A-Z Challenge: Famiily Traits - M for MYSTERIOUS

Theme for the A-Z Challenge 2023

Family Traits, Quirks and Characteristics 

M for MYSTERIOUS 

My maternal grandmother Alice English's early life 

 

 

 

How far back have you got?" is a standard question for family historians, and I am sorry to admit that the search for the early life of  my maternal grandmother Alice English (1884-1945) remains MYSTERIOUS, and quickly hit the proverbial brick wall. 

 

A photograph of Alice held by several branches of the Danson family.  Could it be her 1907 wedding photograph, given she was wearing a corsage?

 

Alice died when I was a baby, and my mother and aunt were surprisingly reticent about her early life.  I failed to ask the right questions at the right time, sensed a reluctance to talk about her and I ended up with vague and conflicting information - a classic family history mistake.  It did occur to me that she might well have been illegitimate, but then  her father's name of Henry was given on her marriage certificate.  Was this a fabrication for the purposes of respectability? 

 

Was she born in Manchester or Bolton? There were family stories that her mother had been a matron, with some Irish connections; that Alice was orphaned and her uncle went off to America with her money and never called on her to join him, as arranged. 

 

My mother's cousins spoke highly of their "Aunt Alice" but could not help regarding her early life. 

 

Despite many years of hunting and using a professional researcher, I have been unable to trace a birth certificate for Alice to find out the name of her mother.  Queries on message boards, Facebook pages, and on my blog failed to elicit any response, and DNA provided no help.

 

WHAT WERE THE FACTS?

• My starting point for research was the marriage certificate - Alice married my grandfather William Danson in April 1907, at St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire,   when Alice was 22.  Her father's name was given as Henry, a painter (deceased).
   
•  I was always told Alice and I  shared the same birthday - September 23rd. 
  
  
• The family story was that Alice  had moved to Poulton (from Bolton, or was it Manchester?)   as a nursemaid to the Potts family - prominent Methodists whose photographs featured in books on old Poulton, sitting on committees, opening  fetes etc.
  
  
• Alice was confirmed at St. Chad's Church, Poulton in 1904 - I have the prayer book presented to her on that occasion.
  
  
  
  
   
• Alice  died in 1945 so I never knew her.   Her age of 60  on the  death certificate confirms her year of birth as 1884. 
  
  
• A long ago visit  to the then St. Catherine's House, London  failed to find a birth certificate with these details.
  
  
• Early census returns proved no help - I could  not trace her in 1891. In 1901  there was an Alice A. English, born Bolton aged 17, so born c.1884,  living-in domestic servants at Stockport. This could well be my grandmother, but does not help with any more information on her family.
  
  
• I had to wait patiently for the release of the 1911 census to  find her entry  under her married name of Danson, with  her birthplace given as Bolton. Yet even that did not take me further forward as Bolton Registrar had no record of an Alice English with the details I had.
  
  
• The Improved search facility for BMD and parochial records online  came up with a number of possibilities but none that tied in with my limited information. So more frustration!    I also have had no luck in tracing  a record for her father Henry English with very little to go on.  
  
  
• A further wait for the release of the 1939 National Register where I was pleased to find that Alice's birthday of 23rd September 1884 was confirmed,  but I had hoped for more details on her birthplace but these did not feature.
  
  
• I put a query on CuriousFox, the village by village contact site for anyone researching family history in the  UK and Ireland.  The immediate response was gratifying in number, but not particularly helpful,  apart from one respondent who took on board my query with great enthusiasm and pointed me in certain directions I had not considered  - by looking at her address on her marriage; by seeing who her neighbours were in 1911; by tracking other Alice's born in Bolton c.1884.  But these avenues came to nothing.
  
  
  
•  The recently released 1921 Census confirmed Alice's age with a birth year of 1884 and place of birth Bolton.
  

The Conclusion from all this research  - that Alice was more than likely to be l legitimate and had she perhaps changed her name  at some point? 

 

 

Everything  I have heard of Alice in later life spoke highly of her. She  was well respected by family and friends.   She became known locally as an unofficial midwife and the doctor wanted her to train professionally, but this was not possible with her family commitments. 

 

 

 Alice with her three daughters - Peggy, Edith and my mother Kathleen, c.1940  

 

 My grandparents - William and Alice  at my parent's wedding in 1938

 

Sadly Alice developed cataracts and became blind - a condition which now with modern medicine can be treated so easily.    She died in 1945.

     

 

So the early life of my grandmother Alice English remains MYSTERIOUS 

 and I am no nearer climbing over that brick wall!

 

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 Onto N for NE'ER DO WELL 

 

 

 

 

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IN CASE YOU MISSED

A for ADVENTUROUS, B for BIGAMOUS, C for CRIMINAL,  D for DEVOUT

E for ENTERPRISING  & ESTEEMED,   F for FEISTY

  

G for GENIAL & GOOD LOOKING,  H for HEROIC    I  for INSOLVENT  

  J for "JOINER", K for KEEPER OF THE FAMILY ARCHIVES

L for LONG-LIVING 

 

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