November 2001

On 9 November 2001 I received a completely unanticipated e-mail from Jane Tombe of the Surrey History Centre. Below is an edited transcription:

9 November 2001

Dear Ms Marelli

Family History: Maggie Walker

Thank you for your e-mail of 24 October.

I checked the creed register (Ref BG3/42/4) for the Board of Guardians (who administered the workhouses) which list the religious creed of the inmates and found a Maggie Walker born 10 October 1907 (so she was only a year out) who was admitted on 30 December 1922 and discharged 24 February 1924. Her religion is given as Primitive Methodist. I checked the admission register (BG3/36/31) for 30 December 1922 and this confirmed these details and listed her as a child and her occupation as domestic servant. She was admitted to the workhouse by order of the Board of Guardians and it was remarked that she had been returned from fosterparents.

I also found a Millie Walker in the admission register (BG3/36/30) who was born 20 August 1904. She was admitted on 1 January 1921 and was also listed as Primitive Methodist. Her occupation is given as Housemaid and the record states that she was put on an invalid diet when she arrived and described as temporarily disabled.

All Board of Guardians records covering the workhouses are closed to public inspection for 100 years. However, I hope that the above information will help you in your search for Maggie Walker’s birth certificate. It may also be worth your while contacting Epsom Methodist Church to see if they have any baptism registers relating to this period.

Yours sincerely

Jane B. Tombe

Stunned and over-emotional I called Mum and read out the contents of the e-mail to her. I cannot express our mixed feelings about this new information. Not only did we have evidence that Maggie spent time in the workhouse but we also had information about her elder sister.

I now had another birth date for Maggie, 10 October 1907, which nearly matched the birth date on her death certificate of 9 October 1907, even though I had family information that she was born on the 10 October 1908. I also had a birth date for Millie (Amelia) of 20 August 1904. Although it was Maggie’s birth details I desperately needed to find there was some solace in that I might at least find her sister Millie.

Frustratingly the pages I had paid for and ordered from the Central Library in Liverpool were now useless because I needed the earlier years of Walker births. In desperation I then contacted my team leader from FreeBMD asking him if he knew how or where other than from the Central Library Liverpool I could purchase the pages I required. He said he would investigate for me. What a star!

Following Jane Tombe’s advice I contacted the Methodist Church in Epsom and although they responded quickly they were unable to find any records of Maggie, Millie (Amelia) or George.

To keep my spirits up I ordered three certificates that I had found on the FreeBMD site for the Reynolds family in the hope of a bit of success from somewhere but sadly they were incorrect. Naturally there was nothing related to the Walkers that could help me on this site as it only held records up until the end of the nineteenth century.

That Saturday I thought there was only one thing to do so I headed back to the FRC looking for Maggie and Millie (Amelia) and George. All I found was the birth certificate for a Maggie Walker of Salop. Naturally this was not my Maggie but again I had to order the certificate if only to rule it out.

The only other certificate I found that day was another marriage of a George Walker to an Annie. These were the parents of children I had already found so it was conceivable that they had other children but perhaps elsewhere in the country, as I could find no other children in Epsom. There was nothing indexed for an Amelia, Millie or similar for the birth date of August 1904.

I e-mailed Jane at the Surrey History Centre again on 14 November 2001, reporting that although I had returned to the FRC I still could find nothing relating to Maggie or her family and also that the Epsom Methodist Church had drawn a blank. I asked her if the records supplied the names of the parents who put their children into the workhouse or if she could point me in the right direction. Actually I think I pleaded with Jane and I also phoned to ask if I could go through the records myself. Sadly I could not.

Highly charged emotionally, I phoned the SoG (Society of Genealogists) and explained my plight, in detail and somewhat irrationally, to a charming gentleman who suggested that Maggie’s birth had not been registered and it was a sad story he had heard often. I was distraught. This could not be the end, and I could not give up. He then suggested that now that I had a birth date of 10 October 1907 from the workhouse records, my only option would be to search for all the Maggies or derivatives of that name under every surname in that quarter. At least then I could decide whether it was financially viable to order all the certificates I might find during my search. However, this could prove not only futile, but also expensive. What if Maggie was born in Reigate or Redhill or Banstead or Kingston? How could I be sure she was born in Epsom? Just because she spent time in the Epsom workhouse it did not prove she was born in Epsom. He also explained I could view births on microfiche at the SoG and would at least be sitting down in relative calm. It was not what I wanted to hear. I wanted a miracle, an answer to my problem – it was all getting too much. I decided to think about the suggested option, but not for long.

