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My GG GF Thomas Cross baptised St Peter, Liverpool in 27 Mar 1823

By Brimoruncorn |
General Genealogy

Hi All

My first post on here but it is an important one for me because I totally cannot find my GG GF Thomas Cross after 19 Nov 1849 when his daughter Margaret was born.

Thomas was baptised on 27 March 1823 • St Peter, Liverpool, Lancashire, England. His parents were Henry Cross b.1785 and Elizabeth Thornhill b.1782

I next find him on the 1841 census living at St Martin St, Liverpool aged 18 and a Shoe Maker.  Next he marries Margaret Stowbridge on 19 Apr 1845 • Liverpool St Nicholas church, Lancashire. He is a shoe maker and his father is Henry Cross, a Cooper. I have the cert.

I then have Birth of daughter Hannah Cross(1847–1883)
26 Jul 1847 • Bevington Bush Road, Liverpool, Lancashire, England  I have the birth cert and then Birth of daughter Margaret Cross(1849–) 19 Nov 1849 at 4 Court, Circus Street• Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Again he is a shoe maker.  I have the birth cert.

I then lose all official record of him except I find a notorious character named Thomas Cross, a Shoe Maker, living in Birkenhead who becomes well known to the police and serves many prison sentences. He is all over the Daily Post and other Liverpool papers and I can cite examples if you need me to. Could this be the same guy?

Any help you good people can give me would be very much appreciated.

There was a Thomas Cross living in Birkenhead at the time of the 51,61, 71 census'

Born in Warrington around 1816, married to Mary, he was recorded as a Cordwainer(Shoemaker) and also Bootmaker and Shoemaker.

If you know the dates of when the Thomas Cross you seek was in prison it may help to eliminate the above.

Hi Bertie

I have a feeling that this Birkenhead guy is not my GG GF as he was deffo born in Liverpool as he was baptised there and was baptised in 1823. I think I was actually hoping that this Thomas Cross was the notorious character and it would have been more exciting researching him. 

But your pointers are telling me that this is not my GG GF - another interesting and important point is that on the 1851 census his wife Margaret Cross is living at 3 Shaws Court, Rose Place, Liverpool with his daughters and is marked down as a WIDOW !!

I haven't found a death for Thomas Cross but others tell me that maybe they just parted and she put down Widow to show respectibility?

Maybe your group can find my missing Thomas Cross's death?

I hope so :-)

If one of your Newspaper examples includes the murder trial, Liverpool Mercury, August 9th, 1856. I feel certain that is the above Thomas Cross, Birkenhead. Mentioned in the report is premises, Lord St, address of the above Thomas, 1861 census.

The image is  the 1849 burial, St Mary's, The GRO has this Thomas registered at 24 years of age, I think Ancestry has transcribed it wrong at 34.

Worthy of further investigation.

I'm looking on GRO now - looking at the image it looks like it was altered from 24 to 34. I'll see if I can find it on Ancestry myself - do you have a link you can send me please? I have an Ancestry account.

This is great Bertie - I feel this is our guy and that's why he disappeared. I think it'll be worth spending the £7 to get the pdf and see if its really him. Do you think it'll have his occupation if the death is reported from the Cholera Hospital?

I've got a cert for a Thomas Cross which I obtained from GRO some 5 years ago - I put it in my pile of unwanted certs because this guy was a bricklayer, died on 29th August 1949 at the Cholera Hospital in Vauxhall Road and was 24 years old. I have his daughter Margaret's birth cert - she was born on 19th November 1949 and her father was Thomas Cross, shoemaker and wasn't marked as Deceased :-(  So the cert I have from 29th August 1849 wasn't my Thomas Cross.

It looks like this cert is the self same as the one you found on GRO earler. Can I put a snipped version of it on here?

Where to from here - did the Cholrea Hospital records survive?

If Cholera records did survive I would think they would be in Liverpool records office, Mary will advise on that when she sees your post. As far as I know, Cholera Hospitals were set up in large houses because Workhouse infirmaries were overrun. The discarded cert you have will be the St Marys burial, so we will look elsewhere.

Cholera records are something I didn't know about and tried to search the catalogue for the Archives, however this appears to be down at present.  It would be easier to use the Contact link at the bottom of their page and ask them direct https://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries/archives-family-history/liverpool-ar…

Another point is that I will send you an email recently received from the GRO as I and others have been using a BETA test for images for the certificates, far cheaper than the .pdf version.  You need to have an account with the GRO AND you need to sign the Consent Form, (link in the email) and when you are approved you will find an additional choice for "Image" as well as .pdf and certificate.

I am also very curious as to whether you have two accounts with this forum?

Thanks for that info Mary - I do have an account with GRO and will deffo sign up for the BETA test for images, that would be great.

I will send a message to Liverpool re. the Cholera records :-)

Finally, do I have 2 accounts?, not that I'm aware of but if you think that I have please let me know. What I do know is that I paid for the membership of the FHS and then found the forum and signed up for that. I'm sure you'll sort me out.

It looks like this cert is the self same as the one you found on GRO earler. Can I put a snipped version of it on here?

Yes, in full if possible. 

Thank you,

Unfortunately the details are not very helpful, I would only pursue this person further if you think it's possible the wrong occupation has been entered.

I don't think it's likely a Shoemaker some months earlier could possibly be employed as a Bricklayer. However, I've been unsuccessful finding a Thomas Cross, Bricklayer, prior to his death.

There doesn't appear to have been a marriage to look into, TC, Bricklayer.

 

If any admission records exist, any address would help.