Help in finding my paternal grandmother

[brigidmac]

Its very strange that Edith is listed under her mothers maiden name while the mother is still with her husband and children .

Maybe he refused to recognise her as his child
DNA of descendants would show if she was a full or half sibling of the Coomber children .

And for the next generation might give an explanation for  1921 why margarets mother is marked as dead but fredericks as both parents living

The anomaly of 1 years difference for john DONAGHUE s age is common. My grandmother believed she was born 1900 but actually 1899 same birth date  .so most of her records 1939 marriage & death are a year out .

Also her middle name on her birth certificate was different from baptism records giving vital information about the birth father .

Donahue spellings can be very  varied
Im not good at using wild cards to find alternative spellings .

Have you looked for newspaper reports

Do you have a tree where we can see all the connections.

Look forward to hearing of any discoveries that you make

Good luck.

[antiquesam]

Edith's birth registration refers to the mother as Elizabeth Ann Cocks, formerly Coomber. Cocks was her maiden name. By 1901 Jethro Coomber was lodging in Sussex (the area in which he was born) and died in the local workhouse in 1917.
I've been working on my tree for twenty years now and for a long time named Jethro as my g/grandfather but I recently decided this was questionable.
Elizabeth named the father of Edith as Charles Cocks.
Throughout her life Edith interchanged her surname between Coomber and Cocks.

[LizzieL]

Its very strange that Edith is listed under her mothers maiden name while the mother is still with her husband and children .

On the GRO index, Edith Cocks has mmn Coomber.

But she was still legally married to Jethro, so why say she was formerly Coomber if that was her married name and Cocks her maiden name

[antiquesam]

You had to be very rich to divorce in those days. He was in the RN and was probably estranged by that time.

[brigidmac]

He wasnt.completely  estranged if he was on the census with the family when Edith was 4 months old
But they might have decided to separate by then and he was staying there for convenience and  to be with his other children . As a sailor he probably had long periods away so would know if Edith was Not his

I think youre right to assume Jethro wasnt the father ..

DNA could resolve if it was actually a Charles Cocks ...are there any cousins by that name ?

* or did jethro marry a relation elizabeth coomber who was adopted by cocks family 

FORMERLY  is what my grandmothers marriage certificate says with surname of her adoptive family ( she may not have known she was adopted til she married )

I had a quick look at trees on ancestry

None of them have included any of Ediths children ..and several have her born in Davenport Australia . !
 
So no leads there about what became of john .edith or Thomas

[LizzieL]

Hi Kay. Thanks for the information. I see he is shown as having one child. Needless to say I can't find the birth unfortunately as that would have confirmed that this was my man.

On the 1921 census form there is a grid in which the age of the child was entered. Does the age match up with that of Edith's missing child?

The fact the John on the census and Edith's husband were both stokers might be a coincidence. A lot of stokers were needed on ships at that time.

[antiquesam]

Hi Brigidmac. My tree is on Ancestry and it certainly includes Edith's children, including my father. Elizabeth was born in Camelford to James Cocks. I think you're trying to make this even more complicated than it actually is. My task is to find where my grandmother was after her marriage and when she died.
 

[Ladyhawk]

antiquesam - just posting this in case there might be a slim chance there's a connection - I know Edith has not been found after her 1920 marriage to John Donaghue - do you think it’s likely she remarried later in life?

Mar 1948 Plymouth F H Ayres/Edith M Donaghue

Probably deaths in Plymouth which seem to match up with the names on 1948 marriage entry - although only the month matches your Edith’s date of birth

Edith Mary Ayres age 71 Birth 9 Nov 1899
Registration Dec 1971 Plymouth  Volume 7a Page   1719

Edith Mary Ayres of Prospect Rd Devonport
died 25 Oct 1971 Probate 28 Dec 1972 Administration London

Frederick Henry Ayres (wife Edith Mary same address)
died 26 Jan 1963 Probate 21 Feb 1963 Probate Registry Bodmin

[antiquesam]

Thank you Ladyhawk. That sounds like a good lead. Details on certificates with this branch of the family are variable. I'm out at the moment but I'll have a look when I get home.