William Hardman

I've discussed my great-great grandfather, William Hardman (b. abt 1831) in this blog and his wife, Jane Barron (b. abt 1843).

I tracked most of their children, via census data, birth records and more recently the OPC (Online Parish Clerks) website where I discover baptism records.

The key to creating a family tree is not to be too twitchy about things and the baptism records at the OPC show numerous William Hardmans in the county, so, I tracked the baptisms for the children I knew and found baptisms that matched church criteria and where the father was William Hardman and the wife, Jane. The OPC is great in that respect as it allows filtering

It was with some excitement that I discovered that at the age of 50, William and Jane had one more child and they named him William. William was baptised on 27th May, 1881 at St Mary the Virgin Church, Prescot, Lancashire. However, in the future years, there is no sign of this person (ie, 1891 census onwards) and I investigated further and discovered that on the 26th October, 1882 at the same church, William Hardman was buried at the age of 18 months.

There are often other reasons why things happen and we can only speculate, but about a year later, their unmarried daughter, Rachel, fell pregnant (to Joseph Welding) and when the child was born, it was named William. The grandparents took this child into their home and raised him, allowing the young Welding family to establish itself.

I also recently found a baptism record for this child.

Baptism: 30 Mar 1884 St Mary the Virgin, Prescot, Lancashire, England
William Welden Hardman - [Child] of Rachel Hardman, Single Woman
    Born: 6 Feb 1884
    Abode: Whiston
    Baptised by: H. A. MacNaghten
    Register: Baptisms 1879 - 1887, Page 118, Entry 938
    Source: LDS Film 1657584

William Welden Hardman (born 6 Feb 1884) aka William Hardman, aka Billy Weldon, not only had a grandfather called William Hardman, but a lost uncle, William Hardman, that he would never know.

"God be with you till we meet again"



(link to OPC : http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/)