Heron/Aaron George Oliver - Cracking the mystery

jane · Senior Member

RE: Heron/Aaron George Oliver - Cracking the mystery

jane · Senior Member

mgaffneyus wrote:
George Victor Oliver married Rose Maud Swan (nee Wake) . . . Oct-Nov-Dec 1914 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire. This is where the confusion sets in. According to the 1911 census, they had 3 children living but only 2 residing with them...William born in 1901, Reginald Victor born in 1909 and ??? I do know from Ray, that his Father had a brother called Percy . . . Percy had 2 children (Raymond and David) -- I have no additional information. Ray thinks Percy lived in Bethnal Green.
Maud was originally married to Charles H Swan b. 26 Aug 1876 in Dublin, Ireland.

From this other thread we now know that the eldest child 'William' was George William Alfred Oliver (born 1906 and baptised the same year in Aldershot) and have tentatively identified the missing child from the 1911 census as the 3 year old Queenie Oliver [actually Rosa Queenie] who was in Charlbury with Aaron/Heron's mother Sarah in 1911.

Percy must I think be the Percy H. Oliver (mother's maiden name Wake) whose birth was registered in the West Bromwich district in the first quarter of 1913, so he's not the missing child from 1911 but was born later.

Searching Ancestry for more about Percy I happened to find him named in First World War army papers for his father, who served in the Royal Engineers as a Sapper, no. 58278. Ancestry has him listed just as George Oliver but the forms say George Aaron Oliver. I can only make out parts of the writing, which is very faint, but George does give next of kin as his wife Rosa Maud; they married in West Bromwich [possibly at the Register Office - too faint to be sure] on 17 Nov. 1914 [perhaps him joining up in 1914 was the reason they finally got round to getting married?].

There are only three names in the list of their children:

George William Alfred b.30.7.06
Reginald Victor b. 29.7(?).09(?)
Percy H(arold?) [can't read d.o.b.]

which does shed some doubt on my theory that Queenie was also their child. However, we do know from the 1911 census that there was another child still living then. If this was Queenie, perhaps she was still in Charlbury and so wasn't included on this list because she didn't count as a dependent child? Or maybe she belongs to someone else! I think a birth certificate or baptism record would be needed to be sure where she fits into the family tree.

Percy H. Oliver married Rose L. Barr in the Lambeth district, second quarter of 1934. FreeBMD has several Oliver births with mother's maiden name Barr, but there are several different Oliver/Barr marriages. These two could be the ones Marie mentions:

Harold W. Oliver (second quarter of 1938, Lambeth district)
Raymond P. Oliver (last quarter of 1942, Battersea district)

Interestingly, on the 1939 Register, both Percy H. Oliver and George W. A. Oliver [his brother] are in Wandsworth. Both are shown as married but there are no wives or children with them: perhaps they have been evacuated somewhere? What is interesting though is that in the same house are an older couple called Albert and Rosa M. ENNIS. There is a marriage in the Lambeth district in 1928 for a Rosa M. Oliver and Albert J.H. Ennis, so it seems pretty certain that Rosa M. Ennis is the woman formerly married to Heron George Oliver.

mgaffneyus · Newbie

Hi Shane,

Thank you so much for finding all this information. Ray will have a wonderful surprise when I tell him what you found :)

Here is a piece of the puzzle you may be missing.

George Victor Oliver married Rose Maud Swan (nee Wake) b. 1880 in Berkshire. They married Oct-Nov-Dec 1914 in West Bromwich, Staffordshire. This is where the confusion sets in. According to the 1911 census, they had 3 children living but only 2 residing with them...William born in 1901, Reginald Victor born in 1909 and ??? I do know from Ray, that his Father had a brother called Percy. Ray met Percy when he came to Dublin to visit his family. Ray's Mother, Ada (Boyd) Oliver and Ray's sister, Susan (Oliver) Higgins. Percy had 2 children (Raymond and David) -- I have no additional information. Ray thinks Percy lived in Bethnal Green.

Maud was originally married to Charles H Swan b. 26 Aug 1876 in Dublin, Ireland. They had two children. Charles H Swan jnr. b. 1900 and Margaret Kathleen (Maggie) b. 1898. Both were born in Windsor, Berkshire.

