Some more census searching at Ancestry.co.uk has thrown up some promising leads in the search for John Holmes.
On the 1871 census we have found a Holmes family living in Bebington on the Wirral with six children – the youngest of which are a William J aged 6 and a John aged 4 both listed as born in New Ferry. All of which is just about as close to Rock Ferry as you can get without actually being there. 🙂
Although we were looking for a James aged 6 and a John aged 2, we’ve got good reason to believe that John lied about his age – both on his marriage certificate and the 1901 census – as he’s the best part of 10 years older than his wife Elizabeth which was frowned upon at the time. From his death certificate and colliery records, which list his age as 38 in January 1906, we would expect his age to be around 4 on the 1871 census.
We’ve also found a birth certificate in the index that suggests the William J stands for William James, and as their father’s name was William it’s quite possible that in later life he dropped the William in favour of James.
On the 1881 census William (the father) has died, and the mother Maggie Holmes is running a Lodging House in Eccleston near St Helens – young William and our John are still living with her along with two of the other children, and John is listed as a Scholar aged 14 and William J as a labourer at the Glass Works aged 16.
On the 1891 census Maggie has died and John Holmes is listed as a Collier aged 24 living with his older sister Margaret, who is now married to a Frank Grundy but still running a Lodging House in Eccleston (a different one to the one on the 1881 census though) – but there’s no sign of William J Holmes.
Anyway we’ve sent for William James birth certificate which will hopefully give us Maggie’s maiden name – we know from the census she was born in the North Wales but the place name is indecipherable – and we’ll see where that takes us.