First posting ... I'm facing what feels like an enormous brick wall and hoping that someone on the list might be able to offer some help. I recently learned that proceedings of the Loughborough Petty Sessions were not recorded until the 20th century but local newspapers might have information that I am looking for. I have been searching for information on Loughboro' Petty Sessions proceedings of January 12, 1898 concerning a Mr. James Hall. Mr. Hall was a professional tramp and beggar who 'picked up' my Grandmother, Mary Ann Williams, and was using her for begging purposes. She was approximately 2 years old when Mr. Hall took her - likely in early to mid-1897. Hall tramped the country between Derby, Leicester and Northampton. Hall often stopped by a model Lodging at Loughboro' belonging to William Gresley and Martha Hayward. Mr. Hall was tried and convicted to ten week's hard labour. When taken from Mr Hall, my Grandmother was put in the care of the NSPCC who then sent her to Barnardo's, in Stepney Causeway. She was considered a very small child, very thin when she entered their care and they also noted that she had 2 vaccination marks on her left arm. I am praying that news of this story might have appeared in some of the local newspapers at that time. I wondered if in the proceedings of the petty sessions that Mr. Hall might have indicated where he picked-up my Grandmother. Barnardo's eventually sent her to Canada but there is no information at all from her early years. With the knowledge that she had received 2 vaccinations, in that era, she had obviously been well cared-for prior to being 'stolen' and I am sure that there must be family out there somewhere. If anyone can provide any assistance/guidance, I would be most appreciative. I apologize for the length of this posting, but felt it was important to provide as much history as possible. Again, thanks for any help. Carol

Hi Carol, It's a bit of a long shot, but you may be able to find a record of the vaccination. Vaccination registers were kept by the Poor Law Unions from 1862, noting a child's name and sometimes age, or date and place of birth, and the father's name and occupation. It's a long shot because you don't know which Union she would come under, the records haven't all survived, they're not indexed and they're not on-line. It would probably need quite a few hours of research in the County Record Office. Alternatively, the MH 12 class of records at The National Archives may also yield results. Good luck, Mike -----Original Message----- From: leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Carol Reid-Matte Sent: 25 March 2008 02:44 To: LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS@rootsweb.com Subject: [LEI] Loughborough Petty Sessions - James Hall/Mary Ann Williams First posting ... I'm facing what feels like an enormous brick wall and hoping that someone on the list might be able to offer some help. I recently learned that proceedings of the Loughborough Petty Sessions were not recorded until the 20th century but local newspapers might have information that I am looking for. I have been searching for information on Loughboro' Petty Sessions proceedings of January 12, 1898 concerning a Mr. James Hall. Mr. Hall was a professional tramp and beggar who 'picked up' my Grandmother, Mary Ann Williams, and was using her for begging purposes. She was approximately 2 years old when Mr. Hall took her - likely in early to mid-1897. Hall tramped the country between Derby, Leicester and Northampton. Hall often stopped by a model Lodging at Loughboro' belonging to William Gresley and Martha Hayward. Mr. Hall was tried and convicted to ten week's hard labour. When taken from Mr Hall, my Grandmother was put in the care of the NSPCC who then sent her to Barnardo's, in Stepney Causeway. She was considered a very small child, very thin when she entered their care and they also noted that she had 2 vaccination marks on her left arm. I am praying that news of this story might have appeared in some of the local newspapers at that time. I wondered if in the proceedings of the petty sessions that Mr. Hall might have indicated where he picked-up my Grandmother. Barnardo's eventually sent her to Canada but there is no information at all from her early years. With the knowledge that she had received 2 vaccinations, in that era, she had obviously been well cared-for prior to being 'stolen' and I am sure that there must be family out there somewhere. If anyone can provide any assistance/guidance, I would be most appreciative. I apologize for the length of this posting, but felt it was important to provide as much history as possible. Again, thanks for any help. Carol ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Carol, Perhaps there might be something in the Police Gazette. It doesn't appear to be available online, but this description http://www.adam-matthew-publications.co.uk/news/documents/PoliceGazette.pdf sounds promising. If you can access it somewhere, and look up James Hall I'll bet you'll find something. If Mary Ann Williams was your grandmothers' original name, there might be a record of her parents reporting her missing. If it wasn't her original name, it