Hi Cindy

As no father's name was given on his birth certificate, we have to assume that William James was illegitimate. You may be right that his father was James but it is unlikely that we shall ever know this for sure.

I have looked through our records for Ann or Annie SOLE who might have been his mother and the only one that might fit is one who was born in 1856 in Lurgashall in Sussex which is just under 20 miles west from Horsham. She was shown as a 15 year old servant in Lurgashall in the 1871 census, but thereafter we have lost track of her. It was not uncommon for servant girls to move around for work, but it is just speculation that she was the mother of William James.

I expect you have visited >http://www.goldonian.org/photos/photo_archive_homes/pages/clapham_home.htm< where there is a photo of the Carter Home in Clapham with very brief information. It was presumably for orphan children and subsequently taken over by Dr Barnardo's.

So I regret that we are not able to help further with your search for William's family, but thank you for telling us what happened after he reached Canada.

Bob Sheldon.