Accident to a child in the 1930s

[cwtch]

Can anyone help me find out any info. about my mums accident. It happened roughly in the 1930s in  Barry, South Wales. My mum was born in Aberkenfic in 1931. She was raised in Cadoxton. One day whilst comming out of the Pictures with her mother Katherine Price nee Rafferty. My mums name was Josephine (Pearl) Price,  she was hit by a speeding vehicle.
She sustained serious head injuries and her skull bones had to be replaced with metal. Terribly sad!!! Her head injuries affected her all of her life until she passed on in 1991 in Barry at age 61.
I have asked on other sites but have had no luck. I live in Canada so I am not able to access the local library with out a card and do not know any one there that would assist.
Thank You

[Ruskie]

See related post here:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,510325.msg3698098.html#msg3698098

Lets hope you get some great help on the Welsh board Marona.  There must be some record of the accident. Was there any kind of enquiry?

[cwtch]

That is my inquire where you   directed me, thanks. I do not know if there was any kind of inquiry but you with it being such a severe accident as that was one would think that there would have been?

[bernard_lewis]

As there was no fatality there would be no need for e.g. a coroner's inquest. I would expect the local press to have probably covered the incident as a news item and, assuming the driver was at fault, for a case to have been brought before the local courts in the weeks or maybe months that followed.

Without a more precise date you need to plod through the local press of the time from say, 1935 on to see if you can spot it (assuming there is no index). I say 1935 as your mum seems to have been born in 1930 and I guess she was walking about as a toddler when it happened? If you knew how old she was when she had the accident that would, of course, narrow it down considerably.

Bernard 

[cwtch]

Thank you for your response, my mum was corn in 1931 and I think she was about 5 or 6. That is ll I know other than she suffered all of her 61 yrs on this earth. It's very frustrating especially when i no longer reside in the UK and have no one in Barry to help me.

[Morganllan]

Hello Marona

I'm sorry to hear of your Mother's suffering for all those years    My Grandmother was involved in a serious accident in early 1930s when there were so few vehicles on the road compared to today.

It would be very time consuming to look through the Barry newspaper archive without a better idea of the date of the accident. I think you asked whether you could borrow a library ticket on the other thread, and someone said they had looked at newspapers online.   The Barry newspapers are probably on fiche and there is likely no index (online or otherwise) so it is a matter of someone looking for the specific article on fiche at the library. The library would be able to provide this service if the date can be more precise.

It is unlikely that anyone can find hospital records either as it's pre-NHS; I know Glamorgan Archives have Barry hospital records from 1950-on. With such a serious accident your Mother would have had months / years of hospital stays and out-patient visits. Perhaps she would have been transferred to a larger hospital to treat her, perhaps Cardiff.

Can you think of any other information that would help track down the date? For example were any of her siblings there too (or perhaps too young to go to the pictures)? Do you remember the film they had seen?  That may help date the accident too....

I hope that you get more information about this sad accident.
Kindest Regards
Morgan

[Morganllan]

Birth of Josephine Price with Mother's maiden name Raffarty in 1928 (June Q)
Bridgend volume 11a page 1203

[tedscout]

Have you thought of writing to the Barry newspapers and asking them if they could put an article in it. Someone living in Barry might remember - they would be over 80 though but its worth a chance.

Good luck!

[cwtch]

Hallo Morganllan, Those are the correct names but as my family were Gypsies paper trails are very hard to discover.
When I was over  when my mum passed away in 1991 I arranged the funeral and went to sort out the Death Certificate I was told my mum was born in 1931. Unfortunately on the death certificate I was so stressed I could not remember where she was born...mental block so it was left blank.
Where did you find this info from?
Thank you so much