Snell/Atherton

[Xantippe]

I have been searching for years for a sister. There was a photograph of a child next to mine in our kitchen all the time I was growing up. My mother said it was my sister Mary who died. That is all the information I have. I did find a couple of photos of my mother with a child, who she said was Mary. I can find no record of her birth or death. Whist trawling the births I found a brother Bryan born in Stepney, who I remembered my Father telling me of one day and who my mother denied ever having had. I sent for the certificate and my Father had registered the birth giving my mother as being his wife. Although their marriage certificate is two years later. It was 1932 so perhaps they couldn't afford to get married. That is no big deal. I also found the record of his death as my father had said nine days after his birth. For a very short time I thought perhaps the child in the photos was Bryan, but that proved false. So I am still looking for Mary's birth. Presumably after Oct 1932 when Bryan was born and before Dec 1945 when I was born. They lived in Poplar until they were bombed out three times and then moved to North London. I was born in Guildford where my mother said she was sent to have me. I have no idea how true this is. My father was a Merchant Seaman so not a not of help as he wasn't around much. My mother was a stranger to the truth so whatever she said had to be double checked. I have searched London and Surrey but cannot find her. I did find a Jean M Snell, mother Atherton born in Finsbury. Which set my heart racing as my mother called herself Jean (not her birth name) but it turned out to be an Elsie Atherton, and in my wildest dreams I cannot imagine my mother calling herself Elsie.

I have rambled on but this one is bugging me. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Kris

[christanel]

Jean Mary Snell, mother Atherton, June 1/4 1934 District Finsbury vol 1b page 765.
If ordering certificate it is Jean M Snell.
Christina

[christanel]

I am retiring after chastising myself for not reading your post with my mind in gear.
Have you been through all the GRO records for this period?
It couldn't have been after your birth and you were too little to remember your sister?
Maybe the time frame needs to be widened at both ends?
Christina

[Thomasin]

About how old was the child in the photo? Could it possibly have been your mother's much younger sister, and not your sister at all?

I suppose your mother's real name wasn't Elsie after all?

Thomasin

[Raffaele]

Just helping. This should be done via the PM system. Hopefully she is still alive. See the AUP.

[Procat]

Just helping. This should be done via the PM system. Hopefully she is still alive. See the AUP.

Thanks for posting that reminder Raffaele.

[Xantippe]

Thanks for all the input. The child in the photo was about two and from the style of the clothing, I would say it was taken in the thirties. I have checked from 1930 to 1945. I feel the child wasn't younger than me as even though I was not particularly aware of my surroundings I would have noticed a sister and the photo was on the shelf ever since I can remember.

I have photos of my mothers younger sisters and it isn't them, my mother didn't have any sisters who were twenty some years younger than her as her mother died when she was 17 and her father didn't take up with anyone else. I have checked under her maiden name, from 1927 when she left home thinking that was the reason she left. Nothing. Also under the hyphented name she made up to add to my birth certificate perhaps she was married before she married my Father and forgot to mention it, all to no avail. When I saw a Jean Mary I got really fanciful and imagined that my mother had called herself Jean because my sister had died.Her real name was Beatrice not Elsie and she just didn't like it.

I feel I must have missed it somewhere, and it is there waiting for me. I hardly think she could have just not bothered to register it, and if that is so surely there would be a death certificate still?

[christanel]

So when your mum married she was married as Jean B Atherton?
What names were on her birth certificate? Anything other than Beatrice?
Was there a father named on the birth certificate for the Jean Mary Snell born 1934? It just seems such a coincidence for a child with the correct surnames and christian names ( in the right time frame) and that are familiar to you, to belong to another couple. I know these things do happen
Also there is only one other possible wedding between the names Snell and Atherton 1900 - 1940 and that is in Bolton and the bride is Snell not Atherton. But this is on Freebmd not all the records on GRO so could be one missing.
As for the death certificate........
Christina

[Xantippe]

Well like fool, in a fit of housekeeping which doesn't happen too often, I didn't keep the certificate, but the fathers name wasn't my Dad it was Cecil or Cedric. The co-incidence was amazing.

My mother's name at birth was Beatrice Atherton, after her mother. She is known on that side of the family as Beatty. My parents were married in Poplar in 1934. I have the certificate.

I may just have to send for the Jean Snell certificate again. See if there was something I missed the last time. Good job I'm retired I wouldn't have time to got to work and do this as well. I know which I prefer even with the brickwalls.

[christanel]

Has this one been looked at before?
Found on the dreaded Ancestry - Birth Jean Snell mother Atherton district Staines March 1/4 1937 vol 3 page 10
They have the County as Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Middlesex.
I know what you mean about retirement and what I prefer.
Christina