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Census Lookups General Lookups => Census and Resource Discussion => Topic started by: gazania on Thursday 12 November 09 01:21 GMT (UK)
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I am aware that formal, legal adoptions were not enacted until the 1920s but no doubt informal arrangements have been around for along time. However, I was surprised to see adoption details on the 1911 census, with the child in question being recorded twice, once with the mother then again with the "adopting" parents. The Blincow family in question are my husband's distant relatives and we had no previous knowledge of the family let alone the "adoption".
So I would like to share what I found on the 1911 census:
Mary Gwendoline Helen BLINCOW aged 8 is living with her widowed mother, Helen aged 43, two siblings, Irene 16 and Helen 6 and a boarder. The address is Bodenham, Harpenden.
(A Freebmd search reveals that Arthur John BLINCOW, father/husband died at Pancras in 1906 aged 38.)
Mary's birthplace is listed as Wheathampsted, Herts. Now against Mary's name is the notation " Now adopted by S Jacob Esq/- Ullerwater Rd Southgate".
A search for the "adoptive" father reveals:
Siegmund JACOB aged 39, Fur -Skin Merchant/Dealer b Russia, Nat British subject
Olivia Sarah JACOB 41 wife, married 16 years no children b USA
Then:
Gwendoline B JACOB adopted daughter aged 7 b Hertfordshire
(also a servant)
The address was 85 Ullerwater Road Southgate.
A lot of questions are now flying around - when & why etc.
Regards, Gazania
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You are fortunate to have those entries as someone has misunderstood the instructions on filling in the householder's census schedule. The census was meant to taken of each individual in the household on census night only.
Gwendoline B JACOB is shown as being at two different addresses, and she should have only been shown at one.
As the census schedule was distributed in the week before the census, it could be filled in early with the people who would be expected to be there on the night. Therefore you sometimes get people enumerated twice, at their usual home and at a house they happened to be visiting.
Stan
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Hi Stan,
Thank you for explanations. Indeed I am lucky to find the adoption information. This entry and others I have found have indicated how the census form has been misinterpreted (and to my advantage); in particular column 4 - for a MARRIED woman to disclose the number of children, living or deceased. I can understand a widow struggling to raise her young children, feeling obliged to report all. I am sure there were others who believed it was not the Government's business to know what their circumstances were. Anyway I suppose we will have to wait until the 1921 census to see if the form was simplified or changed much.
I have researched this family a little more, especially to see what type of "adoption" was proposed. For example, did Gwen. continue to have contact with her natural family? This may account for her being included on the census, if she went home for a visit, especially if the census was taken at Easter. I think I have found her marriage which was in 1933 and she appears to use her birth name then. Regards, Gazania
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Hi Everyone,
This census entry now takes another twist:
Passenger lists to New York gives the arrival of Gwendoline Jacob (b1904) and her "adopted' mother, Olivia Sarah Jacob aged 39 arriving on the "Caronia" on
10 April 1911.
Admittedly the list was not easy to read with my poor eyesight and on the Library version of A*** and I could have made a mistake, but I am pretty sure this couple was in New York when the 1911 census in the UK was taken. I am a very surprised. "Adopted " Dad was not with them. But he filled in & signed the 1911 census entry so.... I would like to hear your comments.
Regards, Gazania
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Hi Gazania
The 1911 Census was for the night of 2nd April 1911, so it is possible for Gwendoline and her adoptive mother to have been in the house that night and still made it to New York by 10th April. Well it would be if the boat had left on or after 3rd April but in fact it left Liverpool on 1st April!! If you look at the first page of the ship's manifest it definitely says 1st!
But Stan already referred to the forms being distributed a week before they were due so perhaps that's the explanation.
And I love Olive's "Calling or Occupation" being Wife ;D A noble occupation indeed ;D ;D
Kind regards
Gaie
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Hi Gaie,
Thank you so much for providing a pretty good explanation for the issues.
It reminds me of the time we filled in a census form due on the last day of a New Zealand holiday and then on our return to OZ, a few weeks later the OZ census was held. I did wonder at the time what my descendants would think.
Best regards, Gazania
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You are fortunate to have those entries as someone has misunderstood the instructions on filling in the householder's census schedule.
It's a good job that these mistakes happened, though. My grandfather filled in the "Years married" and "Number of children, born, living and died" columns in the 1911 census, even though his wife had died 6 years previously. Were it not for the mistake, and the fact that the enumerator had only obscured it with a single line through it, I would not have had confirmation that their first son had died.
