Foiled by a proliferation of Foyles

Q The proliferation of persons having Foyle as their surname in the Portsmouth area throughout the 19th century has on occasion caused me some difficulty in trying to identify individuals that might be related to my own family. In the case of my great uncle William Foyle, I know that he was born in 1839 at Landport and that he was the first child of William Foyle a seaman serving on HMS Ganges and his wife Susannah, formerly Phipps. The 1841 Census shows that at the age of two he was living with his mother at Sun Street, Portsmouth. His father at that time was still serving as a seaman, this time on .