My cousin and I are visiting Northumberland next week and we will be trying to walk in the footsteps of a Great Grand Aunt. She had an interesting life though sadly cut short by illness.
She was born 1836 in the Carham area. I currently have no birth details.
1841 she was at Downham Farm near Mindrum and Pawston / Kirknewton.
1851 she was still at Downham and working as a nanny for the Hall family.
1858 she had an illigitimate son she named George Brown.
1861 she was still at Downham and with her parents. I was surprised with an illegitimate child that she was not banished by her family. It seems they stood by her, though she never did marry.
1871 she was at Fenton East Side somewhere near Doddington / Wooler. Still with her parents and fatherless son. I'd love to know for sure where Fenton East Side is or was. Perhaps it was just the East side of Fenton Town?
1881 she was still with her son and they were living at Duddo in one of the cottages close by the school.
She died in 1885 age 49 at Coupland. One of her sisters (present at her death) was living and working just along the road at Lanton. She died of heart disease and anasarca, which cannot have been very pleasant for her carers to witness. One of her other sisters also died of heart disease aged just 30 some twenty years earlier in 1865. I wonder if there was a genetic heart problem?
Duddo is only 9 miles or so away from Coupland. So where might Ellen be buried? I'd love to find her grave but not quite sure where to start really. My cousin bought a burials index but we cannot find Ellen on it. I wondered if she might be buried at Duddo, but since finding out she died at Coupland, it opens the field a little. Maybe she is at Kirknewton?
Her son went on to lead a full life marrying and having a family of his own.
1891 He was at Grindon Ridge
1901 at Old Greenlaw Walls
1911 he was at Berryhill, Duddo.
We are intrigued that her family stuck by her, and after going through the 1851 census page by page I found a George Brown living as a young man with his family at one of the Learmouths not far away from Downham, so we are wondering if he was the father of the illegitimate boy. Can't remember off the top of my head which Learmouth he was at. That Brown family had moved south to Morpeth where I found them on the 1861 census.
We'd love to be able to find her grave and visit, so any help that can be given would be very much appreciated.
Philip
