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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Durham => England => Durham Lookup Requests => Topic started by: Doreen Peacock on Friday 20 June 25 19:30 BST (UK)
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i am trying to fill in the missing years of Maud Elizabeth Whitfield (D.O.B. 03/09/1906) from leaving school, but particularly, after the end of WW1 1918 - up to 1937. She disappeared off the radar, after leaving school, until she Married Patrick Mc Callan in Middlesbrough, N. Yorkshire in April, 1938.
She had a Single sister Florence Edith Whitfield who died of cancer in Wakefield Jan 1924.
Father - Albert Whitfield, died in Auckland 1931. aged 72.
Mother Mary Jane Whitfield (nee Peel) died in Auckland about 1931 - aged 67? "Choked on fish bone?" family tale (!) not proven.
There was an older brother Herbert Alfred Whitfield (1886 -1974) SERVING IN England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in WW1; He Lived in Wylam Street, Middlesbrough; LATER in Chiswick East; and in Middlesex whom Maude E. Whitfield may have stayed with for a while. Herbert Alfred Whitefield later moved to 168 Bath Road, Hounslow, Middlesex in 1958. Herbert Alfred (known as ALF, was a Civil Servant), died in Darlington.
Maud Elizabeth Whitfield, "Had a fear of Workhouses and The Police"., She had an older sister Annie Whitfield - a trained cook and (single). Her financee died in WW1. She died in Winterton Mental Hospital, Sedgefield (previous workhouse?) approx 1968. She never married. Annie looked after two single brothers until they married -Plus a nephew - until they eventually left the Home in St. Johns Road, Shildon in late 1950's/early 60's. None of the family would accept responsibility for Annie , after she had been living on her own for years and lonely....
Can anyone throw any light on tracing the missing years of Maud Elizabeth Whitfield please?
Did she any more children before she married the Irishman? Did she spend time in prison or Workhouse? Where did she work? All help and advice gratefully appreciated.
So many questions and no answers.
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She is still at home in 1921.
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Unless she had a profession where you needed to be registered, for example nursing, or did something to result in a newspaper report, there is unlikely to be any mention of her between school and marriage.
Did she have an occupation on her marriage certificate?
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We don't know. The family history is like the Secret Service. Little information given as children about family history. We're piecing bits together years after Aunts and Uncles have died. Some information is so twisted, it's as though the family have skeletons in cupboards, or don't want people to trace their ancestry.
Eg: - Date of birth Correct.
Date and place of death incorrect.
She was born in County Durham and died in Cleveland (previously N.Yorks) on one piece of information...
the family stated that she died in Nottingham a year earlier and buried there.
WRONG i was with her in Stockton.on.Tees the day she died...and she was buried in Middlesbrough, Cleveland (previously known of N. Yorks)
...AND THEY HAD HER AS Maud Elizabeth McCallan when in fact she had married a second time and Died with the Surname HUNT!
WHY DID THEY USE ANOTHER PERSON WITH THE SAME NAME IN A DIFFERENT COUNTY?
She had no profession on her first marriage cert.
Retired on her second marriage. cert.
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Cleveland: previously part of the North RIDING of Yorkshire, and Co. Durham.
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Can anyone throw any light on tracing the missing years of Maud Elizabeth Whitfield please?
Living at home, 1929-37?
Electoral registers, at 25 St.John's Road, Shildon
1929 as plain Maud Whitfield. Living with Albert and Mary Jane Whitfield, also Thomas Albert Whitfield and John William Whitfield
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39F-L9FH-M
1937, as Maud Elizabeth Whitfield, with Mary Jane Whitfield, also Thomas Albert Whitfield
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C39V-WDGF
Gone in 1938. Annie Whitfield appears
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS1L-M39F-Y
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In case she is with other family.
GRO Index and census information
Children of Albert Whitfield and Mary Jane Peel - they married 1883 reg. Darlington
Samuel James 1885 reg. Darlington
Herbert Alfred 1886 reg. Darlington
Florence Edith 1888 reg. Wakefield
Annie 1891 reg. Wakefield
Thomas Albert reg. 1892 reg. Dodington
John William reg 1898 Great Ouseburn
Theresa Mary reg 1900 Auckland
Hilda reg 1904 reg. Auckland
Maud Elizabeth 1906 reg. Auckland
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1911 census Mary Jane states married 28 years 9 children 9 still living.
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Mother Mary Jane Whitfield (nee Peel) died in Auckland about 1931 - aged 67? "Choked on fish bone?" family tale (!) not proven.