The following Saturday I found myself sitting in the SoG doggedly looking at microfiche for the final quarter of 1907, even though Maggie could still have been born in 1908. I decided to go with the year on Maggie’s death certificate and the workhouse records that both recorded the birth year as 1907. I arrived at opening time and worked solidly for over five hours reading every index on every page, noting down every female born in the Epsom area for that quarter and by late afternoon I had only reached the end of the Cs. I felt crushed by the thought of what lay ahead. I was tired mentally before I started searching without reading the tiny lettering of microfiche for such a long time, plus I knew in my heart I had not done a thorough job for the last two hours because I was so tired. My eyes fogged with tears. I had to get out of there, it was all becoming too much. I grabbed a taxi fighting my emotions all the way to Waterloo only to embarrassingly start crying while waiting for my train. I called Brian from the train but could not speak. It was a dreadful moment for me because I was beginning to confront failure, something that I am not very good at, and I had failed Mum and Uncle Harry.

On 20 November – Bert’s birthday coincidentally – I received another incredible e-mail from Jane at the Surrey History Centre. The edited transcription is as follows:

20 November 2001

Dear Ms Marelli

Family History: Maggie Walker

Thank you for your e-mail of 14 November and your telephone call last week.

I checked the Board of Guardians minutes (Ref BG3/11/38) and found an entry dated August 1922 for Millie Walker which reads:

Millie Walker

Mr William George Taylor appeared before the Board and made application to be allowed to take his step-daughter, Millie Walker, who had been adopted by the Board, out of the Institution. Resolved that consent be given.

I searched the minutes for two months prior to Maggie’s admission for any further clues but sadly could find nothing listed. I also checked minutes for two months either side of her discharge date (24 February 1924) but I’m afraid I drew a blank here as well.

I am sorry to disappoint you after such a good start. Hopefully you will be able to find out a bit more through your research into the Methodist connection. I wish you every success.

Yours sincerely

Jane B. Tombe for County Archivist

My goodness, just when I was about to give up another amazing lead. Jane might have felt this information was disappointing but I certainly did not. What a wonderful thing she had done for us! I replied telling her just that.

The William Taylor above had to be the second husband of Maggie’s mother. Strange that William the stepfather should turn up to take Millie from the Workhouse, not the mother, but how could he leave Maggie there? Perhaps Millie was beginning to get ill, as rumour had it she died young. Even so, why take one child and not the other?

With my head spinning I booked another day off work to visit the FRC to look for William Taylor’s marriage in the Epsom area. (Luckily where I work is a family-run company who are also friends and they knew what I was going through. In fact they are now researching their family.) My thinking was that if I could find the second marriage of Maggie’s mother to a William Taylor it might provide a clue to her identity and her children. The only sensible way I could think of to search for this marriage was to look under the name William Taylor, as I still had no confirmation that Maggie’s mother was a Walker. I searched from 1906 to 1922 and out of the thousands of Taylor marriages ordered four more certificates.

The certificates arrived

There were four William Taylors but none of them had wives with a Christian name beginning with the letter A, although that alone is debatable, as we have still not found a name that sounds like the one my mother believes it to be, Azoria or whatever. Neither did any of the wives have the surname of Walker, Taylor or even Turner, and they were all spinsters so it was not as if any of them had been married several times which would have explained a differing surname.

What was left for me to check? Should I consider going back to the SoG to continue my search for Maggies born in the third quarter of 1907? If I did it would probably mean that I would have to order dozens of certificates and maybe find that the whole exercise was useless and I then would have to do the same thing again for 1908. Could I face another Saturday, or many Saturdays, like the last or would I cry! Maybe I should keep looking for Taylor marriages other than William, or should I look at all Taylor, Walker and Turner marriages from 1900 to 1925 for females with strange Christian names beginning with the letter A? It was a nightmare. I suppose I could look for the other children of Annie and George Walker, if indeed there were any more, in other parts of the country but that would mean looking for children born before 1907. Would that be a waste of time as there would be thousands of Walkers born during this period? There is a slim possibility that I might find George or Amelia, as I could not find Maggie, who was supposedly born prior to 1907! To hell with it all; I am going to wait for the 1901 Census to come online. At least with the Census I will be able to search in the comfort of my own home for the various Walkers, Taylors and Turners in Surrey, and the rest of the country if need be for the mysterious ‘A’ person!