I could not find any divorce record for Charles Swan but I did find him and his son, Charles jnr. living with his Mother, Anne Hayes, in Dublin, Ireland. The record states that his son was born in Dublin??? There is no sign of Maggie. I do know that that at some point, Maggie came back to live in Dublin and was married to Wilson Boyd. I have yet to find any record of the marriage. Maggie and Wilson had 9 children (all born in Dublin):

David Boyd

Helena Lillian (Lena) Boyd

Lillian (Lilly) Boyd

Margaret (Marie) Boyd

Patricia Boyd

Wilson Boyd

Charles (Charlie) Boyd b. 1928 d. 2011

William Boyd b. 1929 d. 1956 in London following a motor car accident

Ada Kathleen Boyd b. 1931 m. Reginald Victor Oliver, Dec 1953, Wandsworth, London.

Please let me know if you need anymore information.

Regards...Marie

Shane Bywaters · Guru

Hi Marie,

Here is a follow up to the thread you started here that hopefully provides some exciting new information on the family of Heron/Aaron George Oliver.

Sooooo...

What we had already found was Heron Oliver on the 1911 census, married to Maud and with two of their three children, one being Reggie (Reginald Victor Oliver, your brother-in-law Raymond's Father).

We had also found a record for Heron George Oliver, son of George and Sarah of Stonesfield, b. & bapt 1883 in a list Olivers baptised in Wesleyan Methodist chapels in the Witney Circuit.

Well.......

Its easy enough to locate the birth registration for Heron, although he is actually registered as Aaron George Oliver, but identifying his parents George and Sarah is the main stumbling block.

So here goes ....

A suitable marriage doesn't fall out of Ancestry without some jiggery pokery as its not been entered into the ancestry system correctly, but there is a marriage that I'm sure is the right one (also validated with Free-BMD).

In the Jul-Aug-Sep 1880 quarter in the Registration district of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, we have the following marriage:

Jul 9 1880
George Oliver, Full Age, Bach, Lab, Stonesfield, s of Jason, Slatemaker
Sarah Rose Ann Griffin, Full Age, Spin, Charlbury, d William Lab.

Birth registrations for both are:
George Oliver, Oct-Nov-Dec 1857, Woodstock (Stonesfield)
Sarah Rose Ann Griffin, 21 Jan 1859, d. William & Sarah, Charlbury

So, after the marrige in 1880 you'd expect to find George and Sarah on the 1881 Census togther. We do, but Sarah is using her middle name:

George Oliver, 23, born Stonesfield abt 1858
Rose Oliver, 23, born Charlbury abt 1858

So I'm condfident we have the right paranets here however there are still some mysteries, I haven't yet located them in 1891 and 1901, but on the 1911 we do find Sarah Rose Ann Oliver, now widowed, living on Thames Street Charlbury. Again I havent located George's death registration yet.

The 1911 census does however confirm that Aaron/Heron was George and Sarah's only living child, there was one other child that died at birth.

Sarah's death registration can then be found in 1945 and looking at the Charlbury Parish Registers we find that she was buried on February 21st 1945, aged 86.

Then, going backwards again, where does her husband George Oliver fit into the Stonesfield Olivers? The 1880 marriage says George Oliver, Full Age, Bach, Lab, Stonesfield, s of Jason, Slatemaker and we have the 1857 birth registration so from here we can pick George out on the 1871 census (but not 1861 as the 1861 census doesn't exist for Stonesfield).

Then pinning this new information into the rest of my Oliver information Marie I can take your Oliver line all the way back to the 1600s, much of it based in Stonesfield, so Stonesfield is certainly an ancestral homeland.

Reginald Victor Oliver b.1909, married Ada K Boyd in 1953
Aaron (Heron) George Oliver b.1883, married ??
George Oliver b.1857, married, Sarah Rose Ann Griffin in 1880
Jason Oliver b.1837, married Joyce Busby in 1857
James Oliver bap.1811, married Elizabeth Thomson in 1835
Jesse Oliver bap.1784, married Mary Richards 1808
John Oliver bap. 1751, married Sarah Painten in 1779
William Oliver bap.1727, married Anne Smith in 1747
John Oliver bap.1699, married Mary Boughton in 1726
Josiah Oliver bap.1676, married Mariah Hunslow 1697

Interestingly, we share common a ancestor in Jesse Oliver (1784), my own lines come down from Jesse.

Okay, thats me for now, must dash, catch up again later and hopefully we can solve some of the outstanding mysteries too!

Hope you've enjoyed this
Thanks,
Shane