This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/kFB.2ACE/5653 Message Board Post: Edward Griffin married Isabella Ward, daughter of Elizabeth Ward, on 21 May 1888 at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Chapel in Grangetown by certificate. John Griffin and Mary H Horner witnessed the marriage and I Nolan officiated. They were both said to be 21 but in fact Edward would have been 20. A daughter Elizabeth was born to Edward and Isabella on 23 June 1888 at 26 Morris Street North Ormesby although her birth was not registered until 9 August of that year. She was baptised at St Mary’s Cathedral Middlesbrough on 18 July 1888 by James Butler and her godparents were Thomas and Elizabeth Griffin. They were said to be living at 22 Malt Street which differs from the address on the birth certificate and as Malt Street has not been located it may have been written down incorrectly and perhaps should read Morris Street. In the 1891 census on 5 April, Edward and Isabella were said to be 23 (Edward was 22) and Elizabeth 2 and they were residing at 8 High Street North Ormesby. A son Dennis was born there on 13 April 1891 and his birth registered by Isabella on 4 June. The birth certificate records Edward as a riveter. Dennis was baptised on 6 May by Charles H Wood at St Mary’s Cathedral Middlesbrough and his Godparents were Thomas Griffin and Margaret Haughey. As Isabella’s maiden name was now recorded in the Parish Register as ‘King’ she must have decided to adopt the name of her stepfather. Isabella died on 14 March 1893 from pneumonia ‘6 days’, less than a month after giving birth to another daughter Ellen Isabella on 25 February 1893 at 65 Napier Street South Bank. The informant present at her death was named as J Ward of 28 Upper Oxford Street South Bank who may have been her sister in law Julia Ward. Ellen’s birth was registered on 11 April by her father Edward who had given his occupation as a boilersmith and interestingly Isabella was not stated as being deceased. Dennis was not quite 2 and Elizabeth almost 5 when Isabella died; Baby Ellen was not strong enough to survive and died the following year on 21 January from ‘marasmus’ a failure to thrive or malnutrition at 9 Clarendon Street South Bank. Her death was registered on 23 January by her grandmother Elizabeth King of 10 Upper Oxford Street South Bank who had been present at her death. On 14 June 1898, Edward remarried to Ellen Miles at St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church in South Bank by certificate. Edward was said to be a widower aged 27 but was in fact 29. As Ellen was said to be 21, this alteration of his age was possibly made to give Edward a more acceptable age to Ellen’s parents. Edward was described as a labourer living at 14 Clarendon Street and his father Dennis Griffin was a riveter. Ellen was living at 4 North Street South Bank at the time of their marriage and her father was named as Patrick Miles a metal carrier. The witnesses were James Carr and Jane Wheatley and the ceremony was performed by John Rea. Edward himself died shortly after this second marriage on 31 January 1900, at 14 Clarendon Street from acute nephritis, pneumonia and cardiac failure certified by Thomas Fitzgerald a physician and surgeon. His death certificate states that he had been a stevedore and was aged 29 (31) at the time of death. The informant was his wife Ellen who was present at his death and would have been about 6 months pregnant at the time with their son James who was born circa April 1900. Edward was buried on 14 February in Eston Cemetery. James, the son he never lived to see being born, also died the following year aged 17months and he too was buried in Eston Cemetery on 9 October 1901. It is interesting to note that there is an entry in the records of that cemetery of an Edward Griffin aged 16 months of Clarendon Street South Bank having been buried there on 17 September 1899. As the grave number is exactly the same as that of the Edward Griffin who had died on 31 January 1900 he may have ! been Edward and Ellen’s first child but this is not proved. On 23 March 1900 both Elizabeth and Dennis were admitted to the Middlesbrough Union Children’s Home part of the Union Workhouse on Ayresome Green Lane. Clearly Ellen could not or would not care for them. Although this seems to be an unforgivable act, Ellen had gone through much trauma in a few short years and was not quite 23 years old herself. These two children were not her own flesh and blood; she had possibly already lost a child, been suddenly widowed while pregnant and would undoubtedly have had no income. On 25 May it is noted in the Middlesbrough Union Children’s Home Admissions and Discharge Register that Elizabeth ran away from the home and back to her stepmother. She was returned a few days later by her grandmother Elizabeth Griffin on 30 May. Not long after this attempt to return to her family, Elizabeth was discharged to Nazareth House in Park Road Middlesbrough on 15 June together with four other girls. Dennis, left behind, was to spend another five months in the Union Home until he was ‘given into the care of’ his Aunt’ on 1 November. Susannah and Thomas accepted him as part of their family at 66 Hymer Street and it was here that Dennis was recorded in the 1901 census as their ‘son’. At a special meeting of the Board of Guardians of the Middlesbrough Union held at the Workhouse in Linthorpe on 28 March 1901 applications were considered for several of the deserted and orphaned children to be emigrated to Canada. Elizabeth was one of those children who apparently ‘gave’ consent and a sum of £17 was allocated to each child for their immediate departure. Elizabeth was set to become one of the British Home Children. Nazareth House in London confirmed that she left Middlesbrough on 1 May 1901 to embark on her journey to Canada on the SS Tunisian with a group of other children from Nazareth House, Middlesbrough being cared for by Middlesbrough Union Workhouse. They left the country under the protection of a Catholic Emigration Society. It would appear that when Elizabeth arrived in Canada she was first placed with a family called Halpin on the outskirts of Arthur in Wellington County Ontario but it seems that she left them and ‘found her way’ to a family called Heffernan. There is no known reason for this but maybe she wasn’t happy there and sought out the companion she had travelled to Canada with from Nazareth House called Margaret Usher also from South Bank and who she may have already formed a friendship with before her departure. Margaret had been placed with a hotelkeeper, Mrs C. Heffernan in Arthur town and may have been able to assist in securing her a place with them. There was a first inspection report on Elizabeth’s progress on 6 May 1903 when she was almost 15 which confirmed that; ‘Mrs. Heffernan is willing to employ her for a time. A bright girl, and with the demand for servants, should easily find a good place.’ She remained with the Heffernans for at least another two years when a second inspection report was compiled on 4 April 1905; ‘This girl is giving better satisfaction. She has now been here two years, I found her fairly well contented and well dressed. She is growing to be a tall girl. Margaret Usher and she are in the same place.’ It is not known when or how Dennis and Elizabeth eventually made contact with each other but it is known that they did correspond in later years.Further details are sketchy but it would seem that Elizabeth may have been known as Marjorie and married twice. She lived for a time in Michigan at 3561 Maybury Grand in Detroit and worked in a hospital there as some sort of auxiliary. There were at least two children called Chester and Muriel and her second husband went by the name of Scherer. It is thought that Chester had three sons and moved to Grand Rapids and Muriel married a man called Farrell from Darlington and moved to Toronto. I have managed to trace descendants of her brother Dennis but I have still not managed to close his sister’s story. If anyone reading this is descended from her then I would really love to hear from them as I feel that time is of the essence as any surviving grandchildren of hers would likely now be in their 70s or 80s and I would dearly like to find them before its too late.