The address on the birth certificate was the key...... It was very difficult as my granddad had changed his Christian name, and his surname, but my mother knew his original name and that of his father, but not his mother's Christian name and so it took me awhile before I got the right birth certificate, and found his mother's full name . He was registered in March 1881 from a Great George Street address, I thought eureka ! They will be there on the April 1881 census..but no..sods law the house was empty. I eventually found him with his foster family with his name horribly misspelt. There were loads of Margaret Bartons on the census so I was at a dead end there... Grasping at straws I checked the trade directories for the street address and found a man called Hunn had been working from the address also as a window blind maker. I had nowhere else to go with the search so I checked him out and found he had married Annie Barton. I didn't at that stage know who she was apart from the same surname so I tracked Annie back and eventually everything fell into place. It was really difficult because when I began the censuses weren't ready available on line, and people from the list helped me with the 1881 census, and as each census became available the story opened up and I was able to research other records as well. It was fun and taught me to search indirect people around families and it is amazing what you discover when you research like that. -------Original Message------- From: Maria Haines Date: 31/03/2014 12:20:33 p.m. To: eng-liverpool@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [ENG-LIV] Mothers ... How attitudes have changed Oh, that is so sad - how on earth did you manage to find out what you Now know? Maria On 30/03/2014 23:23, faraway@xtra.co.nz wrote: > How attitudes have changed .... My great grandmother Margaret was born in > Great George Street Liverpool in 1862. Her parents worked from home as > Window blind makers .She lost both parents to chronic lung diseases before > She was 10 years old. > For a while her 17 year sister Annie tried to keep the family together and > Then Margaret and 11 year old Robina were placed in the care of the > Bluecoats school. > Tragically Robina died there from a horrible louse borne disease called > Relapsing fever. > >From Bluecoats Margaret was placed as a housemaid in one of Cheshire's > Great houses. > She attracted the attention of one of the young masters there and became > Pregnant with my grandad. > Shortly after his birth in 1881 my grandad was placed in a foster family > Whose name he eventually took. > Margaret never married, she went back to live with Annie and they carried > On the family trade in Birkenhead. > I don't believe she ever had any more contact with my grandad, and on the > 1911 census didn't acknowledge that she had a child - such was the shame of > The unmarried mother and her child. > My grandad's family only whispered of his birth situation, they were so deeply ashamed, it took me five years of Internet searching to discover Margaret's name and her life. I believe she died in the 1930s after living her life within a half hours journey of the son she never knew..... > ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > > Admin Message - List guidelines: > http://freespace.virgin.net/genealogical.collections/AdminMessage.htm > > The list admin can be contacted at > Eng-Liverpool-admin@rootsweb.com > > Buy or sell family research items on the GEN-MAT-UKI mailing list. No fees! > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-LIVERPOOL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Admin Message - List guidelines: http://freespace.virgin.net/genealogical.collections/AdminMessage.htm The list admin can be contacted at Eng-Liverpool-admin@rootsweb.com Buy or sell family research items on the GEN-MAT-UKI mailing list. No fees! ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-LIVERPOOL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message