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Great grandmother picture bit.ly/will-ggm
Here (pictured right) is a photo I found of my great grandmother Elsie May Johnson (1902–1965). She was born in South Hinksey in Berkshire and moved to Cowley, Oxfordshire, when she was young. I was wondering if anybody could help say when this photograph may have been taken? It was from an album with no information on the back.
Will Mundy
Help with birth registrations bit.ly/father-excluded
I have knowledge of a series of births in the 1940s where the father is not included on the birth registrations even though the mother was married to the same person all the time and they were all given his surname. The father was in the Army at the time, so could this be why he was not included? Would both parents have had to be present at the time? I have looked at the Birth and Deaths Act from the 1870s. meekhcs
Jack Marshall – Jewish grandfather bit.ly/jack-marshall
My mother was illegitimate, so it was only after she died in 2013 that I had a DNA test and discovered my grandfather was Jewish. He is not named on her birth certificate as it was not permitted at that time, whatever the father wanted. It seems he was mostly Ashkenazi although I have some traces of Sephardic DNA, which seems to go through Holland to the UK. After UK, USA and the old colonies, Holland is the next highest match, so I think the Sephardic has mixed with some Ashkenazi before crossing to the UK. Mark Wright’s recent episode was helpful, especially if I can get a link onto something like the Bevis Marks synagogue records and find the Dutch route.
A distant relative gave me some information and then had a really bad seizure a few months later. She told me that my grandfather was a Jack (so probably Jacob) Marshall (a widely used Anglicisation of Jewish surnames, but possibly Marchlewski originally), born around 1910. He had a younger brother called David and they lived with their mother somewhere near Shamley Green, a village just south of Guildford. He and my granny, Violet Elliott, were working on a local estate run by a Mrs Allen when they got together in 1929.
I like a puzzle, but I am stumped at the moment, so if this means anything to anyone, I should be glad of some help. I realise that this is a delicate issue, especially at the time, but I am only interested in my ancestry. MysticDave
Settlement orders bit.ly/mark-grant
Mark Grant married Maria Wycherley in Liverpool in 1869, and died there in 1876. I haven’t been able to find out anything about Mark pre-1869, although the 1871 L’Pool census says he was born in “London, Surrey” and his age on marriage suggests his birth year was 1845/6. I’ve now found an entry in Liverpool Workhouse records, dated 1863: “Mark Grant, b1845, Religion C, Settlement London.” Was this just a statement of fact, or does it imply he’d been sent back to London? An idiot’s guide to settlement would be very welcome! sdup26
Caroline Peneycad bit.ly/peneycad
Caroline Peneycad’s (many variants of the spelling) parents, Mary and Charles and their children had previously been admitted to the Shoreditch Workhouse and she was born there on 1 December 1826. They were all discharged on 1 January 1827. While at the workhouse Caroline was baptised (Ancestry – England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538–1975) on 24 December 1826 at St Leonard’s, Shoreditch. The record states her date of birth as 6 December 1826, but I am inclined to accept the workhouse record date is the correct one. Her surname is written Pennycod. The actual parish register for St Leonard’s for December 1826 and several months after does not have an entry for the baptism. If a child was born in the workhouse would their baptism have been entered in a separate register? Or is there another explanation for the event not being in the parish register? Beverley Stephens