A few of you here may remember me from a brief visit a couple of years ago. I seem to attack my family history in fits-and-starts with long breaks in between. And I seem to be going through an enthusiastic stage.
Last time I was here I asked for information about my Great x3 grandfather Giles Loakes, and I received some invaluable help in locating him in the 1901 census, having searched at great length with no result. You can read all about that here: viewtopic.php?f=72&t=285
I thought I'd give a bit of an update.
I have recently subscribed to Ancestry (why didn't I do this before?????) from where I have managed to add about over 100 new members of my family to my tree in the last few weeks. Anyway, I have just come across a third marriage for Giles, to one 'Honora Daley' whilst living in Bethnal Green. This one occurred about 7 months after the death of his first wife and 2 years before his marriage to his third wife. Alarm bells started ringing as soon as I found this, because the death certificate of the first wife, Hepzibah, said that the death was subject to an inquest. Sadly I have never found a copy of the coroner's report so I can only imagine the circumstances of her death. To add insult to injury, neither can I find a death record for Honora Loakes anywhere. There are, however, 17 deaths of Honora Daley between 1865 and 1920, but having no other information about her other than her father's name is Joel or Hoel I can't tell which one is the right one.
I'm beginning to wonder (and even hope) that there is something sinister afoot, but can't work out what to do next.
Can anyone suggest what my next move might be? I would be very interested to find out what happened to Honora as well as Hepzibah.
Incidentally, today I found BMD records of two one-year-old girls called Isobel Loakes, both of whom died in Bethnal Green the quarter after the death of Hepzibah. Am I related to a serial killer?
Any suggestions would be very gratefully received!
