I’m pleased to say that I’m pretty sure I’ve discovered what happened to Elizabeth Ann Battista
The last definite sighting of her was admission to Tynemouth Workhouse 12th October 1912, together with a child ‘John’ aged 5 months, transferred from Bolton Union (see
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=793871.msg6509263#msg6509263)
I discovered that the records for Fishpool Workhouse in Bolton are available on Family Search, so I scanned the birth register for 1912, and discovered a birth on 31st March 1912, mother’s name
Elizabeth Lawson, child’s name Jack. Importantly, Lawson was the maiden surname of Elizabeth Battista’s mother, Elizabeth Ellen
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSJS-QHXN?cat=375199In 1917 a mysterious Elizabeth A. Moralee is listed among the blood relatives on Frank Spence’s military papers (see
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=793871.msg6676382#msg6676382 )
I found an Elizabeth Moralee in the Electoral Registers, with a John T Moralee, in various parts of Newcastle pre-1939, and immediately post-1945 at 117 St Lawrence Square. An index address search of the 1939 register revealed three people called ‘Maralee’ living in one household at St Lawrence Square in 1939: John T,. Elizabeth and John H, the latter born
1912. The birthdate for John H exactly matches that for Jack ‘Lawson’. The birthdate for Elizabeth is 1883, which isn’t a match.
However, given John’s birthdate my feeling is that this family is Elizabeth (Battista) , husband John T Moralee and her son Jack (now John) Lawson now taking the name of possible stepfather John Moralee.
We know that the Battista family were Roman Catholics: Elizabeth Moralee's death was recorded at St Dominics Roman Catholic Church on 15th September 1949, address still 117 St Lawrence Square, age 59 (i.e. born 1890, again not a match for what we know). She was buried at All Saints Cemetery. There was a death notice in 1949 and an ‘In Memoriam’ in the E.C. the following year but these only mentioned husband John T Moralee.
The only mystery left, to my mind, is whether she was one of the two Elizabeths who married a John T Moralee in 1917. Did she marry as Jennings or Patterson using yet another alias? As the Elizabeth I found appears to have been Roman Catholic RTL has very kindly today looked at marriages at St Dominic’s and St Andrew’s Roman Catholic Churches but found nothing (St Mary’s online and no result). Maybe these Moralee marriages in 1917 were at the Register Office?
Thoughts welcomed, but I’m pretty convinced it’s the right woman.
