Wrong Family!
One of my favourite parts of Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine is the ‘Q&A’ section. I like to work through the facts, as I have found in the past some useful tips on how to approach brick walls. In the September edition I got stuck into the tale of Louis Shoesmith’s daughter, Gillis, and started by looking at the 1911 census image that accompanied the query.
My first thoughts were “It clearly says Doris” and “Where is the M?”. But I read on as I thought all would be explained by the professional researcher named, er, Sarah Williams. Louis William Shoesmith married Emily Ada Murray in Fulham in 1878, the answer claimed, even though in the 1911 census image, Emily was only 42 and declared marriage for 22 years ie 1889. As for Gilles, why was her birth discovered at the General Register Office in 1906, when the 1911 census claimed that she was aged nine ie 1902?
Then I had a ‘light bulb’ moment, and looked for another family with a Louis and Emily in the 1911 census. Yep, there they were with Gilles M at 9 Alexandra Road, Bexhill, and not at 2 Belle Vue Villas, Maxton, Dover, as in the photograph of the census form. So, it’s the right family in the answer but the wrong census form in the photo.
I had a chuckle when I later read the editor’s comment on the Star Letter confessing that she had been “scuppered in the past by people with the same name”! Andrew Slee, by email
EDITOR REPLIES: Oops! Yes, we used the wrong image, although we corrected it in time for our iOS edition. It just goes to show…