Hello Rootschatters.
Thank goodness lockdown doesn’t upset family research much!
I have hit a dead end with this couple. Maybe someone out there has the time and inclination and greater expertise than me to solve it. I’d be eternally grateful.
Here’s what I know:
John Edward Pullen was born to John Edward and Louisa Jane Pullen on 21 Mar 1871, the 4th of 11 children. He was baptised in St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, Southwark, London on 1 Dec 1875. Ancestry has an image of the baptism record, which helpfully also gives the 21 Mar 1871 birth date in an annotation, so I am 100% confident about these dates. Interestingly, three of John Edward’s siblings were baptised on the same day.
In the 1891 census he is an Engine Cleaner aged 20 living with his parents at 334 East St, Walworth, Southwark. Later that same year, on 29 Nov 1891 he marries in St Stephen’s Church, Walworth, London. An image of the marriage certificate is available on Ancestry. His bride was Mary Louisa Smith, a spinster age 18, father ‘William (deceased)’. I have found nothing else about her. Ancestry has a 1900 St Saviour, Southwark workhouse record for one “Mary Louisa Pullen”, of the right age, (born 1873) with, it seems, two children William John (b. 24 Sep 1891) and Francis (b. 22 Nov 1893) but I have not been able to convince myself these are the ‘correct’ folk (no entries in GRO or FreeBMD or anywhere else for either child).
After that I have, strangely, found absolutely nothing – no children, no census entry, no death records. The only scrap is an employment record stating John Edward was taken on at Willow Walk train depot in Feb 1900, but he left without notice on 22 Feb 1900.
Maybe they emigrated…
There are numerous Ancestry Public trees that include John Edward, but, like me, they draw a blank after 1900. Hence if anyone can make some progress on this couple they would be helping more than just me.
