6 May 2009

Crime & Sweet Shops

Never mind birthdays, today I made a most interesting find . . . .

I was on this website Victorian Crime and Punishment from E2BN idling entering surnames from my main file when I found an Isaac Langford.

Exactly the same age as my great-grandfather, the place of committal (Ely) was in the right area and this chap was up before the beak for deserting his children (isn't that what the CSA is for now?). Funnily enough, great-gramps also did a runner after his wife died and that's why the youngest children are in Ely.

So, I've scheduled a trip to the local library to look in the Ely Standard for the time to see if I can find anything. I'm pretty sure that it's my Isaac so maybe his sister, who was looking after the littlests, was able to get him charged.

He was found guilty and sentenced to 2 months hard labour. Stay tuned for more information!

That got me looking at his family and I focused on the two daughters who went/were sent to Nottingham. Ellen married Ernest Webster in 1900 and I found them on the 1911 census in the town, with five of their children; they had already lost their eldest at the age of two and had another couple before 1916. Ernest was a baker who was to die in 1921 and Ellen was listed as a Lace Hand. Although I could be accused of leaping to conclusions, I checked for the births of their offspring and was able to identify them by their middle names - the first three I found had their great-grandfather, grandfather & grandmother's names respectively. I wonder if that counts as one of the genealogist's proofs?

And then there's Ellen's younger sister Lilian, also in Nottingham, who went on to marry William Brittle, a lace maker, in 1905 and together they produced twelve (yep, twelve) children over the next 17 years. Their eldest was born . . . . er, a little early but, hey, who's counting? And their youngest, Thomas, in 1922.

All I really knew about Lilian was that she lived in Little John street in Nottingham and ran a sweet shop - and there she is in Little John street in 1911. Good to have a family story confirmed, eh?

More soon.


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