Were Julia and Violet the same person?
Stephen Kirkman is struggling to work out if his great grandmother adopted a completely different name following her husband’s death
Q My great grandmother, Julia Ellen Kirkman (née Scholey), was born in Kilburn in 1855. Julia’s first husband, Charles William Kirkman, died in 1879 while they were living at 24 Sylvan Road, West Ham. According to my late father, Julia then married a man named Rogers and they moved to The Drapers Arms at 44 Barnsbury Street, Islington.
On the 1891 census, the return for The Drapers Arms lists a 14-year-old boy named William Kirkman, who would have been Julia’s son. However, Julia is nowhere to be seen, and instead the property is occupied by Violet Rogers and her husband Walter.
The 1901 census has Walter and Violet Rogers at 496 West Green Road, Tottenham, while on the 1911 census they are at 165 Downham Road, Islington. Their ages are inconsistent between census years, and I have not managed to locate a marriage certificate.
However, I have found a death certificate for a Violet Rogers, aged 67, which is dated 10 March 1925. Her place of residence is 209 Downham Road, Islington, and she is the widow of Walter Rogers, a printer’s traveller.
I have searched electoral registers, but could not find a Walter or Violet Rogers living at 209 Downham Road during the period. However, between 1920 and 1924 a John and Violet Rogers are at 207.
I have two main questions. Firstly, were Julia Ellen Kirkman and Violet Rogers the same person? Secondly, is there any connection between the Violet Rogers who died in 1925, and the woman who appears in the earlier census records? Stephen Kirkman A My initial approach was to try to disprove the theory that Julia and Violet were the same person. I conducted extensive searches using the names Scholey, Kirkman and Ro(d)gers. I followed up on several near-misses, but was able to eliminate them.
I then focused on Walter. Census records indicate that he was born in Lambeth, c1842, and I found a birth dated 26 August 1841 and a baptism on 16 January 1848 in Cripplegate, which matches information on the 1851 census.
The large gap until Walter appears on the 1891 census led me to check Army and Navy records, but without success. However, the 1871 census has a 28-year-old Walter Rogers, born in Lambeth, as a “spirit commission merchant” in Framfield, East Sussex. His wife is Louisa Jane, aged 21, born Brompton, Surrey.
Louisa appears in the 1881 and 1891 censuses as married with no husband present, and in 1901 as a widow. Either she had been deserted or her husband was often absent. If ‘her’ Walter and Violet’s Walter were one and the same, that could explain why you haven’t found a marriage record.
I then pursued the Kirkmans’ sons. Charles Frederick Kirkman appears on the 1881 census in South Bersted, West Sussex, as an orphan, despite his mother living with her sister and brother-in-law in West Ham. He is still there in 1891, but there is no entry for him in 1901 or 1911, or in the 1939 Register. However, there is a possible marriage record in 1910 at the Leysian Mission, Holborn, in which his father is “Charles Frederick Kirkman, deceased”.
William Henry Richard Kirkman is also an “orphan” in 1881, but is with stepfather Walter Rogers in 1891. A William Kirkman died 1901 in Shoreditch, but I don’t think that there is any connection.
However, a Patrick William Henry Richard Kirkman of the right age appears in various records. The 1911 census describes him as being born in East London, and on his marriage record in Clerkenwell in 1903 his father is “Patrick Henry Richard Kirkman, deceased”. The younger Patrick died in Islington in 1917.
It seems clear that Julia did not have her children with her in 1881 – both were in an orphanage. Charles senior died in the Essex County Asylum, so Julia may have changed her name to ‘distance’ herself from him.
Overall, my instinct is that Julia and Violet were indeed the same person. But as Julia/Violet never married Walter, there is probably no way of proving this.
As to whether the Violet who died in 1925 is the same Violet in earlier census records, I think she must be – despite the address discrepancy. Unfortunately, there are several death registrations for men named Walter Rogers, so it is not possible to be sure which one is the late husband of Violet, or who the ‘John’ Rogers shown on electoral registers might be.
However, the 1939 Register has a John Rogers (unmarried) living at 207 Downham Road, born 17 March 1867. He would merit further investigation. Helen Whittle
Charles Frederick Kirkman appears on the 1881 census as an orphan, despite his mother living in West Ham