London County Lunatic Asylum Hanwell

[rosie99]

There was an earlier workhouse admission for Eugenia
Admitted Islington Workhouse (St John's Road)
14 June 1875
Eugenia Soffe 23
Walter Soffe 6 mon

They were discharged 25 June 1875.
This must be a different, earlier Walter to the chap Rosie found?

Baptism 1875 Islington of a Walter James Soffe illegitimate son of Eugenia - married woman
Death June qtr 1875   Walter James Soffe    0    Islington    1b   233 (Freebmd)

[rosie99]

You have mentioned Eugenie and also Emily Annie Shelton. Can you draw a line that connects her with our Edith?

The way I see it 
Eugenia married Wm Soffe and left him after just over 2 yrs. 
She gave birth to Walter James Soffe as mentioned in my last post 1875

Workhouse records in 1880 list her with two Johnson/Soffe children - Edith 1877 & Albert 1878
JOHNSON, EDITH       mmn WHITEHORN   1877  Sept Quarter in POPLAR  1C  591
JOHNSON, ALBERT  EDWARD     mmn WHITEHORN     1878  Dec Quarter WANDSWORTH  1D   606

Eugenia remarried William Edward Shelton
22 October 1882 at St James the Great, Bethnal Green

1891 shows William & Eugenia Shelton including Williams dtr Emily Shelton

Edith Johnson/Soffe daughter of Eugenia is your Edith who married Mr Brown.

[4licks]

To Rosie and Jon, thank you so much for all the work you have done to find my great grandmother. She certainly had a chequered start. Can you tell from the Islington Workhouse 1880 where she went. The discharge says she went with son Albert at her own request. I would have thought that she should have shown up in 1881 census but can't find Eugenia, Albert nor Edith. If Edith was despatched as an orphan in 1880, would she show up on census. Also still looking for Edith Brown's death. 1911 census for Herbert Louis Brown shows him married not widower so I would presume that she died after 1911.
I am so impressed with your efforts. Kind regards Keith.

[jonwarrn]

Hi
I think I messed up with Edith's discharge in 1880 - it was from a Southwark workhouse - it probably says "To Aunt"
If so, possibly a maternal aunt, although Eugenia mentioned three sisters of Mr. Soffe I rather doubt whether she would have gone to one of them. Have you been able to find out anything about the Whitehorn family?
Eugenia seems to have been baptized at St Mary Lambeth, 15 April 1852. The name Dyer has come up in connection with the Whitehorns.

I would have thought Eugenia would most likely be somewhere in south London in 1881, but I  haven't found her or her children anywhere. It's odd that Edith is still elusive (to me anyway!) in 1891.

If you are able to, I would think the best thing to do would be to try and get Edith's birth certificate.

JOHNSON, EDITH       mmn WHITEHORN     
1877  Sept Quarter in POPLAR  Volume 01C  Page 591

The children that Eugenia had after the split with William Soffe appear to have been registered as though the parents were married. Of course you never know for sure what it will say before you see it, but hopefully the certificate will name Mr. Johnson. It looks like that will be the only way you might get a line on Edith's father.
You'll also have her date of birth. Hoping she might still alive somewhere, you could try a search of the 1939 Register, looking for Edith's with that birth date. She probably wouldn't be Brown though.

It looks possible that history might have repeated itself, and that Edith split up from Herbert Brown sometime after 1901. If she then lived with someone else it would be very difficult to find her.
John