Sometimes the secret to brick walls is to look from the other side. Instead of looking for her birth, research the lives of the parents (you seem to have a name for the father and possibly the mother) and any siblings. Does the timeline for Lillian fit with theirs? Is there any sign they were in Deniliquin around that time? Perhaps it is the Deniliquin information that is wrong and she was born in somewhere that sounds like or looks like Deniliquin (Lillian won't remember being born, she will just remember where she grew up and what she remembers her parents saying about her birth). Also women often lie about their age, usually to seem younger, but maybe to seem older (e.g. to marry without the consent of her parents). Check every document for her age -- any inconsistencies might point to a wider time period for her birth. One possibility is that she was adopted. Many adoptions back then were quite informal, but often occurred within the family. E.g a young girl has an illegitimate baby so her parents or married siblings or other relatives raise the baby as their own. If she is adopted, then her birth registration may be in a vary different surname, but perhaps one in her extended family. And of course she may be adopted from elsewhere, not within the family. In which case nothing about the name that she used in life may have any bearing on the name in any birth registration. Note that an adopted child might or might not know about her adoption, but the extended family always knows (it's hard to explain a baby without a pregnancy). It may be that a descendant of the extended family knows perfectly well that their grandparent (or whoever) had an adopted sister Lillian. Often if you stop focussing on looking for a specific fact and just collect information about their life and that of the extended family, you end up stumbling over the clues you need to find the fact you were looking for in the first place. Kerry "Lloyd Mitchell" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected] > All > > Here's the repeat attempt at getting a chink in a long term brick wall: > > My maternal grandmother, Lillian CLARE (née JENKINS) has long been a wall > in my research, partly for > reasons I needn't go into here. Essentially, I can't find her birth in > the NSW indexes. I've looked up all the various relevant JENKINS, and > checked the historical electoral rolls, but can't quite get a match (I > know that she is the Lillian Jennifer CLARE in the 1949 (West Brunswick) > and 1963 (South Melbourne) Melbourne Electoral Roll). > > With that in mind, I thought I would just lay out what I do know in case > anyone has access to some local records or the local church records (these > were being discussed at the time of my original post), has actually worked > on this > family, or can see something I've missed. > > I have a fairly consistent lot of other information. So here's what I > know: > > I'm looking for further information on Lillian (prob Jennifer) JENKINS; > born > Deniliquin, NSW, 1898 ish. > > Father: possibly William Edward JENKINS (who was described as deceased > by the time of her marriage in 1941 to Herbert CLARE (who isn't my > grandfather) in Melbourne). > > Mother: Annie or Agnes WILLIAMS. > > She was living in Melbourne in the 1920s. > She died as Lillian CLARE in 1965 at Woodend, Victoria, although had > apparently been usually living in Williamstown, Melbourne. She's > described as divorced at the time of her > death, and I have no memory of Bert CLARE at all (so I imagine the divorce > happened in the early 1950s). > > I don't know if it helps, but she spent some time in Nauru in the early > 1950s. > > So there we are; it would be great if someone could take this further > for me. > > Best > > Lloyd > > >