@arhesusnegative further to this for the OP, our findings when tracing a family tree for the Humphri(e)s boaters.
Many of the boat people were unable to read or write as the working life never gave the children much, if any, opportunity for schooling. They also spoke with a mixture of accents picked up from the towns and villages on their way. However, they have the most wonderful memories of events. When births, deaths and marriages were recorded the recorder wrote down what he / she heard. In various records I have 5 different spellings of "my" narrow boat Captain's surname, yet they are all the same family.
Also, some of the boat people had many children and often used family names. It is quite probable to find cousins with the same name and similar birth dates so it is easy to go off on the wrong track.
I have seen some sloppy family trees on genealogy sites where in one case it had a girl getting married at eight years old!
Back up records in the form of census, boat health registrations, birth, marriage, death, certificates etc., are essential.
Don't be mislead by TV programmes like "Who do you think you are." Tracing families is a very time consuming and can be an expensive business, taking approximately 200 hours to get back 5 generations. I'm afraid if you are really serious about tracing your boating ancestors you have much work ahead of you. Even then it never really ends...... Never assume anything, get solid evidence as indicated above.
Another lead is cemeteries where boat people are buried, these often give quite accurate dates of births and deaths. Boaters tended to bring their loved to what was considered "home port" for funerals and burial. One example being Braunston in Northamptonshire.
This site may be of help?
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