SOUTH family in Essex

[oldfeller]

G'Day,
Is anyone researching the SOUTH family in Essex, particularly around the Maldon area?
The person I am interested in is  Ethel Elizabeth SOUTH. All I know about her is that she was in or near  Friston, Suffolk, in 1903 and 1904 when her two children, Raymond and Queenie were born. Other than that - nothing, absolutely nothing. No date or place of birth, no relations. no nothing.
The reason I am interested in the Essex area mentioned above is probably based on faulty deductions but my brother had made a start on the family history prior to his death and had the names of people my mother thought were related to Ethel and I finally found a family of SOUTHs in Maldon that had a couple of those names plus an Ethel. Another family story had the name COOPER  mentioned and I found a Cooper SOUTH and those SOUTHs traced back to Essex. Tenuous to say the least but worth a try, I thought, in the absence of any other leads.
Tony SOUTH in a cold and wet Adelaide, South Australia

[Iria]

Hi

The 1901 Census Shows as Follows

7 Phillips Cottage Speingfield Essex

Richard South Head Mar 47 Horseman Born Maldon Essex
Elizabeth South Wife 37                       Born Essex Barswell???
Ethel South Dau 16                               Born Maldon Essex
Archie South Son 14 Stable Boy            Born Maldon Essex
Evelyn South Dau 10 Scholar                 Born Chelmsford Essex
Rose South Dau 7                                  Born Springfield Essex
Maud South Dau 6                                  Born Springfield Essex
Harold South Son 4                                 Born Springfield Essex

Ethel South was Born in approx 1885

Hope this helps in some way

Regards

Iria

[oldfeller]

G'Day Iria,
Thankyou for your prompt reply to my mail.
That is the family I mentioned and there is Ethel and the other two names  that my brother had,Archie and Rose,so it is a distinct possibility but I can't lay claim to them until I have some details about "my" Ethel.
If that is indeed the family I have the census images before and after the one you sent and also the census images for Cooper SOUTH family in Suffolk so if I can prove that the Ethel in the Richard SOUTH family is mine I will have found a whole lot of ancestors to add to my tree.
Regards,
Tony

[Hawkmoon]

Hello Tony,
I am also tracing the SOUTH family, there were a lot of them in the town of Downham, Cambridgeshire and they moved south to London.
I am back to George South, b 1620, if you are interested I could send you what I have and you can see if anything fits.

Regards

Alan South

PS, my GGGGF was also an Anthony South !

[findem]

Hi Tony,

I'm wondering if Barswell is actually Bradwell-on-Sea, Bradwell-on-Sea would be around 17 miles (by road) give or take a couple of miles, east of Maldon at the estuary of the Blackwater river.  I'm not 100% sure but I believe the locals tend to call it simply Bradwell, the spelling being an enumerator or transcriber error.

Regards.

[lizdb]

To be sure you are following the right person, you need to find more info about her - and to do this you need to start form the most recent definite proved information, and work back a step at a time.

So - you say she had two children in 1903 and 1904 in Suffolk, and this is all you know for definite.
Have you  got the birth certs of these people? Was Ethel single when she had them? or married - in which case what was her maiden name?
Have you found these two children on 1911 census? If so, were they with their mother, and if so what info did she give about her age and place of birth?

[oldfeller]

G'Day,
Sorry to be so long in responding to these mails.

Alan,
All of my SOUTHs are, as far as I know, from around Maldon/Colchester area and I have no known connection to Downham, Cambs. although at the start of my research I thought I might have had some from Great Wilbraham but they weren't mine. If I find any connection or references I'll get in touch straight away.

Findem,
Barswel should indeed be Bradwell (0n Sea) and I have the census images of Elizabeth Cooper from 1871 and 1881.

lizdb,
Ethel was unmarried at the time of the birth of both Raymond and Queenie. I have both Birth Certificates and on neither one is the father named, although family lore says they both had  the same father. Ethel left both children in the Plomersgate Union and I next found what was almost certainly her in 1911 in Islington. I also found Raymond,as a boarder in a household in Sussex, and Queenie in an orphanage in Oxford.

My sincere thanks to each of you for the interest you have taken.



All the best and good hunting,

[lizdb]

O.K, so she was in Friston in 1903/04 to have these children
So where does the info that she was born in Maldon come from?

[oldfeller]

G'Day Lizdb,

Thankyou for your continued interest in my SOUTHs.
My brother, who died in  1999, had started on a family history and my mother was able to tell him what little she knew about my father's family. She was never very happy discussing it and knew only a little. She named some people who she thought were Ethel's brothers and sisters. I searched the 1901 census for Ethel South and found a family in Maldon that matched very closely.
Assuming this was too much of a coincidence - all the names were there plus two others - I decided that I would follow this family. Not an absolute certainty, I know. I have not been able to find a record of the birth of Ethel South in Maldon, which is consistently given as her birthplace in censuses. The only Ethel South born in Essex at the right time was born at Orsett and she was the daughter of a William South and the family appeared in the 1901 census  as did Ethel South in Maldon. My search continues!
Regards, Tony