Newcastle Evening Chronicle, 18 January 1939 (free ocr text)
BAD SIGHT LED TO DARLINGTON DEATH
The opinion that an elderly woman’s failing eyesight had prevented her from seeing a bone which she swallowed, and which caused her death, was expressed by the Coroner (Mr. J. E. Brown-Humes) at a Darlington inquest yesterday. Inquest was on Mary Jane Whitfield (74), a widow, of St. John’s Road, Shildon, who died In the Darlington Memorial Hospital on Saturday. Her daughter stated that Mrs. Whitfield swallowed a piece of bone while eating her dinner. Verdict in accordance with the medical evidence, that death was due to laceration of the gullet by a piece of bone, was returned.
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Eg: - Date of birth Correct.
Date and place of death incorrect.
She was born in County Durham and died in Cleveland (previously N.Yorks) on one piece of information...
the family stated that she died in Nottingham a year earlier and buried there.
WRONG i was with her in Stockton.on.Tees the day she died...and she was buried in Middlesbrough, Cleveland (previously known of N. Yorks)
...AND THEY HAD HER AS Maud Elizabeth McCallan when in fact she had married a second time and Died with the Surname HUNT!
WHY DID THEY USE ANOTHER PERSON WITH THE SAME NAME IN A DIFFERENT COUNTY?
This incorrect information appears in published trees. It has probably been copied from tree to tree and has not been researched.
Do you know that the trees are owned by family?
Perhaps like you, they lost track of her and assumed that the death was her.
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Brother Thomas Albert Whitfield born 13 November 1892 died 18 July 1950 age 57 of 25 St John's Road.
Probate to Harry Whitfield -(I believe this is his nephew living with him and Annie 1939)
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The Maud Elizabeth McCallan who died 1989 reg Nottingham has a DOB of 15 July 1900.
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Your Maude Elizabeth was born 1906. -- CORRECTED
Ref birth registration
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Sorry I don't know who owned the tree with the wrong information on; but the children and grandchildren were missing off.
The photograph at the top of the Tree, shows Maud Elizabeth McCallan with daughter - which was why I was drawn to it in the first place. There was only one copy of this picture I believe and the branch of the family it would have gone to have died out who would have posted it....but they would have known where and when she died, so it was a mystery as to why it was allowed to stay posted as being correct in the details published.
Thank you for highlighting it from your point of view and analysis. it is very much appreciated.
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Many, many thanks to you SUPERSTARS. You've answered at lot of questions in super quick time. Communications and clarifications were not at the top of the family's list whilst growing up in the 40's and 50's. "Children should be seen and not heard2 "Don't ask questions., just do as you are told!" I think they must have thought we never overheard bits of information and kept them locked in the storage files of our minds over the years. The truth was there...but wrapped up in fabrics of lies and misinformation.
It has taken the brain power of you good folk to unravel the final pieces of this part of my Jigsaw.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
It's helped make my life so much more relevent and interesting for my branch of the tree that I was grafted onto; and from where I came from. Keep on digging into our pasts, so we can make sense of life, it's meaning and the people we meet on our journey through life.
You are doing a Grand Job. May your God, bless you all and keep you safe.
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Clarification of Mary Jane Whitfield (nee Peel) Children
The nephew, Harry Whitfield, living in St. John's Road, Shildon is the son of Thomas Whitfield. His mother, (Tom's wife), died shortly after Harry was born.
John (Jack) Whitfield (had not married at this time) he married a divorcee (another Maud,) later in life - she had a young son. They all lived in Shildon until they died - he is a brother to Thomas,
and Annie was single (her fiancee died in the WW1) were all living at the same address with their mother/Grandmother Mary Jane Whitfield, at St. John's Road, Shildon.
The three Males and Annie Whitfield were the Sons, Daughter and Nephew to Mary Jane Whitfield, who died in January, 1931 after a fishborne/choking incident, in 1939 as reported in Newcastle Chronicle.
There were other children of Mary Jane Whitfield: -
Herbert Alfred (Alf); Thomas (Tom), John (Jack) Samuel, Florence, Theresa, Hilda and Maud - making eight. Florence and Annie were unmarried. Florence died of cancer in Wakefield 1924 and Annie died in Sedgefield District Co. Durham in 1968.
Maud had three children to Patrick McCallan - JOSEPH VINCENT 1938; JOHN PATRICK, AND KATHLEEN FLORENCE (TWIN TO JOHN) 1941. KATHLEEN DIED AT 11 WEEKS OLD IN OCTOBER 1941. BURIED IN AN UNMARKED, COMMUNAL GRAVE IN NORTH ORMESBY, MIDDLESBROUGH.
Maud is buried in Thorntree, Cemetery, Middlesbrough under the name of HUNT (her second marriage) but in the same grave as her first husband - Patrick McCallan.
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Mary Jane Whitfield died 1939 not 1931 needs to be updated as you now have proof of her death.