…Waiting for the 1901 Census to come online is a bad idea because this is me I am talking about, Mrs Too Impatient. It is no good, I will have to beg the Surrey History Centre to let me view every record they had for Epsom workhouse – surely they could break the hundred-year rule just once! I know what I’ll do, I’ll seek legal help to find Maggie; that is my right as her descendant regardless of the hundred-year rule. I will write to all the authorities – the Prime Minister if necessary. Surely if you can prove that you are only trying to source your own family history, a basic human right, then you should be allowed to view records within the last hundred years. I bet Uncle Harry knows all the answers now – he is probably with Maggie at this moment. Perhaps I should ask for his help.

Mum was as frustrated as I was but also worried that I was going to make myself ill, although on the quiet Auntie Shirley kept me motivated by her total faith that I would find Maggie. I went through all the information I had collected whether old or new, over and over, spreading certificates before me hoping for inspiration, looking at index pages until I was pulling my hair out. There was only one thing that popped eerily into my head and that was the name of Maggie Brown, one of the few varying surnames I had collected that awful day at the SoG. I went to bed that night thinking about that name: Maggie Brown, Maggie Brown – it was driving me mad. It was stupid to even consider that this could be my Maggie as I had only carried out a search from A to C; what about D to Z? I should wait until I complete that mode of research before I make any more rash decisions. I woke the following morning thinking about Maggie Brown and arrived at work annoyed with myself and irritable. This was ridiculous. I even asked Sue, my friend, to stop me if I tried to order another certificate. She said nothing would stop me if I decided to order it and that I should trust my instinct as it had not let me down before. I ordered the certificate and miraculously the name Maggie Brown faded from my mind.

On the morning of 29 November, one month (coincidentally or otherwise) after Uncle Harry died, the post arrived including one brown envelope addressed to me. As I was late for work I carried the envelope back to the bedroom to collect my handbag and it was only then it occurred to me that it had to be the birth certificate for Maggie Brown! Completely nonplussed I wondered if I should open the envelope now or at the office. I ripped the envelope open, irritated because I was late, and read the name of Maggie Brown, the name of her father and the name of her mother and sat down on the bed for a brief moment. I went numb, my brain would not compute, so I put the certificate back in the envelope and went to work. A couple of hours later with the morning rush over I said quietly to Sue, ‘I think I have my grandmother’s birth certificate.’

The certificate

The certificate read:

Maggie Brown born on 10 October 1907, daughter of Albert Edward Brown.

How could I be sure it was my nan, Maggie? Firstly because of the date of birth and secondly because the Christian name of her mother is Asar Zora with the surname Brown, formerly Walker!

I phoned Mum and asked her if the name Asar Zora meant anything to her and she screamed down the phone to me that it was the name of her grandmother. She was so excited I had the name at last I was nearly tempted not to tell her at that moment about the birth certificate for fear she would have a heart attack. Choking back tears I did tell her though and her joy was staggering, a moment neither of us will ever forget.

When I calmed down, recovered my mental composure and chilled for a couple of days basking in the glory of my success, something dawned on me. Nearly everything Mum had told me had been proved to be correct:

• That Maggie was born in Epsom;
• That Maggie had lived in a workhouse;
• That Maggie had a sister called Amelia who was also in the workhouse;
• That Maggie’s mother was called something similar to Asar Zora;
• That Maggie had a brother called George – yet to be proved but I now believe in his existence;
• That Maggie’s mother remarried a Taylor;
• That Maggie’s birth date was more or less when she said it was;
• That Maggie was unsure about her surname even though she thought it was Walker or Taylor – her mother was a Walker who became a Taylor, so maybe Maggie has an instinct about this;
• That Maggie did exist.

The only thing not proved was the bit about French ancestry, which does not look likely with surnames such as Walker and Brown. Still, you can’t have it all!

What I learned

• Never take family information for granted.
• When you have a strong gut feeling about something can you really afford to ignore it?

I received an e-mail from my FreeBMD contact that had found someone to help me get the pages of births I required; I e-mailed back thanking him and informing him of my good news.

