Sunday, March 8, 2015

Owen Owen - second thoughts

I have previously given a tentative identification for Owen Owen but, on revisiting the name, I'm not happy with it so I've taken another look.

The CWGC give 14 results for Owen Owen, three of them have Liverpool mentioned in the 'other information' the other 11 state their parents' residences as places in Wales.

I previously assumed the man without a middle name would be mine but there is no information to tie him to Toxteth so without proof I have to rethink the assumption.

I have also identified another Owen Owen (no middle name) who was from Bootle, he is recorded incorrectly on all his military records and the CWGC as Owen Owens. I have no link to Toxteth for him though.

Owen Hugh Owen is one of the men on the CWGC.  Owen's parents married in 1892, he had a baby sister who died in 1896, his mother died in 1898 and his 3 year old sister died in 1899. In the 1901 census Owen and his elder sister were visitors at the house of their maternal uncle in Birkenhead.
His father (also Owen Hugh Owen) remarried in 1903 to Mary Jane Jones, a widow. The 1911 census shows them living at 71 Boswell St (Lodge Lane) with children from their previous marriages: Jennet Gertrude Jones 22 and Owen Hugh Owen 12. The form states that they had been married for 7 years and had one child from the marriage.
Owen H Owen's service record shows that he enlisted in 1917 and died in 1918 exactly one month before his 20th birthday. the cause of death was pneumonia following influenza. He was buried in Birkenhead Flaybrick Cemetery in a family grave (I will be visiting soon)
A family notice for him in the Liverpool Echo reads "Remembered by Ethel and all at 46 Crosfield-road... confusingly there were several Owen families living in Crosfield-road in the 1911 census with several Owen Owens.

However, Owen Hugh Owen does have a link to Toxteth Park, his father's parents lived there in the 1871 and 1881 census, his father spent some time there and there were other relatives in the area. 

This requires more research.