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We set out to find the father of Henry Alcock, born 1862. Barry’s family tree lists his father as being another Henry Alcock, but we don’t know where this information comes from. We have no record of him in any census. At the weekend, Barry gave us a marriage certificate for this elder Henry:

 Marriage of Henry Alcock and Mary Sharpe, 4th August 1859 at the register office in Newark,
 Nottinghamshire. He was a bachelor aged 26 working as a plaster pits labourer. He lived in
 Tenter Buildings, Newark and his father was William Alcock, a stonemason's labourer. She was a
 spinster aged 22 working as a domestic servant. She lived in Osmandthorpe, Newark and her
 father was William Sharpe a railway labourer. He could not sign his name but she could. The
 witnesses were William Mounteroy who could sign his name and Harriet Ingleton who could not.
  source 1859MarriageOfHenryAlcockAndMarySharpe ()

We know that Henry Jr.’s mother, Mary was a sharp because we found her living with her parents in the 1881 and 1891 census. The above marriage is highly likely to be correct - there can’t be too many Mary Sharpes marrying an Alcock just before 1860. We have found Henry Jr.’s mother Mary in several census returns:

Census Age Where
1871      33    Newark with her sons William and Henry
1881      43    Grantham with her parents, son William and daughter Susannah E
1891      53    Grantham with her father

We have ordered Henry Jr’s birth certificate but it won’t arrive for another 10 days.

ome/iand/web/iandavis.com/wiki/htdocs/… 30/08/13 12:00

We need to complete our picture of this family:

 Find Henry Alcock Sr. in a census. He was born around 1833, making him 38 in 1871, 48 in 1881, 58
 in 1891 and 68 in 1901.
 Susannah E was 14 in 1881 but we have not found her in 1871. Where was she? Perhaps with her
 father? She would be about 4, i.e. born in Old Lenton, Nottinghamshire about 1867
 We could try to find Henry Alcock Sr.'s father William in the 1871 census. In 1859 he was a
 stonemason's labourer.

We looked for William Alcocks in the 1871 census born in Nottinghamshire within 20 years of 1800. There were three:

 A widowed butcher, aged 72 living alone in Ripley, Derbyshire born in Kimberley, Notts
 (DBYRG10_3585_3589-0232)
 A widowed, retired farmer aged 82 living with three servants in Fiskerton, Notts. He was born in
 Limby, Notts (NTTRG10_3532_3535-0447)
 A married publican aged 56, living with his wife Harriet in Kingston upon Hull. They were both born
 in Greatly, Notts (ERYRG10_4791_4793-0110)

There were a total of 63 born outside of Nottinghamshire. Of those, only one was living in Nottinghamshire We managed to find Susannah E, living with her mother’s parents in the 1871 census for Grantham:

   1871               Inner Street, Spittlegate, Grantham (RG10_3360_3365-0023)
   Name               Relation      Condition Age Occupation                   Where Born
   William Sharp      Head          M            63    Labourer on Railway Notts, Adlingfleet
   Mary Sharp         Wife          M            58                            Lincs, Timberland
   Susannah Sharp Daur              U            22    Dressmaker              Yorks, Doncaster
   William Sharp      Son           U            16    Whitesmith              Lincs, Spittlegate
   Eliza Alcock       Grand-dau                  4                             Notts, Lenton
 . . . quoted from RG10-3360-80-22 ()

Obviously, she is called Eliza here to distinguish here from Susannah Sharp, her aunt. A whitesmith is a worker of cool metals, such as brass. Even though Mary always stated she was married in all the census returns, Henry may have died. We looked for Henry Alcock deaths in the Ancestry GRO between 1867 and 1871. There were 8, none of whom were near the right age. We checked all kinds of name combinations to try and find Henry in the 1871 England or Wales census without any luck. Barry has told us that Henry went to sea. There are lots of places to search passenger lists online (a big list here: http://www.cyndislist.com /ships.htm#Lists) . We searched for Alcocks on the convict ships to Australia. There were 6 entries:

Alcock, J               to Madras from Sydney         1844         ship Equestrian
Alcock, Jane      1833 to Sydney from London          1833         ship Bussorah Merchant
Alcock, Philip    1853 to Nelson from London          ship Maori
Alcock, T               to London from Sydney         1845         brig Caroline
Alcock, T               to London from Sydne          1845         brig Caroline
Alcock, Thomas 1831 to Sydney from Sheerness 1830                  ship York