December 2001. One journey over but another just begun

What joy it was to enter December, knowing I had just given my mum the best Christmas present in the world: Maggie Brown alias Walker, you little tinker! Now when I look at Maggie’s photograph I see only a mischievous smile (see figure 6.1).

I promised Brian that in December I was going to put everything to one side and not carry out any more research until January. It was the least I could do especially when he had been so supportive. Except of course for the coming Saturday!

A guilty aside: I felt I should try to find some more information on Brian’s side of the family and attempted to find the birth certificate for the mother of Amy Plummer again, Martino’s second wife. I found one certificate for a Susan Jordan and although it was in the wrong part of the country I ordered it. That certificate for Susan is incorrect as was the other one I had ordered on a whim for an unnamed male Jordan in the hope he might be a relation of Susan’s.

Back on the case the first certificate I looked for was, obviously, Maggie’s mother. I found it easily enough but the spelling of her Christian name is Asor Zoar. I also searched for George and Amelia, Maggie’s siblings. I found Amelia under the surname Brown but could not find George. I am beginning to think that George was not a brother of Maggie’s but another relative, as there was no mention of him having been at the workhouse.

I decided to try to find a marriage certificate for Asor Zoar under her surname of Walker but failed miserably, so I tried under the name of Albert Edward Brown and found one only for 1907.

The certificates arrived

The marriage certificate for Albert Edward Brown turned out to be incorrect.

Next was the birth certificate for Amelia Brown dated 20 August 1904, as per the information from Surrey History Centre. Parents Albert Brown and Add Zord (what?) formerly Walker. The father Albert registered the birth, which probably explains the spelling of Asor Zoar.

The best certificate was for Asor Zoar, as she will now be rightfully known, dated 27 February 1883. Daughter of Charles George Walker, a stationary engine driver, and Mary Ann Walker, formerly Pudvine. Pudvine! What sort of name is that? Of great interest was the address of Milk House Gate, Guildford. Brian and I used to live in Guildford.

I was straight on the phone to Mum who laughed excitedly at the name Pudvine and could not believe that I had been shopping, for several years nearly every Saturday in Guildford, walking in the footsteps of my ancestors without knowing. I had history, Mum had history, and my whole family had history – what a wonder history is, especially when it is your own.

I searched the 1881 Census and put in the name Pudvine and found only one family of that name – which was not really surprising but what a relief to be researching an unusual name again (see figure 6.2). Surely the Frederick Pudvine and family detailed were relations?

I had an e-mail from my sister Maria early in December who had carried out some research on the name Asor Zoar. It read:

I found Asor and Zoar both from the Bible as we thought. Zoar is a town that was destroyed by God, like Sodom and Gomorrah – Lot was told to leave there by God. Lot went into a cave with his two daughters who seduced him and started off the tribe of Moab (Genesis). Strangely enough on the same page I came across Asor talking about research in Moab country, supposed to be near Canaan and where Moses died. Searching further I found Asor in the Bible in Hebrew text. The Asor was believed to be a ten-stringed musical instrument in the Book of Psalms.

Well, I wonder how Asor’s parents came to choose such a name for their daughter?

I resisted the temptation to spend the whole of December at the FRC but searched the FreeBMD site and found two other Pudvines, Mary born in 1860 and Ada born in 1883. I also found a possible birth certificate for a Charles George Walker. Playing around with the spelling of the surname I found Henry Pudwine (Pudwine, even more hysterical) possibly married to an Emily Voller in 1858 in Guildford, and an Alfred Frederick Pudwine born in 1862 in Guildford.

I searched the FamilySearch site and found a Charlotte Pudvine of Worplesdon (where I also used to live), christened in 1867, daughter of Frederick Pudvine and Harriet and also another record for Edwin Pudvine of Worplesdon, christened in 1867, son of Frederick and Harriett (sic). I also had a look for Susan Jordan, Brian’s two times great grandmother and mother of Amy Plummer. I found her: Susanna Jordan born on 13 September 1835 at Melksham, parents Richard – correct father’s name – and Harriot Jordan. This find thrilled me most but it meant that Susan is not 41 as per the 1881 Census but actually 46, about ten years older than her husband William Plummer, which is why I could find no record of her birth at the FRC.

