Q. I would really appreciate some help with my ‘brick wall’. My great-x2-grandfather was Jesse Colgrave Simpson, born 1834, the son of Robert and Mary Simpson. Jesse went on to live a very eventful life, most of which I have been able to trace via census and BMD records. His baptism was on 9 June 1833 in Turkdean, Gloucestershire. The 1851 census shows him living with his parents and older brother, Thomas, and described as farmer’s son employed on farm. In 1854 he married Elizabeth Talbot in Bath – occupation farmer. In 1856 an account in Jackson’s Oxford Journal has him as defendant in a court case about a dead horse.

In 1859, according to his son James’s birth certificate, the family was in Old Stratford, Warwickshire where Jesse’s occupation is listed as workman in a brewery. In the 1861 census they are back in Burford, Oxfordshire, where Jesse is listed as an innkeeper. In 1863 my great-grandmother, Elizabeth Harriet, is born and on her birth certificate he is recorded as a horse dealer. In 1865, another son, Robert, was admitted to Christ’s Hospital School. The 1871 census shows the family in Putney, London where Jesse is listed as a cab proprietor. He remained in Putney until his death on 2 March 1895.

There are two problems I have with him which I would be grateful for some help. I am unable to find him in the 1841 census. There is a family of Simsons (different spelling) in Rochdale, Lancashire with the correct names and ages but why would Robert, a farm labourer, have travelled so far north? There is also a sister listed in 1841 named Harriot (I assume a misspelling of Harriet) aged 8 months. I can find birth records for three Harriet Simpsons around the correct time but all in even more far-flung areas of the country. I have considered buying the birth certificates of all three in an effort to confirm, but that’s quite an expense. Do you have any ideas?

The second thing is Jesse and Elizabeth’s eldest son, Robert… On the 1861-1911 censuses, his birth is recorded as 1857 in America. I also have a record of his attendance at Christ’s Hospital School which confirms his place of birth as America. The eldest daughter Eliza was born 1855 in Swinbrook, Oxfordshire and the next son, James was born in Stratford, Warwickshire in 1859. Robert and James were baptised at the same time in Stratford. I have puzzled endlessly about how and why the family – or maybe just Elizabeth – travelled to the US and back in such a short time period. I can find no records for transatlantic travel for the relevant time and no idea how to go about finding a birth record for Robert in America – if indeed one exists. Do you have any suggestions?
Jane Oakes

A. Michael Rochford of Heir Line Ltd writes…
Robert Simpson was the father of your ancestor, Jesse Colgrave Simpson. Census returns show that Jesse was born at Turkdean, Gloucestershire, where he was baptised in 1833. You’ve identified his father, Robert, in censuses from 1851 to 1881, each time recorded as a farmer at Swinbrook, Oxfordshire, where he worked a substantial amount of land.

The ‘Robert Simson’ you’ve found enumerated in the 1841 census (piece 551), living hundreds of miles in away Rochdale, Lancashire, wasn’t a farmer, but an outdoor labourer. Yet he was living with Mary, and children Thomas, 12 and Jesse, 8. These names and ages match those of your ancestral family, though there was also an 8-month-old daughter, Harriot, present in 1841 who was not recorded with your ancestors in any subsequent census returns. So were your Simpson ancestors in Lancashire in 1841?

A clue immediately presents itself: the 1841 return reveals the family were born outside the county of Lancashire, which is true of your Simpsons. But was Robert, a successful farmer, a labourer at this time?

You mention an index entry for Jesse’s 1833 baptism but have you consulted the actual record at Gloucestershire Archives (All Saints’ Church, Turkdean)? It reveals that Robert was indeed a labourer.

With so many matching details it appears you’ve identified the correct family in 1841, and a search of the returns of that census fails to reveal another comprising Robert, Mary, Thomas and Jesse Simpson.

Your research also suggests that Jesse’s mother was born Mary Riley, so if you were able to obtain a birth certificate showing Robert and Mary Simpson, née Riley as parents of a Harriet Simpson born around eight months prior to census night 1841, you’d have sufficient proof that the Rochdale-based family were your ancestors.

However, do bear in mind that a significant number of births were not registered during the early years of civil registration, and I have already ruled out a number of entries in the General Register Office Index: those at Lincoln, Malton and Basingstoke which show other parents.

You could consider writing to local register offices where births of other Harriet Simpsons were registered in quarter 3 or 4 of 1840. Ask them to check their birth records against the parents’ names. They may request a fee but they should refund this if they can’t find the entry.

As for details of Jesse’s American-born son, Robert, this can be tricky without a state, or any indication of where in American the birth took place. This is not revealed in the census returns of 1861 to 1911. However, the 1871 census records Robert as a pupil of Christ’s Hospital School in London. If you haven’t already tried then you could consider contacting London Metropolitan Archives which holds the original hospital records. They have admissions registers from 1563 to 1911 (CLC/201/F/003/MS12818) and presentation papers up to 1911, comprising petitions submitted by pupils’ parents, which give some background details about the families (CLC/210/F/004/S12818A).

The various American state archives also hold birth records for this period.