Genealogy Chat

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Finally broken down one of my long standing brick walls tonight, partly anyway. Always been a puzzle to me why my great grandmother was listed with just her dad and sister on 1901 census, as I knew her mother was still alive and there was a little brother too, born 1900, as he only passed away recently in 2001, at the grand old age of 101. Posted here for help at time, but nobody was able to find her either. Well tonight finally managed it. Her name was spelt wrong on the census, Julia Tompkins rather than Julia Tomkins. That would in itself have been okay, only Ancestry had further mistranscribed it as Julia Tornphins (forever assosciating my poor g-g grandmother now, in my memory, with marine life in distress...thanks Ancestry!) Anyway she was a patient in a St Mary's Convalescent Hospital, Horton- Kirby, Kent. Have no idea what was wrong with her though, or why she was in a hosptial relatively far from her home in Bethnal Green. More puzzlingly the baby Joe/Josiah my late great uncle, is not there either so is still unaccounted for. Anybody any ideas on how I can crack this once and for all? I assume probably little chance of the medical records having survived and being available somewhere?

The clue is in the word Convalescent! This means she was recovering from some illness, or maybe operation, and had been sent away to do so. Often large hospitals had convalescent homes in the country (fresh air, and all that) The baby would not have been allowed to be with her in the hospital, after a certain age. Perhaps fostered out in the area - have you looked? A surprising number of medical records do survive, but locating them is often the biggest problem. Start with either the local County Records Office, or the Area Health Authority. You may not be allowed to see them - different agencies operate different rules, but it is always worth a try. OC