Hi Graham Kia Ora Graham AAH! UH! It's amazing what our olds got up to and what yarns were later spun! In Laura's case there may have been another marriage which resulted in her having a different surname, perhaps she had married and was recorded wrongly as single or maybe she was related to the other side of the family. I have 8 year old stepsons referred to as sons in law! Lateral thinking is required! At the risk of being boring I always advise researching ALL of the family. That is: your parents + siblings, your grandparents + their siblings, your greatgrandparents + their siblings etc as you go backwards. it's amazing what you find! Names, addresses, occupations often follow a pattern. Watch out for witnesses at weddings, informants at deaths etc. I have a death in 1874 with a name I didn't recognise. Looking up the 1871 and 1881 censuses I found the informant was a nurse and a next door neighbour who was present at the death. As 2x greatgran was a widow it was somehow comforting to know that someone she knew was taking care of her at the end! Every wee gem builds up the picture! I'm now going "forward' from when greatgrandparents left in 1878 and am in the throes of the London Blitz at present! Because of security at the time locations were kept secret so the enemy didn't know whether they had been successful. Picking up clues the hard way ploughing through Patient Records!!!. Best of British with your continuing search! This list is great, so yell out if you're stuck! Marlene in New Zealand Graham Stanley wrote: > Dear Marlene > Thanks for your suggestion. I was desperate. > The birth certificate arrived today: the mother's name is given as ALLEN not > BOWEN. > So I was barking up the wrong tree all this time. I don't know how Laura > fits into this but buoyed by my success with the birth certificate, I have > sent off for the marriage certificate between William JARVIS and Lizzie > ALLEN to see what that can tell me. > Thanks for the suggestion: sometimes the obvious course of action gets > overlooked. > Best wishes > Graham > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Marlene Shipman" <marlene.s@xtra.co.nz> > To: <eng-warks-birmingham@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Friday, January 12, 2007 12:09 PM > Subject: Re: [B'ham] Elizabeth and Laura BOWEN > > > >> Hi Graham >> I presume you have your gt grandmother's birth date from family history? >> Her birth cert will give her mother's name if you're desperate! >> William Charles Jarvis birth is registered as Dec 1855 6b/495 at Walsall. >> Laura Bowen appears as an "inmate" of the Walton Rd Major Lester's Girls >> Home - a scholar - in 1881. She was born in B'ham. according to the >> census. There is a birth in Coventry June 1867. I wonder if that >> indicates her mother might have remarried after Elizabeth's birth and >> before Laura's? >> More interesting, I think, might be to follow the Laura BOWN shown on >> the 1881 aged 12. She is shown with a mother Harriet and various >> siblings. I'd love a look at the original census for this entry as the >> 3 Boarders are shown as JEVONS. Might that be a corruption of Jarvis? >> A Look up for the 1871 census for Laura Bowen or Bown born +/-1867 B'ham >> should be useful as Elizabeth might be shown with the family. You would >> soon tell if there has been a remarriage! >> Sometimes you just have to go all around the problem to get the answers! >> Sorry I don't have the census info! >> Marlene >> >> >> Graham Stanley wrote: >> >>> I am searching for details of my gt grandmother's family who I think were >>> called BOWEN. >>> Her name was Elizabeth and she "married" William Charles Jarvis sometime >>> before ( I hope) the birth of my granny in Aston on 17 May 1879. I can't >>> find their marriage certificate on FreeBMD and I suppose it is possible >>> that they never married officially. >>> The family are living at 55 Staniforth St, Aston, B'ham in 1881 and >>> Elizabeth gives her birthplace as B'ham and from her age would have been >>> born around 1860/1861. By 1891 they have moved to Walsall (her husband's >>> birthplace) and have been joined by her unmarried sister, Laura BOWEN, >>> also born in B'ham, around 1869/1870. Laura's presence is my only clue as >>> to Elizabeth's maiden name. >>> Unfortunately, I have not been able to trace either of the girls in the >>> earlier census returns or to find a birth certificate for them on >>> FreeBMD. I did find an Elizabeth Bowers in the 1861 census but from >>> FreeBMD there was an Elizabeth Bowers born in 1860, so this information >>> on the census is probably not a transcription error. >>> I appreciate that BOWEN is a fairly common name in B'ham but wondered if >>> anyone can help me find the family of Elizabeth and Laura? >>> Best wishes >>> Graham >>> Twickenham >>> _____________________________________________ >>> Tracing Ancestors in Birmingham: >>> http://www.bham.de/ >>> >>> Any problems, please contact the List Admin: >>> ENG-WARKS-BIRMINGHAM-admin@rootsweb.com >>> ------------------------------- >>> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >>> ENG-WARKS-BIRMINGHAM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' >>> without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >>> >>> >>> >> _____________________________________________ >> Tracing Ancestors in Birmingham: >> http://www.bham.de/ >> >> Any problems, please contact the List Admin: >> ENG-WARKS-BIRMINGHAM-admin@rootsweb.com >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> ENG-WARKS-BIRMINGHAM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' >> without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> >> > > _____________________________________________ > Tracing Ancestors in Birmingham: > http://www.bham.de/ > > Any problems, please contact the List Admin: ENG-WARKS-BIRMINGHAM-admin@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-WARKS-BIRMINGHAM-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > >