Climbing the Family Tree

In April of 2000, Carol and I were on the final day of a two week visit to England, primarily devoted to climbing the family tree.  The plan was to spend the last two days in London, sightseeing and shopping, but as the second day wore on, I realized there was one more family issue I could resolve, William Winder's death date.  2000 wasn't that long ago, but it was before Internet subscription services like ancestry.com provided easy access to such information without leaving home, much less the country.  As a rule research at that time had to be done on site or by paying someone else to do it.

Based on the prior day's visit to the Family Research Centre, I knew there were quarterly indexes of all deaths since 1837.  William Winder was still alive in 1881 so "all" I needed to do was go through the indexes bound in large ledger books which looked like they had come directly from Scrooge and Marley's counting house. Gamely I started with 1881 and began working my way forward.  It took almost an hour, but I finally found the death of William Winder in the first quarter of 1891.  As I replaced the ledger, I realize I could now order a copy of his death certificate.  My first reaction was why bother, it would cost about $15 and I already had the information.

William Winder's Death Certificate

In the end I opted to have a complete record and I was more that a little surprised when the certificate arrived a few weeks later.  As shown above, William was a pensioner from the British army.  I was well aware of a large gap in William's life from his birth in 1822 to the 1871 census, but it never occurred to me or any paid researcher that a lot of the gap could be explained by military service.   Military service was very rare at the time, only about 1% of the population ever served in the army.  With this information I found a British researcher specializing in military records and more of the details got filled in.  William had actually served with three different regiments (21st, 29th and 80th) in a 21 year plus military career, most of which was spent in India.

1871 Census listing for William Winder and family

I should have realized from this experience that William's story is full of surprises, something I learned again while preparing to write about his life.  Because William was born 15-20 years prior to the keeping of detailed census information and vital statistics, the only "facts," we have about his early years come from sources much later in his life.  Such information can be less reliable than contemporary data.  On the 1871 census, for example, William told the census taker, he was born in 1822 in Horsley which is in Gloucestershire.  A decade later in 1881, he changed the location to a place called Dourning, also in Gloucestershire which matches the information on his 1861 army discharge papers.  

1881 Census listing for William and Mary Winder

Although this is helpful information, it also raises more questions than it answers.  Since the civil registration of births was not required until 1837, the only source of birth information for 1822 is the International Genealogical Index, a compilation of baptisms in English parish records.  A search of the IGI for the birth of a William Winder in Horsley around 1822 found nothing.  In fact, there is no record in the IGI for anyone named Winder at this time, anyplace in Gloucestershire.  In addition, there is no place in Gloucestershire named Dourning.  There is, however, a small settlement in the parish of Horsely called Downend and William's discharge papers do say "Dourning" was near Horsley.  And while there is no record of anyone named Winder, there are a number of families named Window, a fairly common name in the area.

A physical description of William Winder in 1861

While it cannot be proven with anything near 100% certainty, it appears William Winder was actually William Window and the name was either changed (intentionally or not) or corrupted to Winder.  Although I thought differently at first, my inclination is to believe that the change was not intentional.  The primary argument for intentional change is William's enlistment in the British army which was sometimes a way to get out of trouble. However, if one was going to change his/her name for deceptive reasons, the change would more likely have been more extensive, not just the last two letters.  More important is the fact that William was illiterate, making a mark on both his discharge papers and his marriage certificate.  As a result his last name could easily have been spelled incorrectly on an official document by an official who couldn't understand William's accent and William was in no position to spell it for him.

Downend - A settlement in Horsley, Gloucestershire

So again, while it can't be proven, we will proceed on the basis that William Window, somehow became William Winder.  According to the IGI, only two William Windows were born in Horsley around 1820.  The best candidate, or so I thought, was a William Window born in 1822, the son of Thomas Window and Ann Cox.  However recent information, that I should have found sooner, proves beyond question that this was not "our William."  The remaining candidate is a William Window born in 1819 to William Window and Anna Maria Ricketts.  Predictably this is not an exact fit as "our William," always said he was born in 1822, not 1819 and listed his father's occupation as agricultural laborer while the father of the 1819 William was a handloom weaver.  Supposedly during the period, it was not uncommon for people not to know their exact year of birth and I've also read that handloom weavers sometimes worked as agricultural laborers to make ends meet.

St. Martin's Church, Horsley

One less than scientific piece of evidence is that a number of researchers on ancestry.com have the 1819 William in their family tree, but not one of them has any information beyond his birth and baptism.  That would be very consistent with someone who left home and changed his name.  While there is, therefore, evidence supporting William's being the son of William Window and Anna Maria Ricketts, I'm not ready to accept it as conclusive.  So we will proceed with the story of William and his wife, Mary, rather than try to go any further back at this time.