A brickwall in genealogical terms is when you frustratingly can't get any further with a certain line. I have been able to trace my paternal Strickland/Stickland line back to the 1600's but with my maternal Orwin line I have become stuck with Robert Orwin who was married in 1825 in London, I believe that he was born around 1796 but because he died just before the 1851 census was taken, which would have told me where he was born I am still not sure where he came from. This is my brickwall.
The Orwin name is dominant in the Sunderland, Newcastle area and I have found a Robert Orwin who was born around that time, did he move down to London to find work as so many did in the 1800's? There are also Orwins in the Chesterfield area and also some Orwins in London.
The name of Orwin can also be misspelled as Urwin, Unwin or Onwin so this makes it even more complicated
My Robert Orwin was a Miller as was his wife's family Sarah Freeman of Frindsbury, Kent. I have found an Orwin/Unwin family living in Frindsbury and one of their children was called Robert, but he died shortly after his birth. Maybe this family had another child called Robert who was born a few years later? I have been unable to find any record up to now but sometimes the parish registers are quite illegible.
Another clue is that a sister of Sarah Freeman, Hester Duly nee Freeman, named one of her children William Orwin Duly, and this was before Sarah married Robert. Who did she name him after? and where the Freeman and Orwin families already connected ?
I have recently ruled out the Robert Orwin who was born in Northumberland as I have found him and his wife and children on the 1841 census, still living in the Northumberland area.
As I mentioned I have my Robert Orwin's marriage record to Sarah Freeman in 1825 in Stepney, London, also the baptism of two of their children in Bermondsey named Sarah and Robert, also an article in the local newspaper about Robert's bankruptcy tells me that he was a Miller living on Tooley Street in Bermondsey.
Their third child Eliza was baptised in Chatham, Kent and then they moved to Bristol, Gloucestershire, a distance of about 160 miles were their fourth child William was born. Their fifth child Charles was born in Chippenham, Wiltshire.
Shortly after the birth of Charles the family moved up to Hull, East Yorkshire a distance of 245 miles! Here their sixth and youngest child Maria was born.
Robert worked in one of the many windmills located at that time in Hull, but unfortunately died at the young age of 57 in 1849 of tuberculosis.
His wife and children continued to live in Hull and his eldest son Robert my 2nd great grandfather also became a miller.
I would love to find a definite clue to point me in the right direction of were Robert came from so that I can then trace the Orwin line further back.
Just recently I discovered a Thomas Orwin who was a printer in London in the 16th century, his device was "By Wisdom Peace, By Peace Plenty"
After his death his widow continued his work in the printing shop for several years and printed many books during the rest of her life, a real emancipated woman!
My brother John was a printer for many years so it would be nice if we could link up to this Orwin printing family in some way, maybe it is in our blood.
