This is all hanging together nicely I think
avm228 I can't find any marriage for
William Flood and
Lydia Southgate yet though
she would have been still only 18 when first of these children (Emma) is born so perhaps they weren't ever married
Importantly I have
Lydia Southgate living in
Mile End as a 16 year old servant in
1871 census so that ties in with daughter
Emma being born there.
Location and date for birth for her daughters
Lydia &
Mary and son
James all tie in correctly with 1881 census at Poplar workhouse.
Additionally and a strong indicator, daughter
Mary has the rather unusual middle name "
Adelaide" which is the first of name of her mother Lydia's older brother James' wife !
For additional daughter
Betsy, I've found an
Elizabeth Flood born Q3 1878 Hackney but also two 1 year olds of that name dying in 1879 (one Hackney the other Shoreditch, younger brother Frederick is born in Shoreditch a few months later in 1880). Which would explain why she like Emma not with her mother at the Poplar workhouse in 1881.
I've looked over the other William & Lydia Flood in Islington - luckily none of the children tie up with those found in 1881 in Poplar so can easily filter them out.
Right now I'm pretty confident this all nails down who the father of Lydia's children was. The question reamains as to why, only a year after son Frederick is born, she is at Poplar workhouse under her maiden name and described as "Single" (meaning unmarried and not just shorthand for an abandoned wife - from scanning the census pages for the workhouse). I can't find a death for William Flood so that would leave his running off OR Lydia leaving him with the spectre of domestic violence
I have found a William Flood convicted in Sep 1880 at Middlesex court of "malicious wounding" but there is a homeless man of same name in newspaper reports of an arrest for same in Aug 1880. Without additional information for William I've not been able to track him after 1880.
thanks, Pete