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When you've had enough of Christmas TV, you might like to try solving this mystery, just for fun!

I found my distant relation Edward McGarva 1913 in Newcastle in 1939.
This query is NOT about him or his family.

I became intrigued by Watson Greenwell, a mystery man in the family with whom Edward was (presumably) boarding.
The family are not part of my tree - I'm just interested.

Henry Greenwell married Evelyn Hildrew in 1919 in Newcastle.
They had one child, Henry, sadly born and died in 1920.

Minnie Hildrew 1906 (mistranscribed as Maurice on Ancestry) was born illegitimately as Minnie Blair, and "adopted" by the Hildrew family, per 1921 census.

But who is Watson Greenwell ?? Born 14 Sept of unreadable year. - 1871? 1921?

He's not a child of Henry and Evelyn, and doesn't seem to be a brother of Henry, going by earlier censuses.


Watson Greenwell
in the 1939 England and Wales Register
Name Watson Greenwell
Gender Male
Marital Status Single
Birth Date 14 Sep
Residence Date 1939
Address 30 Gloucester Street
Residence Place Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland, England
Occupation Forge Labourer
Line Number 41
Schedule Number 16
Sub Schedule Number 3
Enumeration District Gaai
Borough Newcastle-Upon-Tyne
Registration District 558-1
Inferred Father
Henry Greenwell
Inferred Mother
Evelyn Greenwell
Household Members (Name) Gender Birth Year
Henry Greenwell Male 1896
Evelyn Greenwell Female 1900
Watson Greenwell Male
Maurice Hildrew Female 1906 [ Minnie, born Blair ]
Edward McGarva Male 1913


In 1921 Henry and Evelyn were at the same address, but nobody else with them.
30 Gloucester Street seems to have been four flats, as Evelyn's parents, and two other households (one of them her brother Robert and his wife), are also at that address.