Stratton family

My grandmother Alma Alice Stratten, note the spelling variation, was born in October 1901 in Acton. She was the fifth of a family of 10 children of whom 8 were girls. The majority were relatively long lived, most making it well into their 80's and my great aunt just 2 years off the 100 mark. I hope to emulate this side of the family.

So, knowing all this, and not having had initial problems with other sides of the family, I set out to start tracing back. My great grandfather was John Stratton born 1865. His father was Henry Stratton as recorded on John's marriage certificate. Simple 3 generations straight away which most of us should be able to achieve. This was the mid 1990's no internet and manual checking of records.  This was where I stayed for almost 15 years. My problem, firstly there is no trace of my John Stratton in either the 1871 or 1881 census. His appearance in the 1891 Census records him with Emily English but does not record his place of birth. I must confess that I also missed a possible clue in this census by not noticing that his brother's future wife was also at the address. So 1891 has John and his brother and both prospective brides but on the face of it no other useful information. The 1901 census has the family misreported as Stanton. That did not cause too many problems as I knew the area they lived in and therefore, even before the internet, they were easy to find.

The birth indexes at this time were only available for manual search in London although some libraries had microfiche. Living in London at the time meant visits to the Archives was easy but the search was not. Consistently, the information I had showed John's birth date to be 1865 but having purchased all the most likely certificates none matched the information I had. Despite trying every possible spelling variation of the name I could not find a matching Stratton for my John. Information on the 1911 census also failed to further my search.

This situation was to remain until I read about the possibility that the WW2 identity card records were to be made available as Freedom of Information applications. As John had lived until 1950 this gave me a glimmer of hope. I paid the not inconsequential fee and shortly afterwards the information I requested arrived. The important item of information on this document was that John's full birth date was recorded. 21st April 1865. Checking through my collection of birth certificates I found I had had him all along. Why had I not realised? His father was not Henry but Charles.

What was the clue I had missed from the 1891 census? If I had looked at the marriage of John's brother Charles I would have found that the father's name is recorded as Charles. However, that would have meant applying for the certificate which didn't seem needed at the time. With the advent of the digitised London Metropolitan records of marriages etc since these discoveries I have more information about John and his father.

Now the next generation I'm up and running. Charles Henry Stratton aged 35 years on his marriage to Mary Ann Fisher in 1862. Easy, start with the 1861 Census - no trace. 1851 Census - no trace. His birth date 1827, prior to the start of civil registration. No place of birth nowhere to go. Still from his marriage certificate I know his father's name was Charles - OR WAS IT.

My Stratton's seem to have an aversion to the census but at long last I made a break through finding a Charles in the workhouse in Isleworth in 1901 and dying in 1905. He was born in Ellingham, Hampshire, close to Ringwood not far from where I currently live. This Charles is also a very elusive man. His birth and death exist but he is untraceable across all the censuses. The fact that he does not appear in the census, that the age is right and the location of death is in the right area convince me that this is my Charles and allows to enter him on the tree. I may be wrong but my gut says this is him. Perhaps when I add further generations a DNA match will come up to confirm. Any Stratton's out there who have their DNA profiled let me know.