Find Ancestors

I am looking for the family of John Norris Burt, killed in WW1 at the age of 19. What his family may have not known is that he was expecting a child with his girlfriend. He was killed one month after leaving for France, the child was given up in London and eventually sent to Canada. He was a boy, named John after his father. His family are looking for John Burt's family members. John Burt's sister Sarah married a William Stevenson and they had a child named John Norris Stevenson who died in 1996.

From war graves commission
BURT, JOHN NORRIS
Initials: J N
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Royal Berkshire Regiment
Unit Text: 1st Bn.
Age: 19
Date of Death: 16/05/1915
Service No: 9767
Additional information: Son of Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Burt, of 1, Hunts Cottages, Heathrow, Hounslow, Middx.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 30.
Memorial: LE TOURET MEMORIAL

Collecting a stock of names is usually a good start, so you can widen the net of people you're looking for.

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl

This would be your JNB:

Births Jun 1896
Burt John Norris Staines 3a 18

and that certificate would give you his mother's name.

And very likely the 1875 JNB is his father and the 1847 JNB his grandfather.

And then there's an 1846 marriage -- his great-grandfather?

Looks like somewhere along the line, a Burt may have married a Norris.

Do you have personal knowledge of John's sister Sarah's family, or is that from records research? Wondering whether you know whether he had other siblings.

1911 census

http://www.1911census.co.uk/search/tnaform.aspx

This looks like your John:

BURT JOHN 1897 14 Staines Middlesex

and the only Burt living with him is:

BURT LILLY 1898 13


Wonder whether his mother had remarried ...


Edit - for some reason, that wasn't working. Also in the household:


BURT MARY 1875 36
BURT JOHN 1875 36
BURT SARAH 1900 11
BURT GEORGE 1901 10
BURT MARY 1904 7

One might think this birth is related too:

Births Jun 1920
Burt John N (mother Spurling) Staines 3a 49

Marriages Sep 1911
Burt Henry (Staines) 3a 17
Spurling Winifred (Staines) 3a 17

Aha. Have you read the census records at Ancestry?


1901

Name: John Bart
[John Norris Burt]
Age: 4
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1897
Relation: Son
Father's Name: John
Mother's Name: Mary
Gender: Male
Where born: Heathrow, Middlesex, England

Civil parish: Harmondsworth
Registration district: Staines

John Bart 25
Mary Bart 25
John Bart 4
Lilly Bart 3
Sarah Bart 2
George Bart 3/12



User-added corrections:


Corrections for John Bart - 1901 England Census
Correction Detail:
Given Name: John Norris
Surname: Burt
Correction Type: Transcription Error
Explanation:
johns birth was registered in 1875 staines he was the son of william and sarah and married mary murphy in 1895 also registered in staines
Contributed By: carole___
Contributed On: 09/03/2008

Corrections for John Bart - 1901 England Census
Correction Detail:
Given Name: John Norris
Surname: Burt
Correction Type: Transcription Error
Explanation:
john norris birth was registered in staines in 1896
Contributed By: carole___
Contributed On: 09/03/2008


If you don't know that person, you need to hustle on over to Ancestry and sign up, at least for the 14-day free trial, and send her a message through the system there. Her profile indicates that she has been on the site this week, so a message should reach her. If you are only on a short membership, you can send her your email address through that system.

Marriages Jun 1921
Burt Lilly Eden Staines 3a 17
Eden Ernest Burt Staines 3a 17


At that point - births after 1921 -- we're getting into the realm of possibly living people.

I'll send you the details of the children of that marriage by private message.

There is no image available for this record at Ancestry it seems, but it would seem clear that the year of birth is a mistranscription or a typo in the original index; it should say 1921 -- Lilly's son born that year:

Name: Ernest John G Eden
Birth Date: 21 Aug 1911
Death Registration Month/Year: Jul 1992
Age at death (estimated): 80
Registration district: Ploughley
Inferred County: Oxfordshire
Volume: 20
Page: 2468


The death certificate could name a family member, although the info would be rather dated by now.

By the way -- my mum's mum's sister married a Home Child here in Canada. I've traced him to his family in England, but haven't managed to identify any living relations at this point. He was named for his father too ... Charles Smith ... !!

Got your PM back, and as I feared, you do have all of this? and are in touch with the Ancestry member -- who I now see is also a member of GR! Ah well, I amused myself!

So ... you are in fact in touch with family members then? Ah, but I see. It's a tangential relationship in that case, to your John's father. It's descendants of his siblings themselves you're looking for.

Well ... maybe a bit of a start between her info and this!

Sarah Burt Stevenson had other children besides John. I'll PM you the birth details.

Oh -- we came to different conclusions on Lilly's marriage.

Btw -- I only sent you private messages because the info was about possibly living individuals. For anything else, would ya put it in the thread here? It's a bit awkward toggling back and forth.


You have:

Marriages Jun 1922
Burt Lily Burton Staines 3a 24
Burton Frederick G Burt Staines 3a 24


with births to go with.

And the danged thing is -- no Lilly or Lily Burt was born in Staines in the late 1800s.

There were a Mary Lilian and a Florence Lily, neither of which helps particularly.


Unless you have watertight info on the one in question, you'd need to get a certificate to check the father's name.

Aha, Carole's notes at Ancestry say she was Mary Lillian.

No marriage in that name.

I've just been released from waiting around to see whether I'm needed for work this pm so I'm off home to feed my starving tummy! I'll check back tomorrow and see how it's going.

I seldom presume to do such reconstructing of someone else's tree, but I figured in your situation it wasn't the fun of the finding that was of interest -- you really are looking for living relations, not making a hobby of finding them, so I hope something there has helped!

You've been a terrific help!! The more information the more likely we are to find living relatives. I will post reply's in the future here, new to this web site so really didn't even think of that! Once again, thanks so much for your help and all the new information you've given me to add.

Lori
I cant believe I found this message, I haven't looked at my family history for a few years now!!
John Norris Burt was my nan's uncle, she was the daughter of Mary Lilian Burt and her husband Frederick Burton. I have some Burt history back four generations and John Norris was always the first born son.
I do hope you are still on this site, I would love to see where you fit into the story and maybe correspond with maybe a new family. I have some items of John's that may be nice to discuss.
Fingers crossed you are still on this site.
Jenni

To make contact with Lori.........click on her name

If her e-mail hasn't changed in the 5 years since she posted, GR will notify her

I have done that as well, fingers crossed, thank you Reggie