Islington Workhouse Admissions and Discharges Annie Drake (nee Sweeney)

[redducky]

I am struggling to get information on my Great-grandmother Annie Drake (nee Sweeney) born in London in 1864.  She was in and out of the Islington Workhouse with her children.  Her husband James John Drake was in and out of prison at the beginning of their marriage. I was wondering if anyone can explain the following comment in the Discharge Column - "Not Returned from Leave". This is what was put beside my great-grandmothers name the day after she was admitted in March 1906.  Her three children also in the workhouse with her had "St Giles Home" next to their names.  I am presuming she didn't return to collect them and they were put into a home?  This is 1906 and by now her husband seems to have a new partner Annie Smith and they had their first child in Dec 1905 in-spite of him having a child with the first Annie in March 1905 - 9 months gap.  I wonder what happened to the first wife Annie Sweeney.  My Dad always thought she died and James remarried, they took the older children out of care and had more children.  He didn't realise that this started happening while Annie was still alive and just had a baby to him.  Had she had enough and deserted them all?

I wonder if anyone else is researching this family as well?

Any help will be appreciated.

Sue

[Milliepede]

James claims to have been married 15 years in 1911.  Marriage to first wife was 1885.  I wonder if we could find a death for the first Annie.  Can't see a second marriage to an Annie Smith.

Two of the children from 1901 census Ernest and Francis are with their father.

[Milliepede]

There's a tree with her death in 1939 but I don't think the person has realised there are two different Annie's 

[redducky]

Thanks for that.  Yes, the 1911 census is the new Annie that he doesn't appear to have married.  She was 10 years younger than the first Annie.  The 15 years marriage I think was just to cover the fact that there was a 15 year old child in the household, there were two older children.  If it was the first Annie it would be 26 years, for the second Annie probably 6 years as their first child was born in Dec 1905.  Interestingly both babies born in 1905 are there.  Alice grew up thinking Annie Smith was her mother when her birth certificate, which we have just got, shows it was Annie Sweeney.  The plot keeps thickening!

[Milliepede]

Seems to indicate first Annie was still alive if he didn't marry the second one doesn't it.  It's very interesting having two children born so close together but with different mothers called Annie!

[redducky]

To anyone researching James John Drake born 1864 London, this may help you out and make things clearer.

I now have new information on my great grandfather James John Drake who I have spent 4 years researching.  The difficulty has been getting the right birth certificate and death date. On a hunch I ordered a birth certificate for 1864 which I knew was his birth year (I already have four other birth certificates for James John Drake and none were right) but under the names William James Drake.  Bingo, I got the right one with the right parents.  My Dad always said he was named after William James Drake, so he thought I was researching the wrong family all the time.  It turns out that his parents registered him as William James Drake, then by the 1871 Census they were calling him James, for whatever reason.  Then to add to the confusion, they named their next son born three years later, William, as well.  All through his life he used the name James John Drake, for his wedding and the birth of his children.  When it came to his death in 1941, his death was registered under William James Drake. So his children must of known the story behind the name changes.

The second interesting piece of information gained in the last couple of months are about his wife Annie Sweeney.  She had her last of 5 children with him on 14 March 1905 in the workhouse.  Then she seems to have disappeared.  Within less than 9 months he has had a child with Annie Smith on 12 Dec 1905.  They do no appear to have married at all even though they went on to have another 4 more children.  They told the first lot of children she had died.  There is a possible sighting of Annie Sweeney/Drake in the 1911 Census of the right age but it says she is a widow living on her own means.  I guess we will never know the full story.  Did she leave him, did he leave her, did he pay for her to stay away?  Hard to believe because they were always in and out of the workhouse, especially when James was in prison two or three times.  The first Annie's baby born in 1905 plus her other children are raised by the second Annie and James John Drake.  In fact her baby born in 1905 thought her mother was Smith all her life not Sweeney as we found out when we got the birth certificate.