Searching for Mary Emily Maidment, born St Olaves district, Southwark 1879.

[Mivvy]

Her mother was Mary who was an inmate at St Olaves union workhouse.

[lizdb]

Hi
Could you give us a little more info - where have you found her already?  Birth cert? Christening? 1881 census?
Other censuses?

[Milliepede]

There's a likely looking one in Shoreham Kent born 1880 Bermondsey which is in right district but her mother is down as Eliz 

1901

Eliz Maidment 61
Mary Emily 21
Alfred 26

[Mivvy]

Found Mary Emily in birth records and her mother in 1881 census. Wondering what happened to children born in workhouse?

[Mabel Bagshawe]

This is the baptism of the Mary found in 1901

Mary Emily Maidment
Baptism 7 Mar 1880, South Bermondsey St Augustine, Southwark
Father  Henry Maidment, fitter of 6 Carlin St
Mother Elizabeth Maidment

Given Elizabeth and Henry are in their 40s by the time Mary Emily was born, I had wondered if they had a daughter Mary old enough to be Mary Emily's mother, but the couple do not seem to have married until the late 1860s

[lizdb]

Found Mary Emily in birth records

Have you got her birth cert? Or seen a parish register for christening?
Can you give us full details of the "birth record" you have found? Thanks.

Also, have you the ref for the 1881 census for her Mum?


The only one I can see is the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth, as others have also found.

[Spidermonkey]

Hi Mivvy,

What do you absolutely know for certain?  Can we go to that point and work backwards? Like others have said, I can't see anything that indicates that there were two Mary Emily Maidments born in the same area in the same year.  That's not to say there weren't two different MEMs, but that at the moment, the info is suggesting just the one.

[Milliepede]

Maybe mum was in the workhouse in 1881 but yes need more info please Mivvy 

[jorose]

What happened to children born in workhouse?

In some cases women only went into the workhouse for a short period of time - perhaps just a couple of days - around the birth. At the time, the workhouse infirmary was the only source of free medical care for a lot of people.

So what happened to her depends on what her mother did then.  There wasn't any set rule - Mary might have left with her the day after the birth, and if she/her family/friends arranged some sort of informal adoption sometime between then and the 1881 census there's unlikely to be any records.