may be much harder to find any records. I wondered if vaccination at that time was expensive - if it was it might narrow the field for you to find Mary Ann's family. I did some googling and found that it was compulsory. I found this http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=4127 which seems to indicate that vaccination registers for Loughborough did survive, although, there is only partial coverage for the time frame that you need. Interestingly, when I went to the parent site http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/ and tried searching for "vaccination", there were no matches. It might be worth contacting them about accessing the originals. Good Luck Sandra -----Original Message----- From: leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Mike Gould Sent: Tuesday, 25 March 2008 7:11 PM To: LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LEI] Loughborough Petty Sessions - James Hall/Mary Ann Williams Hi Carol, It's a bit of a long shot, but you may be able to find a record of the vaccination. Vaccination registers were kept by the Poor Law Unions from 1862, noting a child's name and sometimes age, or date and place of birth, and the father's name and occupation. It's a long shot because you don't know which Union she would come under, the records haven't all survived, they're not indexed and they're not on-line. It would probably need quite a few hours of research in the County Record Office. Alternatively, the MH 12 class of records at The National Archives may also yield results. Good luck, Mike -----Original Message----- From: leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:leicestershire-plus-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Carol Reid-Matte Sent: 25 March 2008 02:44 To: LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS@rootsweb.com Subject: [LEI] Loughborough Petty Sessions - James Hall/Mary Ann Williams First posting ... I'm facing what feels like an enormous brick wall and hoping that someone on the list might be able to offer some help. I recently learned that proceedings of the Loughborough Petty Sessions were not recorded until the 20th century but local newspapers might have information that I am looking for. I have been searching for information on Loughboro' Petty Sessions proceedings of January 12, 1898 concerning a Mr. James Hall. Mr. Hall was a professional tramp and beggar who 'picked up' my Grandmother, Mary Ann Williams, and was using her for begging purposes. She was approximately 2 years old when Mr. Hall took her - likely in early to mid-1897. Hall tramped the country between Derby, Leicester and Northampton. Hall often stopped by a model Lodging at Loughboro' belonging to William Gresley and Martha Hayward. Mr. Hall was tried and convicted to ten week's hard labour. When taken from Mr Hall, my Grandmother was put in the care of the NSPCC who then sent her to Barnardo's, in Stepney Causeway. She was considered a very small child, very thin when she entered their care and they also noted that she had 2 vaccination marks on her left arm. I am praying that news of this story might have appeared in some of the local newspapers at that time. I wondered if in the proceedings of the petty sessions that Mr. Hall might have indicated where he picked-up my Grandmother. Barnardo's eventually sent her to Canada but there is no information at all from her early years. With the knowledge that she had received 2 vaccinations, in that era, she had obviously been well cared-for prior to being 'stolen' and I am sure that there must be family out there somewhere. If anyone can provide any assistance/guidance, I would be most appreciative. I apologize for the length of this posting, but felt it was important to provide as much history as possible. Again, thanks for any help. Carol ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LEICESTERSHIRE-PLUS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Hi Carol Are you sure Mary Ann WILLIAMS is her true name? If she was taken at age two and by a tramp, who would surely want to hide her identity? Mike has suggested trying vaccination records but if you are unsure of her true name it would be impossible to trace, assuming the records exist of course What is the source of the information you give on the abduction etc? Not sure during which years but I believe vaccination was a fineable offence if not carried out? (by that I mean the fact she was vaccinated does not necessarily mean she was well cared for before being abducted) Theres nothing in the Times online I can find Best wishes Nivard Ovington, in Cornwall (UK) > First posting ... > I'm facing what feels like an enormous brick wall and hoping that > someone on the list might be able to offer some help. > I recently learned that proceedings of the Loughborough Petty > Sessions were not recorded until the 20th century but local > newspapers might have information that I am looking for. > I have been searching for information on Loughboro' Petty Sessions > proceedings of January 12, 1898 concerning a Mr. James Hall. Mr. > Hall was a professional tramp and beggar who 'picked up' my > Grandmother, Mary Ann Williams, and was using her for begging