RootsChat.Com

Thank you to everybody who has been asking about Simpson Hill. My auntie was born there in 1922. My grandmother was unmarried at the time. She was able to take her daughter home, where she was looked after by the family until she was around two years old. But due to family tragedies they were unable to look after her any longer and she was put into an orphanage. She was never seen or heard of again until 1986 when my mother (also illegitimate, born in 1929 at 123 Crescent Road, Crumpsall, a similar institution) found her. My mother had been fostered out, but kept in touch with my grandmother. They met for the first time in 1986 and were sisters together until 1989 when my auntie died. The stigma attached to unwed mothers was so great that it forced my grandmother to abandon two beautiful daughters and never tell either of them that the other existed. The entire family colluded with these secrets, such was the social stigma at the time. It was only in 2010 that I have been able to pull the facts together, thanks to excellent sites such as Roots Chat.com