Salter family brickwall - please help!

[ali607]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone can offer me any advice on how to knock down this brickwall......i have all my family lines back to late 1700s at least apart from my own name - Salter.


My dad is Stephen Desmond Salter b.1945
His dad was Desmond (Jervis) Salter b.4/12/1918 - I got his certificate and on it it says mother = Ethel Salter?? and theres no named father!
So I dont know whether Ethels maiden name was Salter and she didnt know who the father was, or whether she was married to a Salter and then for whatever reason he absconded and she didnt want him on the birth cert.

Obviosly im trying to find out who Desmonds parents were - ie their full names!

here is all the info on the cert:
Birth in Sub District of Chelsea North, London.
4th Dec 1918 369 Fulham Road (this was the infirmary iv now found out)
Desmon Salter

Mother named as Ethel Salter a munition worker of 5 Marville Road, Fulham

Name and occupation of father have lines through column

Informant was Wm Starns occupier 369 Fulham Road
Registered 31st Dec 1918

I also happen to know that desmond was in childrens home for some years - i contacted a catholic institution in london and they have his records but there wasnt that much to go on...need to contact them again

ANY advice would be absolutely fantastic - as I say I've been able to trace all my family lines apart from my own name and thats quite disheartening...now I don't even know if Im meant to be called Salter at all!

Thanks
Alison

[Necromancer]

keep your fingers crossed that Ethel was born early 1901 or hopefully earlier, otherwise this is going to be even trickier ....

Theres over 45 Ethel Salters in the 1901, of the age (b1885 to say 1900) that child-bearing likely by 1918 ... - of course, theres no point surmising where she might have originated, to be in the Fulham area 18 years later as a munitions worker ... actually there arent any in the area !

Thats far more than I'd hoped for, and without some other facts and link to a previous generation, its very difficult. .... if you can glean more from that institution that would be great. So your Dad wasnt passed down any family stories about places of origin or rich Uncles !

Also looked for Fulham births after 1900 - there was an Ethel in 1908, but sadly that wont work !

However, there are over 50 Fulham births of Salters, showing that a few families were in the area procreating from 1900 to about 1912, which is as far as FreeBMD goes in this case.

Limiting DoB from 1898 to 1902 shows another 4 or 5 in the Greater London area .... oh, and a Florence Ethel in Fulham after all ...

Find that link !

Wish you well ....

[ali607]

Thanks for that...my dad's dad abandoned my dad and his mum when he was born never to be seen again...thats why he doesnt know anything.
I know stuff about demonds life - he was in RAF and Navy and we have all those kinda details but nothing which says who his dad was...apparently he was 'a good for nothing' kinda bloke - according to me dads grandma...i know where desmond met his wife and all sorts o bit o stuff but nothin that connects him back to his own family.
Ive seen all those ethels but i dont know who to eliminate them - theyre all from wrong side of london - but as you say she could be from anywhere..........roll on 2011!
Ive really got to crack this one as its my own name so im more interested in this line than any other
Any help would be great
Alison

[avm228]

Hi Alison

I can't offer much help but a couple of thoughts occur:

1.  Did the Catholic institution have Desmond's baptismal records? A baptism certificate might tell you something even if it was only that he was illegitimate (or not) - could help you work out whether you're looking for an Ethel who was born "Salter" or an Ethel who married a Salter.

2.  Do you have Desmond's marriage certificate? It's a bit much to hope for, but you never know, he *may* have named his father on his marriage certificate.

Good luck 

Anna

[ali607]

hiya - in answer to first question: no i dont think they do have baptism records - i asked them for everything they had and they gave me it - it was details of where des spent his childhood no details of parents etc

YES i do have des marraige cert to my dads mum - it states that his dad is called Jervis (absolutely correct spelling!) Salter?? But if I cant find anyone of that name anywhere around 1901 at all...of course that suggests that salter was ethels married name - but i have a suspician that des would have just put down Salter as his dads surname on his own marriage cert cos thats what he had been told from being a child - or he didnt want to be shown as illegitimate...

Any thoughts?
Alison

[avm228]

Ah - well that is interesting!

Jervis, Jarvis, Gervase are all variants of the same name and often pronounced interchangeably.

1891 shows a 3 yr old Jarvis Salter living with his family (father also Jarvis) in Tettenhall, Staffs.  And IGI shows a marriage of a Jarvis Salter in Tettenhall as far back as 1777 also in Tettenhall, so it could mean that this is a family name which goes way back.

Of course, Tettenhall is rather a long way away from Fulham, and none of this means that they are connected with Desmond, but I wouldn't discount this piece of the jigsaw just yet

Anna

[Necromancer]

so while more info is being eked out - do you have any idea what happened to Ethel ?

(re)Marriage, death etc ?

any leads on a munitions factory in the area ? Might be a slim chance of employment records .....

Personally I'd go for the 'Salter was her name' - full stop. The very fact that the fathers name box has been crossed thru is the same as writing 'not known'.

The fact that he was born in the 'Infirmary' may indicate complications ..... have you tried for a death Cert same time as Desmond's birth ?

Having said all that 2 things spring to mind - 'Jervis' or variants is an unusual name to conjure up for a Marriage Cert to name one's father - and Desmond  is also unusual, and might have been passed down ...

Otherwise your comment about the 1911 census is totally agreed with - still might not find Ethel in the right area, but would help...

[avm228]

...and at least one Jarvis Salter made his way to London - marrying a Fanny Smith Sep 1876 St George Hanover Square and living, in 1881, in Hill St Westminster. He's probably rather too old to be Desmond's father (b abt 1852 Wribbenhall Worcs), but he did (per 1881) have a son Charles Jarvis Clerson Salter (b1881 Westminster), who *might* have called himself Jarvis.

All a bit speculative at the moment (to say the least) but you never know...

Anna

[Necromancer]

another couple for the backburner:-

Desmond Glynn Salter
1905  1Q
Lymington 
Hampshire 
Volume 2b 
Page 637 

Jarvis Salter
1888  1Q
Wolverhampton 
Volume 6b 
Page 507