Who is up for some sleuthing?!
I'm really struggling to put some pieces together - I know they fit somehow but ...
My difficulties began with determining the surname Walters that appeared in various records and transcriptions as Walter, Waters, Waiters... I've settled on Walters. Maybe she had a thick accent!
This is what I am working with:
My ancestor Caroline Walters (that is what she signed at her marriage; her husband made his X mark) was apparently born in Woolwich (Kent, later Middlesex, then London) around 1821. She married William Burton in Welton le Wold, Lincolnshire in 1842. There is no entry for her father's name. A witness to the marriage was Ann Walters (X).
In 1841 Caroline "Waters" age 20 was a female servant at the Rectory in Welton le Wold. Her age seems to be accurate as opposed to a rounding off of years.
Although she was born in Woolwich, I am thinking that she had a family Lincolnshire connection before moving there.
The next revelation came when I discovered that, in 1891, her granddaughter (who was my great grandmother Agnes and who appears to have later added Bee and Vere de Vere to her collection of names) worked as a domestic in the household of Henry and Rebecca Bee. I found out that Henry Wetherall Bee was a witness at the 1887 marriage of one of Caroline's daughters, Emma Burton, to George Johnson. More interestingly, it turns out that Rebecca's surname is Walters (Walter or Waters) - she married Henry in 1868. Moreover, according to census information, Rebecca was born in Little Carlton, Lincs. around 1838, and as a child may have lived with an Ann Waters/Waiters (transcription or record errors?) who was from Ireland (1841) or Scotland (1851) and who might have been Rebecca's grandmother (1851). I am also speculating that this could be the same Ann Walters who was a witness at Caroline's wedding... maybe Caroline's mother, even (which could make Rebecca Caroline's niece, I guess).
We also have a Petit Point alphabet sampler that had belonged to my great-grandmother Agnes Annie "Bee" "Vere de Vere" Hoffmann (married name was Neale) that was done by her 'Aunt Bee'. (Or, perhaps she was a cousin of some degree.)
So, tantalizing loose ends and educated speculations abound!
Since I can't locate a birth record for Rebecca (so I don't know who her parents were) and I don't know who the parents of Caroline were either (was she "illegitimate"?) I can't confirm the relationships.
All this is so that I can find the ancestry of Caroline Burton, nee Walters! She is one of my brick walls...
Does anyone have ideas of how I might put the piece of this puzzle together?!
MUCH THANKS!
ard
