Hi Everyone,
I am the prospective client on behalf of whom Pete was making enquiries. I came across this forum while doing my own investigations and it made for interesting reading. I should point out that Pete very kindly passed on the information that he obtained from the forum at no charge. Thanks to everyone for their input thus far. I was initially quite excited about the Luton girls, but based on the marriages for the same names and the fact that Winifred appears to be "too old" it seems it may have been a red herring. I just wondered if perhaps anyone had any other ideas?
@Tazzie - I was interested in your comments:
"Guardian minutes books run from 1835-1930 at Bedford and Luton Archives but unless you have any names as clues."
- If an adoption was carried out would the names of the adoptive parents be mentioned in the minutes? These are known - Livingstone Edwin Moffat and Mary Frances Moffat. Also I am fairly confident that the time frame in which the girls were adopted was between May 1919 and December 1919.
"You say the couple travelled from South Africa to "collect" the children they may have been extended family are you able to give any names as I have list of Methodists within my collection. My family were Primitive Methodist's in Leighton and a couple were lay preachers on the circuit."
- This is interesting, do you know if there might be any mention of the Moffats in your collection? The Moffat family, starting with Robert Moffat, a Methodist, (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Moffat_%28missionary%29) were well known for their missionary work in Southern Africa. His son, John Smith Moffat, Livingstone Moffat's father, followed in his footsteps and was also a British imperial agent (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith_Moffat). So it just seems possible Livingstone might have maintained ties with the Methodist church in England.
Thanks again, and apologies for the long post.
PeterD
