illegitimate baby

[Jo Harding]

Since the birth mother married 7 months after giving birth, that would be reason enough for her to have had her baby cared for by someone else. I have seen a similar situation in my family and in that case, the illegitimate boy was brought up by his grandparents.

Another ancestor had 3 illegitimate children in Cheshire and these were found in census returns living with people who were unrelated. There would have been payment for their care I am sure.

I also wondered whether the lady who cared for the child could have been connected to the father's family. Do you have sufficient information on him to try and establish this? If you are able to provide us with the information you have, then we could try and see whether we can trace his ancestry. I appreciate you might not want to disclose this.

In view of the Brighton connection, have you searched the street and trade directories for Brighton? They have street indexes which show the names of people living in the houses etc. These are available for many years. They may be held in The Keep now.

https://www.thekeep.info/

It is possible to do a name search on their site.

Jo

[sylvieme]

Interesting point, I haven't seen the marriage certificate but will look for this to check if there is a Father's name. I don't know if she ever referred to her as her Mother, whenever it came up in conversation she was called by a sort of nickname,  which was her three initials – DBF

Yes, it would seem like the Father may have contributed to her care but I don't really know where to look to find this information. That would certainly give me the link to connect them all together but for now it's well and truly missing!

I've only just found the Brighton connection, but didn't know about the street indexes, that will be interesting to follow up on, thank you.

Re the Father the only thing I have is the name of a man living at the same address as was given as the address the birth Mother was living and working at, which I found on the electoral roll. There's no proof he was the Father, he did leave that address shortly afterwards, but that could have been connected to his work rather than anything personal, I just don't know. I don't mind giving you his name but that's really all I've got – can you do anything with so little information?

[chempat]

Depends how common the name is.

Nothing ventured.....

[sylvieme]

OK, here we go -
Edward James Coomber, electoral roll for Heath Cottage, Dene End, Haslemere, Surrey 1924-1926

[chempat]

It is Dene Road, not Dene End, not that that helps.  Can see Longdene Road on maps.

A likely candidate for him does seem missing.

[brigidmac]

Just to add re the term adoption
In 1911 the term adopted daughter was used for two of my relatives who had different surnames to their  family .
Although adoption was not legalized til 1927

I believe the distinction was made between a child who was taken on permenantly and a child who was a boarder temporarily and upkeep paid for .

[Jo Harding]

I have been unable to locate a birth registration for anyone by the name of Edward James Coomber. This is within a wide range of years. Have you searched for him in the 1901 and 1911 census returns? Do you have him in the 1939 Register?

There are some marriages registered in Southwark District for an Edward J Coomber. This isn't certain to be an Edward James Coomber.

1912 to a Mary C Newstead.

1921 the entry shows: Edward J Beckett married Margaret A.M Griffiths.
                                  Edward J Coomber married Margaret A.M Griffiths.

It is possible he was a married man in 1924-6.

Jo

[sylvieme]

Thanks to Brigidmac for the comments on adoption re fostering. It seems that adoption could apply to my relative – but it just doesn't have the same legal standing we think of today.

Re Edward J Coomber – it's reassuring that you can't find him either!
In the end I drew up a spreadsheet with all the possible options. I started with a time-frame from 1867 to 1903, those being the extremes I thought he had to be born within. I looked in all the census from 1881 to 1911 as well as 1939 register and considered that he might not enter his full name so also looked for Edward J or just Edward. Geographically I stayed mostly within Surrey and Sussex as that seemed the most likely – but of course it doesn't rule out him travelling more around the country. This has given me approximately 20 different possibilities.

Most of them seem to do manual labour type of jobs, which I don't think quite fits the idea of being on the electoral roll of a fairly remote cottage outside of a town, and if they had a wife and children  also doesn't feel quite right though of course not impossible.

The only one who jingled my antennae was on the 1911 census – and that's the only place I found him so far – is Ed Coomber b1885 Tonbridge Wells. Lodging  @ Bury St Edmunds – occupation  Manual instructor for Borough Education Committee. Which fits the idea of someone who could travel to different parts of the country for employment and possibly be more meticulous about registering to vote. In 1926 he would have been 41 years old and as no wife was registered with him  – possibly more than interested in a pretty young servant.........................

Then after finding the Brighton connection I looked more closely there and found something else. Between 1924 & 1930 an Edward Coomber was registered at 36 Luther St – just a few streets away from the adoptive Mother's family. In 1927 he was joined on the roll by Louise Coomber. And finally I found a marriage in Brighton in 1923 between Edward James Coomber and Lousia A Piper.

Which on the one hand gives me a person who could easily have been in contact with the adoptive Mother's family, supporting my relative financially – but conversely how could the same person be registered in two different places at the same time?   

Who knew family history research would be such a rabbit hole to disappear down!! Any thoughts??

[Jo Harding]

I can sympathise with you as I have a mystery in my family history which is centred on Brighton and Hove. There have been a number of people searching trying to resolve this for 16 years but we have all been unsuccessful to date.

I think the Edward Coomber who lived in Luther St, Brighton, might be worth researching further. His marriage is registered as James Coomber to Louisa Piper. Have you obtained the marriage certificate? That would give his age, address, occupation and father's details. The fact he lived in such close proximity to the adoptive mother' s family makes this curious. I think Coomber is quite an unusual name.

The other Ed Coomber is also in the frame as Tunbridge Wells is within easy reach of Brighton. He may have stayed there at one time.

The other thing I wonder about is whether the name of Coomber could have had a variation, or variations. Comber would be the most likely and I noticed there was an Edward James Comber whose birth was registered in East Grinstead in the June quarter 1894.

I will do some more digging and see what I can find.

Jo