Speculations in first edition.This chapter was originally based on the Disspains listed in the index to the civil registration in England. This system of recording vital events began in mid-year 1837 and continues to the present. There are indexes to births, marriages, and deaths. These indexes include only the name, the quarter of the year when, and the district where the event was registered. At that time we simply assumed the relationships between families from what we know about the constitution of families in general, and the naming and other customs in the places and time periods involved. We wanted to procure the certificates referred to, so as to dispel any doubts about whether the connections proposed were actually valid, but the expense was prohibitive. | ||
Adjustments to second edition.As time has passed increasingly more sources became somewhat more accessible. This made it possible to put some little flesh on the bones of the civil registration. Then we published this genealogy on the world wide web and linked the site into that of the LDS church's genealogy site, descendants of these Disspains began to send in corrections and additions. Several of the assumed connections had to be revised, more than I ever imagined. It now seems most likely that there is but one branch of the Disspain family surviving from London. Confusion was engendered by the fact that there were several men named George Disspain, two of them seven years apart in age, only one of whom would belong to William Henry Disspain of 1780. It appears that the simplest resolution of the conflict would make the second George, sometimes called George M., who was born in 1793, likely this man's younger brother. I thought at first that William Henry, might have been a son of (Gervois0, André1, Gervois2, Thomas6, (son)2, Thomas1) William3, who was born in Bishopsgate, London, in 1735 and married in Shoreditch in 1767. However, William Henry lived and raised a family in Lambeth, probably more suggestive of being from Westminster, where lived the family of ( Gervois0, André1, Jean1, Henry4, Henry5, Henry2, John2) Henry3, who was born in 1749 Canterbury. In 1768 he was apprenticed as a currier. Henry then married to Mary and had a daughter in Newgate, Canterbury, in 1775 and after moving back to London had additional children in Westminster. We place the George (brn 1821) in William Henry's family seeing that he fits better chronologically, appears to have been born in Kennington, and named a son William Henry (brn 1804). It appears that this son died as a child. Hence there seems at this time only one place to assign the younger George (brn 1828). George (brn 1793) was married in 1825, and might well have had this son. Confusing the issue is the fact that there is a family of John (brn 1841), who was also called John George! If we can accept a George and a John George in the same family, George of 1828 is placed. The fact of George of 1793 being born in Westminster seems to clinch his belonging as a sibling to William Henry. | ||
George's family.In the first edition of this work I expressed an interest in procuring a birth certificate for the man listed as (74) John George Disspain. In November of 2000 a descendant, Christopher Leonard Disspain [brn 7 May 1968, Acton, London, England, g-son of (7419) Henry] wrote and stated that he had this ancestor's birth as John George, the son of George and Mary (Donovan) Disspain. This information was confusing to Christopher's father, who was doing the research, due, he thought, to the multiple George's. In January 2001 the wife of a descendant of (37) George [Margaret Masters] wrote to straighten me out on this George's family, explaining that Samuel Meads alias Dispain was not an illegitimate son as I had been too ready to suppose, but merely a step-son. Then another descendant [Lesley Jones, 2gg-dau of (374) John George Disspain] sent some work that Margaret had done on her line. Her work points strongly to (37) George having the connection conjectured above. I hope and expect that as time goes by these and possibly other researchers will continue to update the matter of this chapter. | ||
Relationship of individuals included.The genealogy in this chapter includes the immediate families of both male and female children. At the head of the chapter is a chart of the individuals carrying the Disspain name, which is equipped to help you navigate the families, if you wish. For the present we carry forward the descendants of only the male children's families. The last section of the chapter, which has all the references to the individual events, also allows access to extracts of select documents used in compiling the genealogy. You may find it helpful also to refer to my standard three-letter abbreviations. | ||
It may be of some interest that the Post Office Telephone Directories for 1958 included the following entries:
London (Postal area) p. 713
Surrey
West Middlesex
Hertfordshire & N. Middlesex