William Chapman was born in 1861 in Reepham parish, Reepham, Lincolnshire (that is, Lincoln county), England. Reepham is a parish and village about four miles northeast of the town of Lincoln, in the district of West Lindsey.

William Chapman’s parents were William Chapman and Sarah Harvey Chapman. I have verified this with the original birth register, so if you still have the old family tree that erroneously had William Chapman’s parents as George Chapman and Martha Wilson, make note of the correct parents. So I’m basically starting the research over on the Chapman line, but I have not yet had much time to work on it. Here is what I have found so far.

You might think it would be easy researching such a common name, since most clerks writing the records would know how to spell it. But the problem is, Chapman is too common. There are 34 William Chapmans in the database! It can be very difficult verifying that the record you are looking at is for the correct William Chapman. I suspect that the commonality of the name is what tripped up Cheryl in her research previously. Another reason the research takes so long is that Cheryl did not write down her sources, or at least I could not find them, so I don’t know what records she did or did not search. So I’m probably repeating research she already did, and that takes time.

Cheryl had William Chapman’s year of immigration as 1886; however, I have not yet found the ship manifest, so I can’t verify this. The 1900 census and 1910 census shows he immigrated in 1886. The 1920 census shows he immigrated in 1888. The 1930 census shows he immigrated in 1887. So that doesn’t narrow it down much, especially since they could actually all be wrong.

William Chapman married Sarah Jane Allen on 23 Jul 1888 in Joliet, IL. This is where the Chapman and Allen lines connect. William and Sarah Jane lived the rest of their lives in Joliet, and had 4 children there: Arthur, Harry, George, and Verna. George died when he was about 11 months old. Arthur married Charlotte Foeh, Harry married Ada Kewley, and Verna married Joseph Suski. All of them lived their entire lives in Joliet. Sarah Jane died in 1931, and William died in 1936. The photo shows William Chapman and Sarah Jane Allen Chapman about 1920 at their home on Plainfield Avenue in Joliet.

William Chapman had 12 siblings, including a brother named Harry and a brother named George. These two brothers are probably who his two sons of the same names are named after.