malt went on to marry the Joseph Thatcher that had Annie Steptoe as a domestic servant who was the mother of Arthur Thomas Steptoe who then became Arthur Thomas Thatcher, a jockey................Louisa died as you will recall, in 1872 after the birth of her son William Thatcher.
Mary Ann Elliott , the other servant at the Kennard house, had a sister Sarah and a mother elizabeth, I haven't found her with a sister Louisa, which might have identified the 'Louisa Elliott' that Arthur gave as his mother on his Scottish marriage record. I will however just check to see if there was a Louisa Elliott around the Lambourn area in the 1860s, 1870s.

[dotty.]

reference my earlier comment about a school, David Kennard went to Cowley College Temple Oxford when he was 14. I am looking at the names of those who were also there at the same time, already found a Clemence. I think there may be a link between the Kennards and Whitford Clemence Arthur Stoddard .

[dotty.]

got that name wrong way round but I know what I mean lol
i am thinking that Whitford's brother was at the same college as David Kennard and both qualified as GPs from that college as it was the college of surgeons i think.

[dotty.]

right, I need to find there whereabouts of Francis Mahab Stoddard born 1851 in the East Indies, mother Clara Louisa Mahab father Thomas Henry Stoddard, Captain, in 1871 Francis is on the Scottish Census but I can't see his occupation, but in 1878 when he went to New Zealand he was a doctor, in 1861 he is not in Clapham with his mother, his younger brother Whiteford is 1 and born clapham and younger sister is 3 born east indies, there are i think 2 possibilities, 1, he stayed with his father in the east indies or 2, he came back to england to go to boarding school. it would be good if he could turn up at school in berkshire or oxford and being at school with david kennard, they are pretty much the same age, but it's a long shot..........though with this tree so far it is closer to a probability!

[dotty.]

There was an older brother called John born 1848 in India, I think he returned to England (4 Nevern Place, Earls Court S W) in the early 1900s after serving in the Madras police for 40 odd years, he didn't travel to New Zealand with his family in 1878 and there is no record of him in any census with or without his parents in the UK until 1911, his eldest daughter is called Clara too.