1891 census lookup request

[pownek]

I am searching for Ethel Edith BIRD - born around 1883 in either Suffolk or Norfolk. Any help would be appreciated.

[Geoffers]

I am searching for Ethel Edith BIRD - born around 1883 in either Suffolk or Norfolk. Any help would be appreciated.This is rather a wide search area. Can you narrow it down at all?

For example, does she show up on the 1901 census with a birthplace?

Do you have a marriage certificaet for her with her father's name and occupation?

Have you tried the ancestry website, a pay to view site where the 1891 census is available?

There is a surname index to the 1891 Norfolk census.
http://apling.freeservers.com/CensusInfo.htm
If you can tie down the birthplace and so where she may have been living, you may find an entry for a Bird on there - in which case, you can request the indexer to look up the entry on the census.

Geoffers

[revdfg]

1891: Search for Ethel Bird, Norfolk
Bird, Ethel 6 Banham, Norfolk Daughter Banham Norfolk
Bird, Ethel E L 3 Norwich, Norfolk Daughter St Clement Norfolk
Bird, Ethel F 2 Shouldham, Norfolk Daughter Marham Norfolk
Bird, Ethel M 7 Cley, Norfolk Daughter Cley next the Sea Norfolk
Bird, Ethel M 8 Honingham, Norfolk Daughter East Tuddenham Norfolk
Bird, Ethel M 6 Norwich, Norfolk Daughter Norwich Norfolk


1891 Search for Ethel Bird, Suffolk
Bird, Ethel 7 Beccles, Suffolk Daughter Beccles Suffolk
Bird, Ethel 2 Ipswich, Suffolk Daughter St Helen Suffolk
Bird, Ethel 1 Stanstead, Suffolk Daughter Stanstead Suffolk
Bird, Ethel 19 Redhill, Surrey Daughter Stowmarket Suffolk
Bird, Ethel A 8 Buxhall, Suffolk Daughter Buxhall Suffolk
Bird, Ethel A 2/12 Ipswich, Suffolk Daughter St Peter Suffolk
Bird, Ethel F 9/12 Blythburgh, Suffolk Daughter Blythburgh Suffolk
Bird, Ethel M 15 Lowestoft, Suffolk Daughter Kirkley Suffolk
Bird, Ethel M 8 Ipswich, Suffolk Daughter St Nicholas Suffolk

Needs more clues to pin this one down.

[revdfg]

The sweep of Suffolk and Norfolk 1891 found only one Ethel E Bird. The middle name might just be Ellen.

69 Bakers Road, St Clement, Norwich
Arthur Bird, Head, 25, Clerk
Ellen M Bird, Wife, 26
Ethel E L Bird, daughter, 3
all born Norwich.

The age of Ethel E L is not quite what you thought but the E could well be for Ellen after the mother.

But any of the plain Ethel Birds in the Norwich and Suffolk lists COULD be Ethel Ellen.

As before. More clues needed.

[pownek]

Thanks so much for your info. Ethel Edith BIRD is my grandmother - I remember her well. She died in 1956. She had five children - the first born 1913, the last in 1922, but I haven't been able to find her marriage certificate through 1837 online search from 1901-1915. The only reference I have is a marriage of Ethel Edith Bird in 1909 in Barnet to, I think, a Frederick Bell. My grandfather, Ethel's 'husband' whom I also knew well, Richard George Cummings, died in 1959. I have managed to trace him back to 1810 but Ethel Bird, well, so far I can't find a marriage cert for them. Perhaps she IS the girl who married Frederick Bell in 1909 and later 'joined up' with my grandfather and never married him. Perhaps I need to search 1837 online for as far forward from 1913 as I can. I know that her mother worked as a servant at Woodbastwick Hall, Norfolk, fell pregnant and was 'married off to a labourer' before my grandmother was born. A familiar story! Ethel was 72 when she died on March 29 1956. On all the birth certs of her children she gave her maiden name of BIRD. Without a marriage cert I can't move backwards with her. The key of course is her marriage cert. I continue to look for that, if it exists, and thank you for your assistance. Somewhere in the references for, probably Norfolk, she appears - I'll find her hopefully!

[Geoffers]

Ethel Edith BIRD is my grandmother...She had five children - the first born 1913, the last in 1922, but I haven't been able to find her marriage certificate through 1837 online search from 1901-1915.
Is the birth of the child in 1913 under the name CUMMIN(G)(S) and if so, what is the mother's maiden name in the GRO index?


The only reference I have is a marriage of Ethel Edith Bird in 1909 in Barnet to, I think, a Frederick Bell. My grandfather, Ethel's 'husband' whom I also knew well, Richard George Cummings,
Have you been able to find a CUMMINGS - BELL marriage post 1909?


I know that her mother worked as a servant at Woodbastwick Hall, Norfolk, fell pregnant and was 'married off to a labourer' before my grandmother was born.
So is BIRD her mother's maiden name or married name? Do you know her mother's and (father?)'s names and if so have you tried searching the GRO index for a birth for Ethel Edith around 1883? I take it the year of birth is estimated from the age at death?

Also, going back to the point in my first message, have you been able to identify her in teh 1901 census?

Geoffers

[pownek]

thank you, Geoffers, for the time you took to respond to my very muddled message.

Ethel Edith put maiden name as BIRD on all births of her children - surnames CUMMINGS from 1913 - 1922. I have trawled the 1837online images for her marriage to my grandfather Richard George Cummings from 1903-1920 and can't find it anywhere. The only marriage I found for an Ethel Edith Bird was in 1909, but it was to a Frederick Bell. I found no marriage entry for Richard George Cummings either. I just wondered if maybe she is the same person and didn't marry my grandfather but just took his name. I don't suppose divorce was a practical option then for most. I will probably continue searching for her marriage to Richard George Cummings on the IGI at a later date. I'm told Ethel's mother fell pregnant whilst in service at Woodbastwick Hall in Norfolk and was 'married off' to a farm labourer. I'm not sure if the surname BIRD is the maiden name or married name of her mother. If Ethel and Richard never married, they kept schtum about it no doubt! I've been successful in my research on Richard Cummings but would have loved to have been able to pursue more on Ethel Edith - their marriage certificate would have named her 'father' perhaps and I could have moved back from there.
pownek