Hello all, and can anyone help please?

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Hello all, and can anyone help please?

Postby ppow » Fri Sep 13, 2013 3:23 pm

Hi all,
I am hoping that someone might be able to help me with some information about Electoral Registers.
I have been searching for my Grandfather whose name was John Lee, my Grandmother called herself Mrs Lee but they were never married.
I find my Grandmother on the Electoral register between 1920 & 1927 with John Lee listed as living at the same address but I am fairly certain he was living at a different address with his wife and children.
Does anyone know how the information on the Electoral registers was collected & if it would have been possible for my grandmother just to state that her husband was living with her (even if he wasn’t) or would he have had to provide those details himself?
Thanks, Pam.
ppow
 
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Re: Hello all, and can anyone help please?

Postby AndrewA » Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:43 am

AS far as I am aware, the electoral role was compiled in the same way as today, submitting a form to local government which included all the names of people who qualified to vote.

Even if your grandfather was not living with your grandmother, it would be almost expected for a woman calling herself "Mrs Lee" to include her "husband" on the form, to avoid questions. Did Mr Lee compelet the form? we will never know, but certainly the stigma of the times certainly drove people to lie about their relationships, which is all to evident from the fact that your Grandmother went around telling everyone she was married and carrying this deception even on official documents.

This is not uncommon and just about every family researcher will come across an example of people lying about their marital status to protect thier honour of themselves and children.

I have a widow who was living in same house as a widower, she had several children by her departed husband, but the census shows 2 other children born long after the husband died, it is almost certain they are they children of the man she was living with, however the children were not given his surname but the existing family surname. Today is a different story, where you could argue sexual morality has plunged to lower levels, but liberal thinkers will say that is called social progress and advancement, where the stigma of being single parent and living as unmarried couple is not a big deal as it used to be.
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Re: Hello all, and can anyone help please?

Postby peterd » Sat Sep 14, 2013 4:46 pm

ppow wrote:Hi all,
I am hoping that someone might be able to help me with some information about Electoral Registers.
I have been searching for my Grandfather whose name was John Lee, my Grandmother called herself Mrs Lee but they were never married.
I find my Grandmother on the Electoral register between 1920 & 1927 with John Lee listed as living at the same address but I am fairly certain he was living at a different address with his wife and children.
Does anyone know how the information on the Electoral registers was collected & if it would have been possible for my grandmother just to state that her husband was living with her (even if he wasn’t) or would he have had to provide those details himself?
Thanks, Pam.


so what is your gmother surname if not lee ?
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Re: Hello all, and can anyone help please?

Postby ppow » Sat Sep 14, 2013 11:38 pm

Thank you so much for that information, that is really useful to know and pretty much confirms my suspicions.

My grandmother was Rebecca LITCHFIELD and I know she was caught out by the enumerator on the 1911 census.
When the census was taken she had just given birth to her 2nd child (the 1st had died) she had registered the child’s birth as Lily LEE naming herself as Rebecca LEE formerly LITCHFIELD.
On the front page of the 1911 census the Enumerator had initially written Mrs LEE and the crossed it out and replace it with Miss LITCHFIELD, the census records Rebecca and her daughter Lily both with the name LITCHFIELD.

I have had trouble trying to find the father of her 5 children that survived, their birth certificates all named him as John LEE, Occupation - Bedstead fitter.
There appears to be only one John Lee on the whole of the 1911 census who was a Bedstead fitter and it seems a very big coincidence to find that in 1901 he had lived in Ash Street (Sedgley) just around the corner from my grandmother who was living with her parents in Chell Street (which no longer exists) By 1911 they were both Living in Aston, John with his wife & family in Aston Lane & Rebecca with her daughter in Alma Street.

According to my Aunt (Rebecca's daughter) their father never lived with them, only visited occasionally.
At that time I believe that the John LEE on the 1911 census had returned to Sedgley with his wife and family and were living in either Hallgreen St, or possibly Caledonia St (where I think he had a business) and finally in field street where he died in 1950 as a retired Bedstead fitter.

The problem is by the time Rebecca’s children are getting married in 1936 they are recording him as deceased, with his occupation as a travelling salesman.
I have my suspicions that this was again untrue and that Rebecca had made up a story about her Husband being a travelling Salesman to in some way explain his absence from the family home and then finally told everyone that he had died.
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