Remembering the National Burial Index CD that I had purchased I searched under the names Pudvine and Pudwine and found the following:

• Charles Pudwine, aged 22, burial date 1848, recorded in St Mary, Guildford;
• Stephanie Pudwine, aged 6 days, burial date 25 September 1835, recorded in St Peter and St Paul, Albury, Surrey;
• William Pudwine, aged 19, burial date 1848, recorded in St Mary, Guildford;
• William Pudwine, aged 53, burial date 1849, recorded in St Mary, Guildford.

These four Pudwines must be from the same family and how sad that all of them died within such a short time of each other.

Sue at work also discovered a living Pudvine – perhaps I would contact this person at some point.

I decided to order only the two Pudvine certificates for now, and the one for Charles Walker.

The certificates arrived

The first birth was for Mary Pudvine dated 1 July 1860, daughter of Frederick Pudvine, an agricultural labourer, and Harriett (sic) Pudvine, née Voller. The birth certificate for Asor Zoar has the mother recorded as Mary Ann – but because of the surname Pudvine I’m fairly confident that I now have Maggie’s grandmother on her mother’s side.

The next birth was for Ada Pudvine dated 25 May 1883, daughter of Frederick Pudvine and Maria Pudvine, formerly Webber. It seems likely that Frederick married twice as this child was born to the Frederick and Maria I found on the 1881 Census as opposed to Frederick and Harriet who are the parents of Mary above.

The last birth was for Charles George Walker dated 26 September 1860, son of Charles Walker, a railway labourer, and Ellen Walker, formerly Lee. This had to be Maggie’s grandfather but a marriage certificate was needed to check dates etc. It just dawned on me he would be on the 1881 Census – I am so slow at times.

The 1881 Census revealed the following information:

Dwelling: Milkhouse Gate, Guildford Holy Trinity, Surrey.

Ellen Walker, Head, a widow, aged 40, born in Petworth, Sussex.

Charles Walker, Son, unmarried, aged 20, occupation General Labourer, born in Guildford, Surrey.

John Walker, Son, aged 12, born in Shalford, Surrey.

Rose Walker, daughter, aged 8, born in Guildford, Surrey.

Florence Walker, daughter, aged 5, born in Guildford, Surrey.

This added information told me that Maggie’s great grandfather, Charles Walker, had died some time between the conception of his last child, Florence, and the 1881 Census taken in April of the same year.

Finally for December I looked up another Internet site I had found called The Newspaper Detectives – www.newspaperdetectives.co.uk. (I store every interesting site in my favourites). (When looking for information on the Internet just type in what it is you are looking for, i.e. newspaper archives as I did in this instance.) This site had an index of news stories from 1864, 1865 and 1866 from the Surrey Advertiser, although it now includes the year 1867. Up until this time the site was of no real help to me although it was interesting, which is why I copied it to my favourites. To my utter disbelief there was an index for Emily Pudwine dated 21 April 1866 and for another Pudwine dated 10 November 1866. They read as follows:

• 21 April 1866, Emily Pudwine, Guildford, a wife, and a policeman, assault, fined 20s;
• 10 November 1866, Pudwine, Guildford, drunk, 14 day prison.

This had to be the Emily who was married to Henry that I had found marriage details for on the FreeBMD site. I had read somewhere that in family history it is a sad family that has not at sometime had their name in the newspapers. Well, although what I found could not be classed as something to be proud of, I did not care. It both thrilled and amused me and suddenly brought two possible ancestors to life. I must try to find out how I can get copies of the full stories.

Brian and I spent Christmas with Mum and Gary, taking with us copies of the certificates and a family tree, something Mum thought she would never have – it was magic (see figure 6.3).

What I learned

• If I had failed to find Maggie then I would have been unable to research any of my family history on her side of the family beyond her marriage.
• Never again would I think of my family as unexciting.
• There are amazing coincidences when researching your family such as finding I had moved 250 miles from Liverpool, or the Wirral where my family now lives, to a place where once upon a time my ancestors had lived.
• Sometimes you have to search a source several times before you find something, i.e. the Census or, in the case of Susan Jordan, the FamilySearch site.
• Some purchases of Census or christening records on CD-Rom will not prove beneficial until further along in your research.
• Without trawling the Internet I would never have found the Newspaper Detectives website and up until now I had never thought of newspapers as a source.