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Dear Gazania,
Please contact me. I am related to Olivia Jacob wife of Siegmund Jacob. She was born in the USA and is my great grandfather's sister. I have found their "adopted daughter" Gwendoline in 1950 and would love to share the information I have and perhaps get some help.
Regards Susan
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Hi Susan,
I am sending you a PM. I am afraid I know very little about the family as I just happened to come across them on the 1911 census and have not taken the research any further. But I am more than happy to share what I have. Best regards. Gazania.
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Gazania
Susan will need to have posted at least one more time here before she can receive PM's,so Sue post away- say anything- just so your number goes up to 2 ;D
Oh and welcome to Rootschat by the way.How amazing to find a possible rellie as soon as you join 8)
Carol
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Olivia made many trips to the USA
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Olivia had many brothers and a sister living in the USA with many descendents
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I understand what you are telling me the rules are, but as a genealogist who has been chasing Olivia for near 30 years it is frustrating !!!
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Please contact so we can talk off the website and so I can get you my home email, hope this works
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Hi Susan,
I am sending you a PM. I am afraid I know very little about the family as I just happened to come across them on the 1911 census and have not taken the research any further. But I am more than happy to share what I have. Best regards. Gazania.
It sounds as if Gazania has already sent you a Personal Message- can't you access it?
At the top right of any page you are on you should see the message Welcome Back SFWood you have xxx messages?
You should then be able to talk to each other off the public message boards ;D
If you click on Gazania's name you will see that she is in Brisbane Australia,and I think it's nearly bedtime there?
Carol
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Thanks Carol, I think I got it !
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Thanks Carol, I think I got it !
Jolly good ;D ;D ;D
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Thanks Carol. Gazania
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Hi there,
I'm doing a creative writing degree and in my 3rd year, we have been set an assignment where we have to research into someones past, "A forgotten life", as the assignment is called. The person we pick mustn't be someone who is famous with a past that is easy to source so I have picked a family who used to live in my sister in-law's house.
Siegmund Jacob and his wife Olivia Jacob lived in the house that has now been converted into two maisonettes in 1901. I have been trawling Ancestry.com, Find My Past and The National Archives for information and have so far found a couple of the places they lived, the fact they adopted Gwendoline and that Olivia died in Hove in 1950.
What is strange is that I can't find Siegmund's death date! Does anyone know when this was? I believe Siegmund and Olivia divorced in 1933. It also looks like he re-married the following year, to a woman called Cissie Milward.
I wondered if you had any more information I could use please? I also wondered if anyone could confirm that my findings about the divorce and re-marriage is correct?
Thank you,
Jade
If any one has any extra information of this family I would really appreciate it. :-)
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Hi, and welcome to RootsChat :)
Jewish Chronicle, 27 April 1934
"Mr Siegmund Jacob and Mrs. Millward.
The marriage was solemnised on April 19th, at the New West End Synagogue, by the Revs. Isaac Goldston and Ephraim Levine, of Siegmund Jacob and Cissie Millward."
The 1933 divorce papers can be checked in person at TNA, or copies sent to you – there is no online access to case-files for that year.
There’s a possible post-war emigration to New York, on the ‘Queen Mary’, on 19 September 1947 for Siegmund JACOB, aged 75, and Sarah JACOB, aged 54, both from Strafford Court, London W. Sarah is probably Cissie. Again if it's the same couple, they are at 22 Vale Court, Maida Vale, in the London electoral rolls, 1933-1935. She is entered as Cissie in 1933 and Sarah in 1934 and 1935. There may be later electoral records for them (I haven’t checked).
There’s a possible death index entry in Manhattan on 23 April 1951 for a Siegmund JACOB, aged 79.
ADDED – ‘Cissie’ was probably the Cissie/Sarah PRAGER who married Philip Levy MILLWARD in Hackney in 1914. They had a daughter in 1915 and a son in 1917. Philip died in 1919, aged 36. Their son died in 1934, aged 16 (various notices in the Jewish Chronicle refer).
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1934 QJ Marylebone 1a 1358 . . . . . FREEBMD listed . . . . .
Siegmund Jacob (Millward)
Cissie Millward (Jacob)Sarah Millward (Jacob)
Ray
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Hi Jade,
I see where two very kind rootschatters have already provided very helpful information.
I am afraid I am unable to add anymore as I was researching OH's Blincow family and not the Jacobs family. If I uncover anymore information, I shall post it on this site. Your assignment topic sounds so very interesting and I wish you well. Gazania
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Hi Jade, did you find these replies useful at all?
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Thank you for your help!! I am just finishing off my assignment now, your feedback was really helpful.
Jade