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From: "Caroline Gurney" <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] OT UK genealogy question, as long as we are chatting a bit...
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2003 00:44:48 -0000
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20030301093747.00a2aec0@POP3.tiscali.nl> <3E608EAD.60005@ssimicro.com> <3E611EA0.301C0798@bellatlantic.net> <3E6147A1.1040903@ssimicro.com>


Nancy Fraser wrote:

> His name was John Attwood Keys/Keays. All accounts have him born in
> England without further details. Religion Church Of England. Married in
> Ontario in 1865. Marriage certificate gives parents as Charles and
> Sarah. Named his children John Attwood, Sarah Jane, William Laurence,
> Samuel James and Andrew McCutcheon. In Ontario censuses of 1871, 1881,
> 1891, alas not found in 1901 (which would have given his exact birth
> date) with the rest of his family. I fear he was on a train (was a
> train fireman) and not enumerated. Died in Ontario in 1903. I have all
> the relevant Ontario certificates and there is no further info. The
> book is very interesting to me. It is in a bank vault so I can't give
> the details now but it is of a religious nature and has an inscription
> "John Attwood 1865" followed by the illegible stuff, which I will try to
> post a scan of on my website. There are other older inscriptions which
> refer to Froome. I am wondering if John Attwood was his maternal
> grandfather. There is no evidence of any Keays or Attwoods emigrating
> with him.

Nancy,

There is a quite a lot here to be going on with. His name is fairly
distinctive because of the use of the middle name, Attwood, and you have
both his parents' names. As you think he was born c 1840 that was after the
beginning of General Registration so you ought to be able to find his name
in the GRO Indexes. I had a quick look at the Free BMD site:
http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl but it does not yet list him.
However, from 1st April you will be able to search the whole of the GRO
Indexes online for a small fee at: http://www.1837online.com/.

Once you have a date and place of birth from his birth certificate,
hopefully it will be before 7 June 1841 and you can then get a researcher
here to take a look for the family at that address in the 1841 Census.

Froome is probably Frome in Somerset. The IGI gives a Sarah Attwood,
daughter of John Attwood, born on 27 March 1829 and baptised at Frome on 14
June 1829. Too late to be the mother of John Attwood Keays born c 1840 but
perhaps there is some family connection. John and Hannah Attwood had 7 other
children baptised at frome between 1815 and 1835. They were nonconformists,
which will make life a little more difficult and may explain why their
marriage is not in the IGI.

The 1881 Census Index gives Anna ATTWOOD, aged 88 a retired grocer's widow,
birthplace Frome, living at 8 Cross St, Frome. This could be Hannah above.

Hope this is helpful to get you started.

Caroline Gurney
Portsmouth, UK


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