Elsie Priscilla Fisk nee Burch.

[AbbieC]

Looking for anyone who may have any information on Elsie or her daughter Ruby Althea Fisk.  Just back to Rootschat and trying to solve an age old mystery!

[suffolk*sue]

Do you have approx dates, locations? What sort of info are you looking for?

[trish1120]

2 Ruby Fisk Births Reg 1913/1914 Suffolk
Ruby A P Fisk 1913 Woodbridge, Mother Fisk***
Ruby A Fisk 1914 Ipswich, Mother Heckford

Ruby A P married George S JOHNSON 1929  - Woodbridge (very young!)
Ruby A married Arthur A TAPLIN  1936  - Ipswich

Elsie P Fisk Married Alexander ANDERSON 1916 Woodbridge



All on FreeBMD


Trish

[trish1120]

Marriage Reg for Elsies Parents;
Dec 1877 Plomesgate, 4a 1418
Arthur FISKE to Eliza BURCH

Death Reg for Arthur FISK June 1898, Plomesgate, 4a 498
Age 48

Eliza Fisk remarried to Caleb COOK 1899 Plomesgate

1901 Census in Melton, Suffolk, we have;
Caleb Cook, 29
Eliza Cook, 42
William Risk, 15
Elise Risk, 5, Step/Daug****
Ernest Risk, 3, Grandson

1911 look for Elsie Fiske, age 17 (1894)

[trish1120]

Death Reg;
Ruby Anthea JOHNSON
Birth: 13 Feb 1913
Death: Jun 1978  - Ipswich, Suffolk, England

[Annette7]

Elsie Priscilla Fisk and Alexander Anderson had 2 daughters - Eva D. born 1917 who also married young to a Louis Walker in Mar.qtr.1934 Woodbridge and a Gertrude P. M. born 1920.

Gertrude P. M. Anderson married a Wilfred H. Padgham Dec.1945 Dartford, Kent which explains how mother Elsie came to die there too.   Gertrude Phyllis M. Padgham born 24/1/1920 died Sept.2001 Bromley.

You don't say what the age old mystery is??

Annette

[AbbieC]

Hi Trish and suffolk Sue and Annette
The Ruby A Fisk who married my grandfather George Johnson is my paternal grandmother.  She was brought up by another family. I don't know if she was adopted or just "given away".  My mystery is that The family don't know who Ruby's father was and I fear given the possible circumstances the information will have been buried and may be impossible to find.  Elsie married Alexander Anderson and had 2 children who would have been her half sisters.  Maybe the information lies within that family.  I am not sure how I can progress or if this is an impossible task.

[Annette7]

Ruby was born as Ruby A. P. Fisk on 13/2/1913, and also married as Ruby A P Fisk.   However, the 'P' has been dropped on her death entry.   Do you have a copy of her birth certificate?  I'm wondering whether the 'P' may have been a surname rather than the usual Christian name.   Often illegitimate children have a second or third name which is a surname which usually denotes the surname of the father.  I note mother Elsie was living with a family named Plant when she was 17 and wondered if the 'P' could have been Plant.

There are 3 trees featuring Ruby on Ancestry - one has her as just Ruby Althea, the other 2 as Ruby Althea P. but with nothing to indicate what the 'P' stood for which seems a little strange. 

However, since clearly surviving family don't know who her father was, and her birth certificate will no doubt have fathers details blank as she was illegitimate (if both her parents had registered the birth, even though unmarried she would be registered under both her parents surnames but she only appears as 'Fisk').  It's also more than possible that Elsie may have never told anyone who the father of Ruby was due to shame.   How can we know?   (The other side of the coin being that perhaps she'd been promiscuous and not known herself who the father was).

We could hypothesize for ever - any 'adoption' would have been informal as legal adoption did not start until 1927.   Unless the natural father was forced to pay something towards the upkeep of Ruby via the local court (which seems doubtful in this case since she was not brought up by her mother) I don't think you will ever be able to find out who he was.   Even if her 2 daughters from her marriage did somehow know, with both now dead I hardly think it is something that would have been handed down to their own respective families.

Which is why I interested in what the 'P' stood for in her birth name in case it was actually a surname giving a clue to who her father may have been.

Annette

   

[AbbieC]

Annette
What you have said is all that I have thought although I do have that extra little piece of information.  The P as on her birth certificate is Pettit.  I too thought it may have referenced the father.  I wish I had known that she was "adopted" when they were still alive as they were in my lifetime then perhaps we would know more.  I didn't realise that she had been until at a wedding in the 80's I asked my uncle where all her family were and he told me se had been adopted.  I don't think Elsie died until 1982 which until I started my search the family were unaware of.

We always leave it too late to ask the question?

I too found that she worked for a Mrs Plant in 1911.  I have been researching today to see if there was a Pettit in the local area at the right time.  The only one I found was quite strange.  A Rupert Pettit was named on the 1911 census as Ruby and was a son!  It was also noted on the original census document that this was correct!  He was from Stowmarket.

I wonder?