14 February 2011

Finding Wilhelmina


When I first started researching my family tree, there were several mistakes I never knew about until sometime later. One of these mistakes was one of my family members never had children and never married. 

I only found there was a mistake, when I was looking at a census and I found something strange. Wilhelmina was staying in the house hold of John and Anne, her parents, but there was an addition. A young man called William who was a grandson. This William I never knew anything about and I knew I had another William Milverton who moved to New Zealand, also son of John and Anne. I did find William’s birth on the Online Parish website for Dorset.

Several years later after ordering William’s death certificate, I found that I had actually been tracing the wrong person for several years. William’s certificate said his mother was Wilhelmina, who I thought had only one child. This was when I ordered the marriage and found the person I had been tracing was actually the wrong person. The William, I was supposed to be tracing was Wilhelmina’s son. His father is unknown being deleted from his Baptism record in Dorset, but on his marriage certificate his father’s name is present. More research needs to be conducted to confirm thin anomaly to be correct.

Wilhelmina never married and had only one child, which was William. She was on several censuses recorded as a shopkeeper in Beaminster. She did actually vanish during the 1971 census and I had thought she was in a mental institution as she had died of dementia. She was later found under a different spelling as Melverton.

Not all family history research is correct when family hands you the information over, which is why it is up to you, the researcher to confirm it is correct. I have found birth dates to be written down that are completely incorrect by several years and even people’s names mixed up.

14 comments:

  1. Hi there from Victoria, I was over the moon when I discovered your blog's especially the fact that you are researching the same line as I am. My husband is also a descendant of Wilhelmina Milverton, I have only been researching for a couple of years though and only when I have time to spare. I didn't know though that Wilhelmina's brother William also sailed to NZ, it gets a tad confusing when there are so many William Milverton's. Keep up the great research and informative blog's. Thank you. Anne

    ReplyDelete
  2. Actually William the councilor of PN was Wilhelmina's uncle and it was actually Wilhelmina's son William Stickand with his wife Caroline who sailed to New Zealand and not her brother. Her brother William actually died in Middlesex.

    You may be interested to know Wilhelmina never married, which is unusual at the time

    ReplyDelete
  3. Welll now I am confused, my understanding from my own research leads me to believe that Wilhelmina's brother Joseph, his wife Mary Ann (Prior), their children Edward, William and Elizabeth travelled to NZ on the Duke of Edinburgh in 1973, and William the councillor of PN is actually Wilhelmina's nephew. Their name was spelt incorrectly on the passenger list as Miloerton instead of Milverton. If William Milverton councillor died in 1950 then he could not have been Wilhelmina's uncle.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes sorry, you are correct about the ship in 1973, although I got myself confused as well. Mind on other jobs.

    William Milverton the councillor is interesting and there is plenty of information about him in the Palmerston North council archives including the land he donated to the council for a park and his resignation letter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes William Milverton is indeed interesting. We have known about the park for over 30 years, as my husband and I visited Palmerston North on our Honeymoon in 1981. We also visited the Fire Station when they were actually archiving some pictures and articles of Percival, of which they kindly gave us copies. We also visited Bob (Robert) Milverton, Percival's son. We tried to visit Bob's sister who actually had the family bible, unfortunately she was not home at the time and we had to move on. Did you know that there is also a William Milverton Scholarship at the Massey University, do you know how this came about? Thanks again. Anne

    ReplyDelete
  6. Percival Amos Milverton is my great great Grandfather and I was happy to find the clippings he had left were in the Palmerston North Archives.

    No one seems to know the location of the family bible and I never knew Bob's sister had it. Was that Hazel or Nola you went to visit? My grandmother (peggy) has said she does not know where the bible went. That was amazing you were so close to handling the family bible.

    I dont know very much about the William Milverton scholarship other than it was mentioned in his probate / will. I will have to look at it again.

    Last year I went to Beaminster in Dorset and did some research through the Dorchester family history library. I plan on going again sometime soon

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm not sure but the name Nola seems familiar, I remember the address was a unit and I think she was either unmarried or a widow at the time, and if I recall correctly she resided near Milverton Park. At that time I was not as interested in geneology as I am now and I only wish we had stayed there longer so that I could have waited to meet 'Nola' and view the bible.

    Herbert Charles Milverton is Percival's brother, and my husband's grandfather.

    My daughter is currently in the UK and all going well my husband and I would like to visit her next year, when we will do some more research and of course visit the Swan Inn. We have been to the UK twice before, the first time in 1983, when we visited the village of Milverton, and then again in 2009 when we were only in London for 4 days.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I never saw the Swan Inn although it could have changed the name. I actually did look for it from the census records.

    Have you found the parents of John Milverton? John was the one who married Ann. I found them while in the family history centre in Dorchester and you may be happy to know any Milverton in the Beaminster, Corscombe area are related. I have only gotten as far back as 1778 with the Milvertons so far

    ReplyDelete
  9. No I hadn't found the parents of John, but now know that they are James Milverton and Elizabeth Warehem, thanks for that info. It's always good when you find another generation back. Keep up your great work, talk again soon.

    ReplyDelete
  10. We should exchange emails and catch up that way. I dont actually have anything on Herbert's side.

    I posted my email here yesterday then deleted it although I wasnt sure if this would send a message to you or not.
    Brad

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, I would love to exchange emails but not sure how to go about it through a blog whithout advertising it, so to speak.

    Look forward to any advice.

    Anne.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks Brad, got that. I will contact you via email within the next few days.

    Anne.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Thats cool Anne Whenever you are ready :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Brad, I am sorry, however I have attempted to contact you via email and they have been returned by the Mail Server. I was sure I double and triple checked it when I wrote it down but I must have done something wrong.

    If you feel comfortable would you be able to put it up again, I'm very sorry about this. I will be working tomorrow and won't be home until around 5.00pm, when I will check this blog again.

    Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Anne.

    ReplyDelete