Hi Deb , I just found this thread today and couldn't believe my eyes!! I have been doing the very same research over the past year, into the Smith/Slack mystery!
You see, I am the Great Granddaughter of Mary Palmer, younger daughter of Mary Slack/Smith and John Palmer! In other words, the sister of your Bessie.
It seems that their name changed from Slack to Smith between Mary's birth in 1858 and the 1861 census, as Mary, the youngest, was registered as Slack, but they were Smith's by the time of the census. As Mary's father George was already a Hawker when he registered her birth it I wonder if, in fact, the name change is related to his new occupation after all? Unfortunately, I don't have any other ideas as to why they did that! All I know is that I bought just about every Mary Smith's birth cert in Truro before I found the marriage of her parents! Who'd have thought to look for the birth cert of Mary Smith under the name Slack!
On another note, I don't know if you are aware that Bessie and Mary's younger "siblings" were actually cousins? John and Annie Palmer (b circa 1880 and 1883) were actually the children of Amelia Smith (c 1849) and were "adopted into the Palmer family" according to the entry in the Parish register at their baptism on 2 Dec 1884!
When you mentioned about John Palmer seeming to hate travellers, that went through my mind! Why would he have adopted a nephew and neice into his family? Hawking was the lowest of low, a despised profession from what I gather, but he loved Mary enough to have married into the family!
Like you, I don't know what happened to her after 1901 either!
Have you gone back on the Palmer side? Therein lies another Mystery (a Devon one), for another thread, I think!
But a BIG thank you to everyone who contributed to this thread, as you've really helped me to get past Amelia Carnarton's beginnings!
