| STANTON / MacLEAN Family History | |
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Progress since Xmas Letter 2008
Last Updated 18 Jan 2009 The early release of the 1911 census started the new year off with a flurry of activity. I had not expected this census to be released until 2012, however just before Xmas I was invited to take part in the "Beta" release of the new site, and this was followed by the public release mid Jan. So far not all the country has been published, but we are fortunate that all the counties involved in the STANTON and MacLEAN families are available. So far I have found all the 'major' expected targets, with our parents generation making a census appearance for the first time ( Dora and Edwina in Stanhope Street St. Pancras, and Graham in Aldershot ). Gt. grandparents MacLEAN (William and Sarah[STERNDALE] ) turned up in Thornton Heath with daughter Mary Amelia (Pinkie) and her husband and son, Jack and Sterndale. I'm not sure if they were living there or just visiting on census night. The big surprise so far was Gt Grandmother Ellen Alice STANTON - as I expected she had returned to Bristol following the death of her husband in 1902. This census was the first to record numbers of children against married women. Although a widow, Ellen had incorrectly filled out the form, showing two living children and *six* dead children. This was a major surprise, the two living children were Graham Rochford (The Old Man) and Gwendolin May, however I only knew about one other child ( The Old Man's twin James who died aged only three weeks). My father did not mention this in his book 'The Old Man', so I presume he did not know, perhaps grandfather never told him ?. A hurried search of the Newport birth and death indices found three STANTON births with corresponding early death references. I applied for these birth certificates, and all three were our gt uncles, dying very young. However that still leaves two more deceased children I cant identify. I am wondering if they pre marital, perhaps even another set of twins, in which case their birth may be registered under Ellen's maiden name SMITH and be very difficult to locate. For some years I have presumed that Ellen Alice's parents were Samuel and Mary Ann SMITH (first cousins who married), and I was hoping that in 1911 Ellen would be with a sibling or cousin to prove the relationship, however she is working as a servant, so that relationship remains 'probable'. What did show up on the census was that Samuel and Mary Ann also had a number of deceased children (eight), as I only know of one, there is a great deal of searching to do there for seven SMITH children, the search will be comlicated by the fact that the SMITH family moved around a lot. |
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