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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Shropshire => Topic started by: jackski on Saturday 29 July 23 22:47 BST (UK)
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I'm completely stumped with this problem, and hope that somebody out there can offer an idea of where I might look next.
Am looking for Mary Breeze, born December quarter of 1856 - Shrewsbury. In 1861 she is living with parents Joseph and Eliza (spelt Breese on this census only), and sister Martha. By 1871 both parents are dead and both sisters are in an orphanage in Bristol. Orphans were sent out to any part of the country on leaving the institution so she could have gone anywhere. Martha is quite easily traceable in subsequent censuses, but Mary seems to have vanished off the face of the planet!! She doesn't appear to have died, but the usual methods of finding a woman who has married have all failed. I don't know whether she might have gone abroad or not, or maybe married and then died before the next census. Does anybody have any tips on how I might crack this conundrum? Thanks
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A fairly similar situation and the answer was my rellie was a living in worker at an asylum , so not with her mother (who had been widowed,married again but said she was again a widow ) and brother,not yet married, and not with her step father , who on his Census return said he was unmarried!
I can’t remember how I found that out though ,most likely included in the information in the wonderful help given by RootsChatters .
So don’t give up yet.
My rellie was at least in the same town as her Mum and brother ( Manchester) but they were miles away from their hometown .( Norwell. )
Viktoria.
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Have you ruled out the Mary BREEZE (24, born Hodnet) domestic servant at the house of Robert BENNETT and family at 2 Manley Rd, Withington in 1881?
RG11/3892/63 pg6
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q27G-RW14
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Another possibility - there is a Mary BREEZE (36, born Salop) hospital nurse, at Holdenhurst, Hampshire in 1891. :-\
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4Q2Y-S6Z
(transcribed as BAEEZE on ancestry)
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Thanks. I had seen the Hodnet one, but thought that was on the wrong side of Shrewsbury to where she was baptised. Hadn't seen the other one though, so thanks for that.
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Am looking for Mary Breeze, born December quarter of 1856 - Shrewsbury. In 1861 she is living with parents Joseph and Eliza (spelt Breese on this census only), and sister Martha. By 1871 both parents are dead and both sisters are in an orphanage in Bristol.
I can find Mary and Martha with mother Eliza and grandmother Martha Drayton in 1861. Eliza says she's married, but Joseph not with them. Is that the family? If so Mary's place of birth is given as Copthorne near Shrewsbury. There is a baptism on 4th Jan 1857 (birth give as 15 Nov 1856) of a mary Breeze d/o Joseph and Eliza of Copthorne at District Chapelry of Shelton and Oxon - Saint Chad Shrewsbury.
If mary was orphaned quite young she may not have known her exact place of birth, but knew it was Shropshire so the Holdenhurst Mary may be her.
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Possible for 1881
Nurse with Corrie family in Kensington London
Piece number 30, Folio 88, Page 8
Although it says birth county Staffordshire not Shropshire, it does say birth town was Oxon
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Oooh thanks. Will check this out! I know that people were quite often vague about their ages and other details on censuses, which doesn't help researchers like us at all!!! I hate these mysteries. They bug me till its sorted!
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Possible for 1881
Nurse with Corrie family in Kensington London
Piece number 30, Folio 88, Page 8
Although it says birth county Staffordshire not Shropshire, it does say birth town was Oxon
Yes thats the family. Sorry was posting from the family tree I've got sketched in front of me and not the actual census page.
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Another possibility - there is a Mary BREEZE (36, born Salop) hospital nurse, at Holdenhurst, Hampshire in 1891. :-\
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:4Q2Y-S6Z
(transcribed as BAEEZE on ancestry)
She seems to be down as a boarder - hotel guest?
Big hotel, if I have the right one - pictures here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/albums/72157624672521789/
added
it seems to have been a spa hotel offering treatments for various ailments
see history here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bournemouth_Town_Hall
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Hmmmmm.... so she could have been ill at that point then? I don't see her anywhere in 1901 or 1911, but the only matching death between 1891 and 1901 is a Mary Breeze who died at Knighton, (mid Wales) at the end of 1891. Her only sibling, Martha, was in Glamorgan in 1891 married to John Robert Frazer.
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Who would have thought there so many Mary BREEZEs.
There is another in the 1891 at "The Grange", Walton, Surrey, aged 31, nurse (domestic servant) born Shrewsbury. In the house of Frederick WIGAN. A little young, but another possibility.
RG12/550/14
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Oh heck! It's not getting any clearer - there's too many of them, all born about the same time, same place, same occupation!
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Who would have thought there so many Mary BREEZEs.
There is another in the 1891 at "The Grange", Walton, Surrey, aged 31, nurse (domestic servant) born Shrewsbury. In the house of Frederick WIGAN. A little young, but another possibility.
RG12/550/14
That's a better match with occupation in 1881 and more definite on birthplace. Oxon / Copthorne have been swallowed up by Shrewsbury.
I was a bit concerned about a hospital nurse being a boarder at what would be a very expensive hotel. One scenario was that she was there in the capacity of a private nurse in the employ of a wealthy hotel guest who was there for a treatment. Looking at adverts for the Mont Dore in newspaper archive, it wasn't a sanatorium but offered treatments such as many spa and hydro hotels would.
if you have access to FindMyPast there's an example here
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=BL/0001485/18850929/021&stringtohighlight=mont%20dore%20bournemouth
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So... we've got 2 options for 1881:
first born Hodnet, age 24, servant in Withington, Lancashire
second birth town of Oxon, - wrong county - age 24, nurse for Corrie family in Kensington
And 2 options for 1891
first born Salop (transcribed Baeese) age 36 (bit old) hospital nurse at Holdenhurst in Hampshire at a spa hospital
second born Shrewsbury age 31 (bit young) nurse in the household of the Wigan family, in Walton, Surrey
And nothing after that.
Hmmmm....
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Looking at the children’s entry in the census I went back to the front page to find the name of the orphanage. They appear to have been in the Müller Orphanage at Ashley Down Bristol.
The Müller Organisation holds records for all the children who were in their care
https://www.mullers.org/orphanrecords
You can visit or write for information on the children. Their records would show when they were admitted and where they went on leaving the orphanage.
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Thanks, yes I have applied for these but there is an extremely long wait time, of several months, to obtain these. I'm hoping they will eventually supply some sort of lead to set me off in the right direction.
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Have you taken the ancestry DNA test?
I had a somewhat similar problem in that my gg-grandmother (born 1861) disappeared after the 1881 census. I had a DNA match who I was fairly sure was a half 2nd cousin, but he didn't reply to a message or have a tree. He was just a name. A fairly uncommon name, with three entries in the birth index for the UK. So I decided to quickly put together a tree for all of them. Within five minutes I was looking at my gg-grandmother in the 1911 census, who had eluded 14 years of research. She always listed her age a bit younger after from the 1891 census, so had escaped my searches in the census for her forename, place of birth and year of birth.
I have 2nd cousin matches from each but one set of my gg-grandparents, who were born around the same time as your Mary. It takes a bit of trawling, but you can often unlock a lot - missing ancestors, children born out of wedlock, unknown half-siblings, I'm also related to my best friend via infidelity are some of what I've found, and still working on it.
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Well you sound to have had a good result there. It would be pointless me taking a DNA test as I'm not actually related to the person I'm looking for. Its part of some research I'm doing. Thanks for the tip though.