Can you help me break down my brick wall and find Caroline Moore?
QFor
two years, I have been searching for Caroline Moore (née Johns), born in Cornwall in 1825. In 1851, she lived in Woolwich with her husband George Moore, and their one-year-old daughter Emily Adeline. In the following census, Emily’s birthplace is given as Gibraltar. I found an Army birth listed there for 1850 – Emily’s father, George Moore, was a corporal in the Royal Artillery who served in the Crimean War in 1854–1855, so may have been based there. Caroline and George’s second daughter, Caroline Evelyn, may also have been born in Gibraltar, in 1853. George Moore died of tuberculosis in the Woolwich Arsenal Hospital in 1857, aged 30 – but from 1853, I have no trace of Caroline. In 1861, the two daughters are living with their paternal grandmother and her second husband, and were raised in the north of England. So I assume that Caroline died between 1853 and 1861. What happened to her, and where was she buried?
Violet Saunders
A Caroline Moore’s disappearance from the records after the birth of her second daughter in 1853 does not necessarily mean she died then or soon thereafter. She might, for example, have remarried after George’s death. Several Caroline Moores married in London and elsewhere between 1857 and 1861. A newly married Caroline may well have left the two children from her first marriage with her mother-in-law while she and her second husband lived elsewhere. Another – unlikely – possibility is that she went abroad for some reason. A Caroline Moore did apply for a passport in 1856 (see the collection ‘Index to Register of Passport Applications 1851–1903’ at findmypast.co.uk).
However, Caroline might have died between 1853 and 1861. There are three deaths in Greenwich (Woolwich was within the Royal Borough of Greenwich) of a Caroline Moore: in 1853, 1847 and 1863. There are also several deaths of Caroline Moores in other London boroughs. Don’t forget to also search under surname variations, such as ‘Moor’.
Another possibility is that she died in Gibraltar. Records can be accessed via the Gibraltar National Archives. However, before making an enquiry in person or online, you will need to register for a history card at nationalarchives.gi/gna/historycardup.aspx.
Ruth Symes