RootsChat.Com

I have been exploring WiltshireBMD.org.uk and that is very useful as long as only 1837 onwards is of interest.

I have found numerous Annie Crooks here of different ages.  Also Ann Crook ('my' Ann) along with her mother Ann Crook nee Warren, and her father Robert Crook's parents George and, yes, Ann, nee Pottow.

I do need to check that Ann Campbell formerly Crook, referred to on the children's birth certificates, would be her maiden name Crook and not a previously married name Crook.  There are some Anns who married Crooks on WiltshireBMD but I need to check dates and see if the families appeared in the 1901 census.  If so, then they cannot be my Ann.

Thanks for the Barnado idea - do you know if they have searchable databases or is there a way of finding out more about children they dealt with?

Hi again

I'm not sure what is considered West London.  There is also the Middlesex/London confusion that drives me slightly potty.  Places in the west ie in Middlesex came under London for BMD from a certain date in the early 1800s.

Ann Campbell did state she was head of household in the census, but who is to know if she was telling the truth, as you say.  The names are just too common to search on for deaths - Ann and John Campbell - so many of them, and if John Campbell was travelling and did actually die, it could have been in any part of the country.

There is a family story that Ann Campbell ran a beauty salon in Bond St before her accident. However, my grandmother was prone to dramatic licence!  When I saw the occupation as chiropodist, that did at least fit with the beauty salon story.  Perhaps she worked within a salon (chiropodists often worked in hairdressers then, apparently), and perhaps she was an employee or manager at some stage, but she is working 'on own account' so working for herself in the census.  Would she have worked from home or visited clients? The Bond St reference has always puzzled us, but there is a Bond St in Ealing, which might be more likely.  Presumably there are other Bond Sts in London, and that is the next search.

I have contacted chiropody associations but they began a bit later and it was a struggle to get people to sign up. Apparently it was quite a secretive profession, and also women practitioners often worked under their maiden name.  I have started wading through Kelly's directories for surnames, businesses and residences....a lot of the directories are online on the Univ of Leicester website.  http://www2.le.ac.uk/library/find/specialcollections/specialcollections/historical-directories

I have found it easier to download a directory and search it on my own computer.  While looking online, it takes an age.  However, the search does skip quite a bit so you do need to pay attention and read sections too.

I have trawled the ineternet and found this useful website
http://www.wiltshirebmd.org.uk/
where you can look up names, years and areas of Wiltshire.  Not all areas and years are covered, but when I searched for Ann Crook under marriages for all areas over a spread of years, I obtained these results (all for Annie Crook - but her daughter was named Violet Annie Louise Campbell, so perhaps Ann Crook was known as Annie?).

http://www.wiltshirebmd.org.uk/cgi/marrind.cgi

I have yet to search for other info, but I certainly didn't find any of this on LDS or ancestry.

I hope the link is useful to all of those searching Wiltshire records but cannot get to Chippenham records office easily to view the microfiches.

I'm afraid I can't see any Crook/Cambell marriages anywhere. They may not have married.

Were you looking online or at the actual parish register?  I have drawn a blank using online sources to find any Ann Crook marriage to anyone at all.