Downing in/near Gainsborough

[sherlock1207]

I am interested in the possibility that Downings in/around Gainsborough may be linked to my Sharman tree. In particular a Sarah E Downing who died Q3 1952 Gainsborough district might have been my g.grandfather's sister Sarah Elizabeth Sharman who was born near Swinstead in 1869. I know that in 1901 our Sarah Sharman married Joseph Downing and went to live in Sheffield. Please contact me if you can confirm or disprove my thoughts about the Gainsborough death being hers. Thank you.

[Geoff-E]

Without being too specific re the 1911 census, there were two Sarah E's in Sheffield, one aged 40 (yours) and one aged 41.

As well as the Gainsborough death, there was this one in Sheffield
Deaths Jun 1954
Downing    Sarah E    86    Sheffield    2d   143

One of Sarah's children (Grace Jane, 1902) may well have died unmarried in Sheffield in 1946, so perhaps the family were still there at that time.

[lizdb]

The 1954 Sarah E death in Sheffield was a Sarah Ellen -

From Probate index :
Sarah Ellen Downing of 38 Annesley Road Sheffield widow died 31 MArch 1954 at 2 Herries Road Sheffield Probate to Walter Downing steelworks clerk.


I suggest you send for the Gainsborough death cert to see if middle name is Elizabeth and if the informant is a known rellie of "your" one.

[sherlock1207]

Thank you both. My very limited resources mean that I have to be pretty sure that I've got the right person before sending the GRO my £9-odd for a certificate - hence this appeal. At least we - sorry, you - have eliminated the 1954 Sheffield death as being the former Sarah Sharman. Given that the 1952 death is relatively recent, I might write to any Downings still in/around Gainsborough to ask if Sarah rings a bell, and go from there. This strategy has paid dividends with other branches of my tree, although sadly not with John Sharman (born Edenham, Lincs. in 1875) who disappears after his 1901 census listing at Barnard Castle and refuses to be found apart from an eroded inscription on his parents' gravestone at Edenham which seems to give 1915 or 1916 as his year of death.   

[lizdb]

Up to you, of course. But with the price of stamps you may find you are spending nearly the £9-25 on what might not bring any results! And still end up ordering the cert after all.
Beans on toast for dinner for a couple of days, go without a newspaper or coffee, whatever it takes to put by 9-25!

[sherlock1207]

Yup - good point well made, Liz.

[Glen in Tinsel Kni]

Alternatively order it from Lincs Registrars and specify what the middle name has to be, I've had them phone me and query if I want a cert based on info written on it before now.