Help please! Attempting to trace my adopted grandmother's birth parents/family

[sophia1422]

Hello all, many thanks for all your replies, I will do my best to answer them!

Carole it has crossed my mind that her name may have been changed, but I need to exhaust all possibilities with her known name first. Good point about the newspapers, I hadn't thought of that.

groom - yes just to confirm Eva was her middle name. We had always understood that her parents were leaving to start a new life abroad and once settled they were going to return for the baby. I do realise that it seems an incredibly young age to leave a baby without her mother although have never really questioned it until now.
The 1939 dob was given by her adoptive father William Taylor. It does seem plausible that it could be an adoption date instead and would explain having two dob's, although I still don't understand why he would use it on the 1939register.

dundee - 3 - 6 mths was what she had always been lead to believe by the Taylors. Yes, Fanny's maiden name was Smith. No further children during the marriage. I have always thought the timing slightly odd, as they were supposedly married for less than 18 months before adopting. It definitely sounds more plausible to have adopted several years later.

avm228 - that's correct - as for confused...  !!

[Flattybasher9]

Eva could still have been her birth name, but just using it as a middle name after adoption, so her name had a link to her origins. How many double barrel names do we still see, and in the BMD records, how many do we see where the original middle name has been dropped with the original surname being put in it's place.

Malky

[Treetotal]

If I have the right family in 1901 census...it's possible that Elsie could have been the illegitimate daughter of one of her sisters: Ethel b. 1892, Margaret 1894, or Gertrude 1895. I have also looked at Eva Elsie b. Hull but didn't find a match 

It looks like there is no paper trail for her due to lack of accurate details.

Carol

[Dundee]

.......3 - 6 mths was what she had always been lead to believe by the Taylors.

Then I would be looking close to home for her mother.  Perhaps it was just a coincidence that the TAYLORs did not have children of their own.

Debra 

[jorose]

Looking at the possibility that "a French nurse" was involved as well as a doctor from Hessle, this 1911 entry intrigues me:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7TS-TSP
Ann Josephine Keightley, a domestic servant in the house of a "Murray" family (possibly related to William Murray, a doctor in Hessle with Scottish origins).  She was born Paris, single, and of child-bearing age.

Now here it gets interesting! I looked for possible illegitimate births to Keightley - none in Hull area, but in March 1912 a Ethel D Keightley (possibly originally listed as "Female" Keightley) was registered in Marylebone. There is a cross-reference saying "see D 26" - meaning the birth was amended or re-registered in 1926.

The corresponding entry in 1926 lists two names - Ethel D Keightley and Ethel D Taylor, both with mother's maiden name Keightley.

[avm228]

That is an intriguing set of facts.

I wonder whether she is the Anna J Keightley whose death (aged 86) was registered Dec qtr 1951 Hull.

[avm228]

Anna Josephine Keightley, spinster, of 29 Rose St, Hull, died 14 October 1951.

Probate of the £625 estate was granted at York, 27 November 1951 to John Joseph Wade, ledger clerk. 

[avm228]

William Murray, of Southfield House, Station Rd, Hessle died 29 November 1946.  Probate of his £24,500 estate was granted at York, 26 June 1947, to Donald Murray company director and Jean Murray spinster.

A funeral report in the Daily Mail, 3 December 1946, shows that this was Dr William Murray, aged 77.  He had lived in Hessle for 50 years, and retired in 1937. (It looks as though his wife Barbara Maud died in 1938).

[sophia1422]

Looking at the possibility that "a French nurse" was involved as well as a doctor from Hessle, this 1911 entry intrigues me:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7TS-TSP
Ann Josephine Keightley, a domestic servant in the house of a "Murray" family (possibly related to William Murray, a doctor in Hessle with Scottish origins).  She was born Paris, single, and of child-bearing age.

Now here it gets interesting! I looked for possible illegitimate births to Keightley - none in Hull area, but in March 1912 a Ethel D Keightley (possibly originally listed as "Female" Keightley) was registered in Marylebone. There is a cross-reference saying "see D 26" - meaning the birth was amended or re-registered in 1926.

The corresponding entry in 1926 lists two names - Ethel D Keightley and Ethel D Taylor, both with mother's maiden name Keightley.

Wow that's fascinating, thank you so much jorose! I will definitely have a further look into this