WEEK 43 – Dig a little deeper

 WEEK 43 – Dig a little deeper

For the theme of “dig a little deeper” I am using 2 people – my Nan Doreen Cecilia Bland and her 1st husband Reginald Charles Henry Booker.

Doreen was born 6th October 1929 in Outwell, Wisbech, she was the daughter of Amy Rose Bland, and beleived to be Arthur Thompson (but he is not named on her birth certificate). Reginald was born Charles on 13 december1925 in Lambeth, London. 

A hint came up on my online tree asking if it matched the named person, well I was shocked to see the name did match my Nan, especially as it was a marriage record for 1947, and not one I was aware of nor was the named man. I started to “dig a little deeper” and came up with nothing linked to the named man, no birth, no parents, no address, nothing! I even asked a cousin to see if they could find anything and again all searches returned nothing. So; I ordered the marriage certificate.

The marriage certificate arrived and the name is definitely my Nan, so I added this info and her husband to my tree. Upon the first look it didn’t seem to be of much use as had most of the same info I had from the record hint online, well it had Reginald’s father listed which was different, so I added him to the tree and the witnesses were Nan’s mother and her older brother, she was also only 17years old.

Well, nothing more came from adding her husband and father-in-law, no hints, and I still couldn’t find anything on this illusive man! Who was he? What happened to him? (he didn’t stay as part of the family for very long I know that much!)

So I went back to the certificate, there had to be something I had missed on it. Reginald was listed as aged 21years, so I started searching the GRO for a birth and nothing came up, the closest I found from “digging a little deeper” was a man named Reginald Charles born in 1920 – if this was him then he had lied about his age on the marriage certificate. I didn’t totally dismiss miss this as anything is possible and then used the mothers maiden name to see if I could find a marriage to the named father and as with everything else there was nothing. So, back to the certificate again, and I went for the grooms address, well what it looks like doesn’t match any street in the area according to an internet search, so again nothing. Either this man doesn’t want to be found or I need to “dig a little deeper” still.

I sat and looked and looked and looked again at the certificate and then I saw what I hoped was a clue! The signed name of the groom was not R C H Booker BUT C H R Booker. Was his real name Charles but he went by Reginald? Let’s go “dig a little deeper” and see what we can find. BINGO! A man named Charles Henry Booker (no Reginald listed on birth record) with a birth in Dec 1925 (matches the marriage age), it listed the mothers maiden name, so I did a search and found a marriage that matched the named father on the marriage certificate. This also matched the 1921 census and the 1939. I believe that I have found this man and his family.

Reginald (or Charles as he was born) is still quite a mystery. I have very little to go on with him. The record I think is his of 1939 is locked, I have no idea what happened to him after the marriage to Doreen, aside from the fact they had a son together. 2 years after the marriage Doreen was living with a different gentleman, my Grandfather Reginald Edward Haylock and they had my Mum. Mr Booker seemed to have vanished, I have found what I think is his death in 1990 but this is to be confirmed.

From a single hint to “digging a little deeper” (well a lot deeper) I managed to find this man and his family. In total I would say it took me about 6-7hours.

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