Excuse my stupidity but how can you be sure that Grace Miller on the 1851 census is Grace Bell on the 1861 census? There ages do not match. >From: "Roy Stockdill" <[email protected]> >Reply-To: [email protected] >To: BRADFORD List <[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [ENG-YKS-BRADFORD] Eat your heart out Catherine Cookson! >Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 09:34:55 +0100 > >From: Norman Gallop <[email protected]> > > An intriguing tale is signalled by these little extracts. > > Who's Jane's father? How did Grace end up in the poorhouse? How did >Ralph meet her? Seems they never wed - right? > > > > Any information from any Sherlock would be most welcome. Thanks Norman > > G. > > > > 1851 census; FD 33, Piece 2307, Folio 176, Schedule 146, #50/1 , Poor >house, Bradford, East End; Miller Grace Inmate Unm F 26 Weaver Worsted > > Scotland Miller Jane Daur - F 1 M - Yorks., Bradford > > > > 1861 Census; > > 19 Roberts Street, St. Peter's, Bradford South, West Riding, > > Yorkshire; Ralf [Ralph] BELL, head, mar, 46, carter of all work, b. > > Yorkshire, Wansey (sic) Dale; > >Grace BELL, wife, mar, 42, Scotland; > > Jane BELL, daur, 10, b. Yorkshire, Bradford; > >Lazarus BELL, son, 6, school, b. Yorkshire, Bradford; > >Charles BELL, son, 3, b. Yorkshire, Bradford.> > >Do forgive me but I don't see any great mystery here - merely a story that >is repeated a thousand times over in family history, especially in the 19th >century. > >Scottish girl goes to Bradford, no doubt to find work as a weaver and >hoping to better herself (or possibly her parents moved there and took >her and they either died or she went off on her own), meets a man, has a >child out of wedlock, can't keep herself and the child and ends up in the >workhouse for a bit. She may have "floated" in and out of the workhouse >with the child, according to whether she was in work or not - a very >common pattern. > >Then she meets a man who offers her either marriage or a living-with >relationship and has two more children by him. Even if you haven't found >a marriage, there's no reason why she wouldn't have taken his name, or >at least told the enumerator she was his wife. It happened all the time! > >How did they meet - who knows? Perhaps they met in the street, perhaps >Ralph made deliveries to the workhouse, perhaps they met in a pub >when Grace had a bit of money, perhaps they were introduced by a >mutual friend, perhaps they were neighbours at some stage. I've often >wondered a million times how my ancestors met but since we rarely have >any way of proving it I never let it bother me too much. One can but >speculate. > >-- >Roy Stockdill >Guild of One-Name Studies: www.one-name.org >Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: >www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html > >"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, >and that is not being talked about." >OSCAR WILDE > > > > >------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >[email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without >the quotes in the subject and the body of the message _________________________________________________________________ Windows LiveĀ Messenger has arrived. Click here to download it for free! http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/?locale=en-gb
From: "Brian Harrison" <[email protected]> > Excuse my stupidity but how can you be sure that Grace Miller on the > 1851 census is Grace Bell on the 1861 census? There ages do not match.> Ages in census returns are notoriously unreliable but you have a point. We can but assume that Norman checked the possibility and could not find anyone else who fits. I had a quick look at the 1861 census and, without doing an exhaustive check trying lots of possibilities, I confess I couldn't find anyone else who fits, either. -- Roy Stockdill Guild of One-Name Studies: www.one-name.org Newbies' Guide to Genealogy & Family History: www.genuki.org.uk/gs/Newbie.html "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." OSCAR WILDE