Slater, Victor Norman (b1939 d1965); An unanswered question?

[LtWilliamsonNotts]

Born Victor Norman Slater in 4Qtr of 1939 with mothers maiden name down as Hughes, I have a question mark in my family tree which I fear will always be an unanswered question.

The short of it is, I believe my Grandmother (Irene Beatrice Slater) who was 16 at the time of Victor Norman's birth was in fact his mother as opposed to his sister as it was passed off to outsiders and even those within the family.

According to basic records, Victor's parents were Ernest Slater and Ethel Slater (maiden name Hughes). Ethel would have been 45 at the time of Victor's birth but more importantly, family remembered being bed bound during the late 1930's and 1940's with illness. Whilst I know it is not impossible, what is notable is that Victor was born out in Southwell at a time when the entire family lived in Cannock with the exception of an auntie of my Irenes.

After discussion with my old man, he said it would not have been beyond the family to have sent my grandmother packing to her aunt in Southwell to have the child, Victor, who was later to become commonly known as Norman.

To add fuel, my Grandmother ended up settling in Nottingham a fews years later after having two more children, both of whom were registered with different surnames and we believe by different fathers. Unfortunately, the family were incredibly secretive back then. Of the two sons she had in 1946 and 1950, both grew up in later years to be referred to as Uncles of the three children she would later have with my grandfather.

I guess what I want to know is were many births registered in a way which could have seen my Grandmothers parents details input as parents as opposed to her own details. Would any known records in later years have gave a hint to a truth.

In addition, when Victor Norman died at a young age in 1965, my old man who was then aged seven recalls my Grandmother taking his death extremely badly. Almost a state of severe depression. She cancelled Christmas and failed to make an effort to celebrate it for much of the next twenty years or so.

Victor Norman, was born in Southwell, or at least registered there and passed away and his death registered in 1965, aged 25 in Nottingham.

I have posted this on both Nottingham and Staffordshire pages.

Thanks in advance should anyone be able to help or shed any light.

[lizdb]

Have you actually got his birth cert? Who does it give as his parents?

[LtWilliamsonNotts]

Hi Liz.

I do not have a copy but I have seen one that a family member has and it has Ethel Hughes as mother and Ernest Slater as father. These who are I suspect may have actually been grandparents.

[lizdb]

I am not your you are going to get anywhere. And your hunch may not be true anyway.

I do not know how easy or difficult it would be to 'fake' the birth registration. Nowadays you have a doctor/midwife note to say that x was delivered of a child on x day. Dont know if you did then.

Maybe Ethel was bed bound because she had complications of the pregnancy?

But, at the end of the day, if you are saying that the actual parentage of the child was kept secret from everyone, even the family, then you will never ever prove that (or inded any other scenario than the one documented) was the case.

As for your gran being very upset at Victors early death, I dont think that is evidence she was his mother. It would be quite understandable for her to be very upset if he was her younger brother, especially if her mum had not been well and thus she had probably been very involved in bringing him up.

I am not sure why you think that she was his mother. Lots of families of the era have a baby born into them when the older children are teenagers.

Sorry, but I think it is a lost cause, trying to prove something that you said yourself was a secret from all (so where has the initial idea come from?) and may have never happened anyway.

[LtWilliamsonNotts]

Well when I say secret Liz, I am talking about the generation beyond my Dad's. But as you say, it will probably be something that I will never be able to confirm unfortunately.

Appreciate the questions raised though. They are the sort of things I'd ask in the same circumstances.

I guess I want to unearth something too much in a sense. It is something I believe to be entirely probable but without much to go on.

Many thanks.

[Nottschick]

I think this is a fascinating post although as previously said, you will never know for certain if what you and others suspect is true.  Families often have juicy rumours sometimes going back generations and eventually some are found to have some truth.  Especially in your case the bit about "mother" being bedbound but the child born in Southwell.  Why?
I think that pre-NHS this sort of thing was much easier to achieve.  I was born just after the war on a bank holiday when the district nurse had the day off and refused to attend my mother so I was delivered by my grandmother in her house. My mother never was seen by a medic so registration was purely taking the parents' word for it.  Useful circumstances if one was planning something dodgy.

NC.

[LtWilliamsonNotts]

Fascinating and frustrating at the same time NottsChick. There is just too much that I half know for me to give up on what I believe to be true. I guess I always hoped that one day I'd find some missing piece to the story but I guess it is not meant to be.

[Sunnee_Dee]

Does the birth cert say where in Southwell he was born? And who was the informant?