The Reoch family in DUNDEE,

[shelly 65]

Hi Everyone,
                  I am trying to find information on an Ethel Niell Reoch (illegitimate) D.O.B. 1/11/1915.
Ethel's mother was Jeannie Neill Reoch.I have found the deaths of all Jeannie's children but cannot find marriage or death of Ethel.(all had illegitimate on their birth cert.,).I am wondering if Ethel was put into care as a very young child,but i cannot get to grips on where to look..
If anyone can advise me i would be very happy.
Thank you for reading..

[CaroleW]

Wrong info - sorry

[CaroleW]

Jane (Jeannie) married John Duncan Sellars in 1926 & died 1951 aged 71.  Any possibility  Ethel took the Sellars surname??

[shelly 65]

Hi,
   Sorry it has taken me so long to reply,reason being i had a hard time signing in..Thank you for your reply,and to be honest that never crossed my mind ::)about name change..I have this morning looked for marriage & death of Ethel Sellars,the ones i found do not fit with anything with the Reoch lady.
This is why i am looking,i will try to keep it short.(not easy}.My grandparents were farm servants,not well off people at all,but they had taken in illegitimate children as their own,one was my Dad in 1914 and an Ethel 1915/16/18,don't know for sure,but she was at school with my dad in 1921/22 and she had my grandparents surname as my dad did.Neither my dad or Ethel had a birth cert.,as my grandparents said they had been destroyed in a fire..My dad had to apply for one to get his state pension in 1973 thats when he found out his real name and situation.Ethel and my dad lost touch over the years and when they got together again,neither spoke about their upbringing,and at that time internet to me was unavailable.sadly.I still cannot get any information on HOW my grandparents got these children,they were not connected to people where my dad was born,and of course i am still searching through S.P.to follow any Ethel that was born in 1915..I don't have many left to look through,so you can understand why this Ethel Reoch jumped out at me..Thank you for your reply,and sorry my story is quite long ,but hopefully understandable.

[Forfarian]

I wonder if it might be worth looking for the parochial board records?

Parochial boards were set up to deal with the poor. Among other things, they took on responsibility for orphans and othe children whose parents could not support them.

One of the way they did this was to pay people a few shillings a week to foster such children.

Assuming that you know from your dad's birth certificate which parish he was born in, the parochial board records, if they have survived, could contain a lot of information about his parentage, and perhaps also of his fellow foster-children.

Ethel would have been dealt with by a Dundee parochial board. The place to start looking for those records is in the city of Dundee City Archives https://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/service-area/corporate-services/democratic-and-legal-services/archives. They should be able to to tell you what parochial board records have survived and where and how they can be consulted.

[shelly 65]

Hi,
   Yes i did write to the Dundee City Archives,they did look for information for me but because the cases
were dealt by numbers and not names ,they could'nt help..They did suggest the Church or Charities,i never seem to get answers back from the churches..I have found out everything about my dad,but Ethel nothing..I was thinking of writing to any Reoch in Dundee to see if any of them doing their family history,its a long shot but,i may get lucky.
Parochial boards?where would i find these?I am on SC.,PE.,and Ancestry but unsure if i would get an answer from them.It is a real mistery..1921 Census may tell me something so its a waiting game.
Thank you for replying though,very much appreciated.

[CaroleW]

and she had my grandparents surname as my dad did.

My dad had to apply for one to get his state pension in 1973 thats when he found out his real name

What was your grandparents surname? Could Ethel have continued to use it or have you already eliminated that possibility?

[Forfarian]

Parochial boards?where would i find these?I am on SC.,PE.,and Ancestry but unsure if i would get an answer from them.

Neither Scotland's People nor as far as I know Ancestry have them.

That is a very odd response from Dundee City Archives. I'd have expected them to tell you which parochial board records they actually hold. You might need to hire a professional searcher to go and look through the numbers.

As part of the point of creating the parochial boards in the first place was to relieve the churches of the burden of supporting the poor, I'd be surprised if the churches had any involvement with Ethel or your dad, but it's not impossible. But finding the correct church over 100 years later wouldn't be easy.

Nor would it be easy to find out if a charity was involved. I know that some - for example Dr Barnardo's and Quarrier's Homes - were well established by the early 1900s, but there could have been many others.

[shelly 65]

Yes she used my grandparents surname as she knew no other,as my dad did too.For some reason Ethel knew as she got older that she had been fostered out to my grandparents,my idea on that is.as she got older and maybe attracted the boys,my grandad did'nt like that,Ethel was cast from their house when she was 15/16,never to return.My grandparents were extemely religious,strong presbyterians,and possibly they told her then that she was fostered.(who knows).She got married at 17 and still used my grandparents surname,even on her gravestone the same..
I do wonder how she managed to get her state pension though,knowing what my dad had to go through with no birth cert.,Its a real difficult search,because i know that the pension people must of searched to find my dads proper name,so Ethel must have went through the same..
Its hard,my brain does not work as well as it used too Thank you..