Priscilla, a brick wall no more

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Priscilla Bourne (or Bone) was my great-great-grandmother. She was difficult to find prior to her marriage for several reasons: the fact that Priscilla was illiterate means that her maiden name appears on official documents with various spellings, on her marriage certificate her given name is Druscilla rather than Priscilla, and calculating her precise year of birth was made difficult by inconsistencies in her age on census returns. The one fact she was sure about was that she was born in Bedworth, Warwickshire.

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Walter Shuttleworth (1898-1917)

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Walter’s Grave, 11 October 2017

Walter Shuttleworth was my great-uncle. He died on 11 October 1917 of wounds sustained during the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres). Walter was only 19 years old when he died, and was survived by his mother, two brothers (who also served during the war) and three sisters. On 11 October 2017 my father, my sister and I visited his grave at Nine Elms British Cemetery near Poperinge, to remember him and the many others who died during the Great War. Continue reading →

The Bates to Jenkins name change

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Elizabeth Jenkins was my great-great-great-grandmother. In 1847 she married Henry Milner in Fazeley, Staffordshire. On their marriage certificate, Elizabeth’s father was shown as Joseph Jenkins and one of the witnesses was Thomas Jenkins Jenkins. It took me a long time to locate Elizabeth on the 1841 census, because I was searching for her as Elizabeth Jenkins. When I couldn’t find her that way, I went back to the old-fashioned way of searching the census, and looked at every page of the census for Fazeley. I couldn’t find Elizabeth Jenkins, but I did find an Elizabeth Bates approximately the right age, in the household of Joseph Bates on Mill Lane, which is where Elizabeth was living in 1851. Could this be my Elizabeth? I have done some research into this, and present here my findings.
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Divorce in the 19th century

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From 1 January 1858 a divorce could be granted by the new Court for Divorce & Matrimonial Causes. In its first 10 months of existence there were 288 petitions, but only 37 divorces were granted. In the first ten years there were 1,279 dissolutions of marriage. Until 1937 men could obtain a divorce on the basis of adultery, but women had to additionally prove another offence, such as cruelty.
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