Who is Frank Baker?

Question

I have an ancestor named Frank Baker who is the illegitimate father to my 3rd great grandmother.

The only things known for certain so far is that his daughter, Frances Marion Baker, was born on 25 September 1866 at 30 Oxford Road, Islington (London), England, and registered on Sep. 31. His daughter's birth registration does not mention his name but her baptism at St. Mary Islington on 8 December 1867 does mention his name. It is written that the family's abode is Oxford Rd and their profession is clerk. In the 1881 census, his daughter was living with his mother and step-father at 12 Oakhurst Grove, Camberwell (London) as the name Frances Seymour (her step-father's last name). When his daughter got married on 21 September 1889, his name is mentioned and his rank or profession is gentleman.

It is possible that Frank Baker was born in England (around London?) before 1851 or even around 1839 as that is the birth year of his daughter's mother.

If anyone can help find more information about Frank Baker, it will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Its probably not much help, but 30 Oxford Road seems to be Maria Laidler's parents address as she was living there with them in the 1871 census (no sign of Frances though),
: James Laidler    Head        M    53        Borough, Surrey, England
: Maria Laidler    Wife        F    50        Shoreditch, Middlesex, England
: Maria H Laidler    Daughter        F    30        Shoreditch, Middlesex, England

I haven't had any luck tracking down Frank (or Francis) - nothing in the papers that might give a clue.

Comments

If it's any consolation, I've got an almost identical situation in my family - a birth certificate with someone's name as the father, and the address is her parents' address. I think that will be forever a brick wall.

Answer 2

As Gill says, 30 Oxford Road seems to have been the Laidler family home - Maria H and her parents were there in 1861 as well as in 1871.  This particular Oxford Road seems to be the one now known as Elizabeth Avenue, London N1.  

There's a small possibility that Frances's father's name is a (semi-)fiction, and it looks unlikely that you'll be able to find a paper trail to the right Frank (or Francis) Baker, but you can look for possible candidates.  Being in the right place at the right time to be Frances's father doesn't prove paternity, but it is a necessary starting point.  

A birth mid-way between two censuses doesn't help, but I found two men of the right name who were clerks in London in 1861/71.  There may have been others.

Francis Baker b Northover, Ilchester, Somerset.  (Q3 1838 Yeovil registration district) was a bank clerk.  He and his brother were living as boarders in Camberwell, Surrey in 1861, and he was living with his, by then married, brother in 1871 in Lee, Kent.  He had moved with his brother’s household to Stoke Newington, Middx by 1881.  

I don't see anything linking his location to Maria's, but I did notice that Frances's stepfather was also a bank clerk living in this part of south London.  

Francis Henry Baker b Lambeth, Surrey Q2 1840 is possibly a bit more promising.  He was living with his widowed mother on Euston Road at the northern edge of the City of London in 1861, when he was a clerk (/ secretary?).  They’d moved to Penge, Surrey by 1871, when he was a clerk. 

By 1881, he’d married and was living in Kensington.  He now worked in the Civil Service: Inland Revenue, and by 1891 he was a Clerk, Upper Division, Civil Service.  In 1901 his occupation was Civil Service: Chief Examiner, and by 1911 he’d retired. 

Nothing here is a perfect fit, but it doesn’t look impossible either.  His location on Euston Road in 1861 places him a couple of miles from Oxford Road (Elizabeth Avenue), so he and Frances weren't exactly neighbours, but they could have met.  Or, of course, they may not have done.  And by 1889, he was a married member of the Respectable middle classes who may have preferred Frances’s marriage register didn't directly reveal his occupation / identity.    

I'm not sure how much this really adds to what you already know, but you might find by exploring one of these men further that something fits - or that something rules them out.  

Comments

This is very interesting because I know Islington well and the only Oxford Road I could find seemed to be way up in the north-east corner of the borough, miles away from St Mary's in Upper Street. Elizabeth Avenue, on the other hand, is much more central and a few minutes walk away.

I found the same Francis Henry Baker b. 1840 and liked the look of him too. I nearly posted an answer but one negative was the distance between Euston Road and the incorrect Oxford Road. I think we can dismiss the fictitious name possibility because Frances was actually baptised and registered as Frances Marian Baker Laidler. Giving a child their father's surname as a given name was not uncommon. She was using the surname Baker at her marriage though.

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Thank you Matthew, your opinion on Francis Henry Baker adds considerable credibility to my suggestion.  

Do you know this website? https://maps.thehunthouse.com/Streets/Old_to_New_London_Street_Name_Changes.htm  Old maps are one of my great loves, and I find these lists invaluable.  That said, I also homed in on the Oxford Road in Finsbury Park, which isn't on the OS map surveyed 1863 - 1869.  It was only when I found the family there in the 1861 census I realised I needed to rethink.  

You're absolutely right about names.  I'd also wondered whether the fact both names are in the baptism register meant both parents were present at the baptism?  It seems unlikely that a clergyman would allow a woman to name an unmarried father without his consent.  

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No, I didn't know of that website, thank you. I'm not sure of the rules for naming fathers. I've seen older baptisms where the child is described as the baseborn son/daughter of the mother and sometimes the father is named too. I don't think the father being named necessarily implies he was present. I'm fairly sure the rules on birth registration (as opposed to baptism) required the father's presence for unmarried parents.

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Finding where Frances was during the 1871 census could help. She did not appear to be living with her mother on 30 Oxford Road in Islington, so it is possible that she was living with her father or some kind of children's home? She did eventually live with her mother because she appears in the 1881 census living in Camberwell. I also can't seem to find where she was living during the 1891 census. At that time, she would have been married and had one daughter.

I doubt that Frank Baker is a fictional name, because she used the surname throughout her life. It shows up in her birth registration and her baptism as the given name "Frances Marian Baker" or spelled "Marion". Even though her surname was technically Laidler, she never seemed to use that surname. She used Baker during her marriage, and I think in her daughter's birth registration (got to check GRO), then finally it was written in her burial register in Montreal, Quebec. There are really only two sources to the name Frank Baker (the birth registration and Frances' marriage), but if the father's name was fiction then I don't think she would have used the surname Baker for all her life. Even her mother Maria Haacke Laidler was an illegitimate child but the earliest record I have is her baptism after her parents married, and she used her father's surname for all her life.

These ancestors are on my mother's side, and my mother did do a DNA test. But, it doesn't really help because there are no known cousins that are close enough to even match DNA with, but if there are some I haven't found any. Constance Bown, Frances Baker, and Maria Laidler were all only childs to my knowledge which means there are no cousins to match with. If we find a Frank (or Francis) Baker that seems like it's possible that he could be the same person, if he has living descendants then the DNA matching could be an option right?

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I think this is her husband and daughter in 1891, as Brown in Islington: 

 

William C P Brown b 1866 Leicestershire

Frances M A C Brown b 1891 Middlesex

Constance’s names are reversed (plus Marion > Mary Ann > M A) and Frances is missing.  She might have been elsewhere visiting, but it seems as likely that the census enumerator slipped a line while copying two people called Frances from the household form into his book and ended up missing her out. 

The record on family search looks like this but the search result I clicked through from had their middle initials as well.  

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I found the record on Ancestry here as well:

Line 27: Frances M A Brown, 23

Line 28: William C P Brown, 25

Line 29: Frances M A C Brown

Thanks for the help with that. Her family emigrated to Canada in 1894 so they would not show up in anymore censuses in England. I found her in the 1901 census in Canada before she died in 1909. Now there is only the 1871 census missing for Frances.