Ann MATTHEWS, Alice Maud Mary CROOK, John CAMPBELL Birmingham North

[ValJJJ]

Might be time to trawl London electoral registers but with no other known name at an address, I still wouldn't know if it was the right person.

Also if she only had a vote because of the value of the place she lived in, then if she moved to a lower value place, she may no longer have qualified for a vote. Maud would be too young at this stage too.

[ValJJJ]

like to find her death – I did find on Ancestry a 1913 Q2 entry for Birmingham, which could be her, but frustratingly cannot find it on FreeBMD or the gov BD site to order the death cert

It is on the new index
MATTHEWS, ANN       
Age at Death (in years):  76 
GRO Reference: 1913  J Quarter in BIRMINGHAM  Volume 06D  Page 200

There is though an Ann Matthews of that sort of age in the Birmingham workhouse in 1911, it doesn't look like your lady
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWCY-S6D

John

I responded to your info at the time by looking up your reference, and found she was a button carder.  Now having the death cert (issued in All Saints) from the same workhouse, I looked her up in the 1901 census and she is in All Saints, Birmingham, a widow, button carder.  Ann Maria Matthews.

So the death cert I have is definitely not for my Ann Matthews, who was in Sutton Coldfield in 1901, letting lodgings.

[ValJJJ]

More on Reinhold has come to light:
https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=834832.msg7001218#msg7001218

[ValJJJ]

Latest scores on the doors from DNA testing of a child of John Campbell in NZ shows a decisive link to 'my' John Campbell.

So the elusive John Campbell who evaporated from the records in 1911 is the one who reappeared in 1925 in NZ, stating he'd been in the area for 2 years.  As for the interim 13 years, he could well have travelled on an assisted passage to Australia to a training farm, and from there moved on to NZ.

His fanciful tale of going to Eton may well be a reference to a boarding school, but possibly an industrial/reformatory school?

Thanks to all Rootschatters who've tried to help me find this child.

[ValJJJ]

Update: With the 1921 register now available, I found Maud Bertram, head of household, married, with one child aged 8 last birthday.  No others in the household on census night. Still at 11 Hetley Rd.  George Bertram, 8, at a prep school in Margate.

No Reinhold Bertam anywhere, nor Ann Matthews.

[ValJJJ]

Found Ann Matthews!  Finally. 

Ancestry hints recently highlighted a Find a Grave entry for the Crook family with a memorial stone in Curzon St Cemetery, Calne, Wilts.  The transcription included Ann Crook and Jan 1911. 

Calne Town Council were very helpful and checked their burial records for the Crooks and for any Ann Matthews. And yes she’s buried there, with their records stating:

Matthews Ann  formerly widow of Robert Crook butcher 73 Abbey Rd. Brighton   January 30 1911   

The records only give burial dates, not death dates.

I wasn't sure if 73 was her age or the address, but she was 73 when she died – I checked the GRO index and found this:

MATTHEWS, ANN       73 
GRO Reference: 1911  M Quarter in BRIGHTON  Volume 02B  Page 142

I would have never guessed Brighton as none of the family had connections although her daughter Kate Smith nee Crook was in Bournemouth, which is the closest place any relative was.

Now time to hunt through the newspaper archive for Brighton to see what might be there about her.  I might be lucky with an obit, or a death announcement.

[ValJJJ]

I've now obtained her death cert and she died on 23 Jan 1911 at 15 Abbey Rd, Brighton, notified by her daughter Maud Crook present at her death.

What led her daughter Maud and grandson John/Jack Campbell to move to Maida Vale I wonder?