Hello everyone,
I've made some progress on British-Genealogy, Ancestry, and FB's Ask the Ancestors, but I'm still extremely perplexed. Carol Coleman from Ancestry suggested I come here.
I'm the granddaughter of Francis "Frank" Nield, whose parents were Robert Nield (Third of His Name - haha) and Emily Sophia Black. It's Emily I'm having difficulty with.
What I know:
She was born in 1886 in Peterborough. Her mother is definitely MANNING, and judging by all info turned up so far, Elizabeth Manning, daughter of Joseph, a carpenter (lol, but true) and Harriet.
Her father is the problem.
Elizabeth was certainly married to Gustave Felix Black of Le Havre, France, son of Jeremie Black (presumably of same). He and his father were both hair dressers, it's said on the marriage record (13 July, 1875, Peterborough Northampton) He was 34, she was 23.
Birth reg.
BLACK, EMILY SOPHIA MMN-MANNING
GRO Ref:1886 D Quarter in PETERBOROUGH Volume 03B Page 232 (I have ordered this document, I don't currently have it.)
Ok, so that's certainly her. These are her siblings, apparently:
BLACK, FELIX WILLIAM MMN-MANNING
GRO Reference: 1876 S Quarter in MIDDLESBROUGH Volume 09D Page 594
Blanche Rosalie Blaque Chorlton vol 8c page 811 June 1/4 1878 mmn Manning
(spelled elsewhere Blanche Rosella Black)
So if she was born in 1886 her brother would be 10 and her sister would be 8, or thereabouts.
Then I ran into my first problem. Namely this:
Deaths Dec 1880
Black Gustave age 37 Birmingham 6d 98
And Elizabeth reporting herself as widowed on the 1881 census.
...how could Emily be fathered by a man six years dead?
Okay so then in 1891 Elizabeth is living with a man named Thomas Smith. This is the bit of 1891 census found for me.
Felix Black
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Relationship: Lodger
Birth Year: 1877
Birth Place: Middlesborough, Yorkshire, England
Civil Parish: St Margaret
Residence Place: St Margaret, Leicestershire, England
Sub registration district: East Leicester
ED, Institution or Vessel: 57
Neighbors: View others on page
Piece: 2531
Folio: 77
Household Members:
Name Age
Richard Marriot 72
Emma Marriot 70
Isaac Barningham 53
Thomas Smith 44
Elizabeth Smith 36
Blanche Black 12
Felix Black 14
James Whitworth 32
She says he's her husband but there's been no marriage record found so far.
She has Felix and Blanche with her but I don't see Emily, who ought to be 4 or so years old.
In 1901 this was found:
Name: Blanche Black
[Blanche Smith]
Age: 23
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1878
Relation to Head: Daughter
Gender: Female
Mother: Elizabeth Smith
Birth Place: Manchester, Lancashire, England
Civil Parish: Leicester formerly St Margaret
Ecclesiastical parish: St Margaret
Town: Leicester
County/Island: Leicestershire
Registration district: Leicester
Sub-registration district: North West Leicester
ED, institution, or vessel: 17
Piece: 2987
Folio: 155
Page Number: 6
Household schedule number: 46
Household Members:
Name Age
Elizabeth Smith 47
William Black 24
Blanche Black 23
Sophia Smith 12
Florence Smith 9
Florence Strane 19
So Elizabeth is widowed, again, and still no Emily - because Emily is in the Stockport, Cheshire, Certified Industrial School for Girls, age 14. Or at least an Emily Black is, but it doesn't seem that it could be anyone else. She only surfaces again eight years later in 1909, marrying Robert Nield, my great-grandfather, and nonsensically (according to the known information) stating her father is "William Black, carpenter, deceased".
I really would like to know when she was entered into that school, why she was separated from the rest of her family, who her actual father is if it's possible to find out, and where she was between 1901 and 1909. (I assume she stayed at the school until she was 16, since that's what research has told me was the usual thing, but where would she have gone then?)
Unfortunately it seems records like these are at the National Archives, and I'm in California with no way to get to the bottom of this mystery. Is there anyone who'd be willing to go to Kew and find some answers for me, please?
Thank you,
Elizabeth Nield