de Denue Denian Deniau or variations of the name (France)

[susie wong]

I have a death cert for a Laura Freda Jane Smith states maiden name as de Denue born France, on her marriage cert it looks like Denian or Deniau, she married a Benjamin Smith in Prestwich Lancs 1912 & her father is called Louis occupation farmer. deceased.
I 've searched various sites without luck, she was born in 1891 & died 1973.
Can anybody help to shed some light on this mystery.

Regards

sue

[jorose]

Deniau would certainly be possible.

There is no national database covering all French births, so it's not that unusual to not be able to find a birth by general searches (often you need to know the location). http://www.geopatronyme.com/ shows the surname Deniau as concentrated in Loir et Cher, but she could have been born anywhere.

At her marriage, who were the witnesses? What was Laura's residence?  She is likely to have had relatives or other contacts in the UK.

[susie wong]

The witnesses were William Smith & Hannah Smith, presuming connected to her husband benjamin Smith, her residence was 11 Wilford Street Moston Manchester

[jorose]

That makes it trickier! Have you found her in the 1911 census?
Were the Smith family from the area?

The lack of information for immigrants, particularly women, does make things difficult. She may have come over for work (perhaps in the cotton industry?).

Are you in touch with her descendants (perhaps some cousins might have some documents?). I found the birthplace of my g-g-grandfather in one letter written by his daughter - other family members had it as the nearest large town which made it difficult to find him.  This is because of the way French civil records were traditionally recorded - with indexes for each commune and usually no department-wide indexes.

[susie wong]

Not  found her in the 1911 census.

Havent  done any research on the Smith family as yet as i'm concentrating on Laura, nobody in the family knows anything, her daughter Ethel said she thought  her mother had french connection , she didnt know much more.

Thanks for you help

[jorose]

The other possibility is that she was of French-Canadian background.

This child might be worth checking out:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X94G-5B8

On other sites she is indexed as Denian or Demian.