EUREKA MOMENT
Tracking down her father’s orphanage records was a true labour of love for Lesley Keir, but her persistence really paid off, says Claire Vaughan
Lesley Keir celebrates the orphanage records that smashed her brick wall
How long have you been researching your family history?
I am relatively new to this type of research. I didn’t have access to the internet until fairly recently, so the detail I knew about my family history was through listening to tales at my mother’s knee and from my aunt. I soon gained confidence online and, on a whim, decided to see if there was any record of my father, Leslie Dewhurst, online.
What had you uncovered before hitting your brick wall?
My father was born, along with his siblings, in Liverpool. When I was a child, my Aunty Nora told me that when their father died young of heart disease, their mother couldn’t look after them and the children were placed in an orphanage. In 1939 they were evacuated to the Lake District.
What was stopping you from progressing your research?
I went onto the internet and typed in “1930s orphanage Liverpool” – it snowballed from there! A website revealed that my father and his brothers were sent to Hawse End House near Keswick. I was amazed to learn that it belonged to Catherine Marshall (1880–1961), a pacifist and leading light in the suffrage movement. Her family files, letters and papers were archived at the Carlisle Archive Centre within the Marshall family collection. Finding my father’s records was a sheer fluke. For one thing, the orphanage records were left behind when Hawse End House closed and discovered when it was sold. Someone saw their value and passed them to the archive – in those days, there was no legal requirement to keep such documents.
In addition, the Carlisle archives are tricky to negotiate. If I had not found the link to Catherine Marshall, I would never have found my father’s records. If you just search for his name it says, “No record found.” However, Leslie Dewhurst DMAR13/13 is there, along with dozens of other boys’ records – including those of his brothers: Ronald and John. I needed to know what was in those files, but the data protection law meant that it wasn’t going to be simple.
How did you attempt to solve the problem?
I contacted the archivist at Carlisle by email. I was told I would need to seek permission from Liverpool Children’s Services (LCS) before I was allowed access to my father’s records. I contacted LCS, sending all the documentation it requested to prove I was next of kin. Some weeks later, I was informed that it had no record of my father. I couldn’t believe it, but I wasn’t going to give up.
What was the ‘eureka’ moment’?
I got back in touch with Carlisle Archives and spoke to a more experienced archivist, who physically located the file and found that, in fact, I needed to seek permission from the Church in Liverpool to view its contents. She contacted the secretary to Liverpool diocese and gave me his details. When I emailed him, his response was positive and immediate. He had never been approached to give his permission in this way before. I sent him the relevant documentation and he liaised