I thought I'd start a thread with the full story (as far as I am able to tell) of Mary Elizabeth Vickress, my longest-standing brick wall. She has been briefly mentioned on other threads which discuss her extended family, but I'd like to focus specifically on her and I'd be massively grateful to anyone who can shed any light on her story!
According to her birth certificate, Mary Elizabeth Vickress was born on 16 March 1860 in Pensnett, Kingswinford (registration district of Stourbridge), today a part of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. Her unusual surname, which often tends to get mangled into very different variations, was spelt "Vickeriss" on the birth certificate.
Mary Elizabeth's mother was Sarah Vickress (née Foizey), 31, while her father Henry Vickress was a carpenter from the village of Hope-under-Dinmore, Herefordshire. He was about 30 years old at the time of his daughter's birth, and had been married previously. From his first marriage Henry had a daughter, Caroline Ann (1855-1891); from his second marriage with Sarah, Henry had the following children: Mary Elizabeth, Sarah Jane (1861-1861), Mercy (1863-1886), Jane (1867-1872), William Henry (1869-1872), Susannah (1871-1871) and Drusilla (1873-1873).
Mary Elizabeth appears on the 1861 census (aged 1) as "Mary Elizabeth Vickers" living with her parents and elder half-sister, residing in Kingswinford. On the 1871 census, aged 11 and under the name "Mary Vickers", she appears to be living in Wolverhampton with her parents and her three younger siblings Mercy, Jane and William (the latter two would die within a few days of each other the following year).
By 1875 Mary Elizabeth's father and most of her siblings had died, leaving her, her mother, her elder half-sister and her younger sister Mercy as the sole surviving members of her immediate family.
I am unable to find Mary Elizabeth in the 1881 census; she is not in Dudley with her sister Mercy and their mother (who died later that year), nor with her elder half-sister Caroline Ann, who is a servant in Kings Norton.
Mary Elizabeth only makes one more appearance in the records, and that is in 1886 when her sister Mercy dies aged 22. On 11 November "Administration of the Personal Estate of Mercy Vickress late of 263 Great Lister street Birmingham in the County of Warwick Spinster who died 7 February 1886 at Erdington in the said County was granted at Birmingham to Mary Elizabeth Vickress of 263 Great Lister street Spinster the Sister and one of the Next of Kin."
It is unclear if Mary Elizabeth lived to be recorded on the 1891 census; I haven't been able to track her down. Her elder half-sister Caroline Ann died in King's Norton that year, but due to the circumstances, her death was not registered by a relative present at the death, but by the coroner.
Mary Elizabeth outlived her parents her siblings and quite possibly her half-sister, and yet I have not been able to find her in the census, nor a death, nor a marriage. It is possible she emigrated, though I can see no clues in her life as to where she may have gone. I would like to know if the last survivor of this branch of the family left any descendants, and generally what became of her.
A massive thank you to anyone who can offer any help!
