Help with Florence Smith born 1908

[ScallyW]

This is a maternal grandmother of a cousin that I'm trying to trace.

She was born 3 Feb 1908 in West Ham and married a John William Spackman in 1929, also West Ham.

I'm trying to trace her parents names as we have no details on them and this era is that grey area between available census records and prior to the mother's maiden name being listed on the birth registry.

Apparently her father was killed by a horse and cart before she was born so that would be either early 1908 or late 1907.  We understand that she had several siblings and that shortly after Florence's birth, her 2 elder brothers were sent to Barnados and from there they were both sent to Canada.  We know one was called George but have no details of the other apart from knowing that he died very shortly after signing up for the 1914 war.

We believe she had sisters by the name of Gladys, Maud, Lily and that her mother's name was also Maud.

Does anyone know of this family or have the ability to look them up in the 1911 census to find the mother (widowed) and daughters living in the West Ham area?

Regards
ScallyW

[wozzle]

if you get the marr cert it will give you her fathers name
or better still you could get the birth cert then you would know the mothers maiden name
that would make it easier to look for her parents marriage
meantime i will see what i can find out

[wozzle]

you can do a name search of the 1911 census for free
i did find a gladys and maud and a maud and florence
but do not have any credits to see the actual image
it is just a matter elimination to come to the right family

[ScallyW]

@ Wozzle

Thanks very much for such a quick reply and the hints.

Does anyone know if Barnardos' records are available to the public for this era?

[jorose]

http://www.1911census.co.uk/
You can try searching yourself here. You can do searches by birthplace, birthdate, and other people in the household.

You might be able to access Barnados records for the boys, but as they you have little information they probably wouldn't be able to search the records.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/home-children/index-e.html
 - the ship lists to Canada for home children, including those handled by Barnados, don't give a huge amount of info on the origins of the children so not knowing George's age or the other boy's name, it doesn't seem possible to find them here.

I think some certificates will be necessary to pin down the family in the censuses and make sure you're tracking the right ones.

[t mo]

hi all i had occasion to get in touch with banardos for a grndfather of mine  they charge a minimum of £30 for a quick search which only tells you if a child was with them or not a full list of info is more than double ,that was 2 years ago ,

trevor

[ScallyW]

hi all i had occasion to get in touch with banardos for a grndfather of mine  they charge a minimum of £30 for a quick search which only tells you if a child was with them or not a full list of info is more than double ,that was 2 years ago ,

trevor

That's interesting to know, thank you.