Poor Little Philip Drew
Family research can reveal some sad, but unusual, things.
Before I 'met' Chris, I had discovered from census data that my great-great uncle John Drew had two daughters, Annie Mary (1881 census) and Jane (1891 census). A quick search through FreeBMD revealed that Annie Mary had died in 1887. Chris was not aware that her Nan, Jane, had a sister, which is not surprising as Annie Mary had died when Jane was less than a year old. But Chris was sure that her Nan had memories of a mysterious brother named Philip. So where was he in the 1891 Census?
Widening the search out of London picked up a Philip Drew residing in the Darenth Asylum and School in Kent. Even though the age had been obscured, and place of birth recorded as 'Unknown', the age looked as if it was either 8 or 6. Using these ages to search FreeBMD births gave a Philip Drew born in Pancras June Quarter 1883, which accorded well with the location of John Drew and family at that time. Even though the Darenth Asylum and School, from what I can gather from published info on the internet, was a relatively enlightened place for the times the strictures of the census enumeration process caused Philip to be given the Occupation of "imbecile". We can only guess as to what this really means; brain damage at birth, Down Syndrome, or Cerebral Palsy are the most likely conditions he might have suffered.
The only other real possibility (the 1885 Philip Drew), when checked on the 1891 census, appeared to be still with his parents.
It didn't take long to come up with a death of a Philip Drew in March Quarter 1894 in Darenth, Dartford, Kent. So, Jane would have just turned 7 when Philip passed away.
I suppose the lesson here is that we should not discount the family oral history even if it appears fanciful or unsupported by 'facts'. We just haven't checked out all the possibilities. The other lesson is that people don't always appear on the census where we think they should be.
And some never appear on a census - Arnold Drew, John Drew's brother, was born and died between the 1841 and 1851 Census. And, to make matters worse, his mother married and died in that same time span. This latter occurrence had me most confused (for a while) as to who was really my great-great grandmother!
Before I 'met' Chris, I had discovered from census data that my great-great uncle John Drew had two daughters, Annie Mary (1881 census) and Jane (1891 census). A quick search through FreeBMD revealed that Annie Mary had died in 1887. Chris was not aware that her Nan, Jane, had a sister, which is not surprising as Annie Mary had died when Jane was less than a year old. But Chris was sure that her Nan had memories of a mysterious brother named Philip. So where was he in the 1891 Census?
Widening the search out of London picked up a Philip Drew residing in the Darenth Asylum and School in Kent. Even though the age had been obscured, and place of birth recorded as 'Unknown', the age looked as if it was either 8 or 6. Using these ages to search FreeBMD births gave a Philip Drew born in Pancras June Quarter 1883, which accorded well with the location of John Drew and family at that time. Even though the Darenth Asylum and School, from what I can gather from published info on the internet, was a relatively enlightened place for the times the strictures of the census enumeration process caused Philip to be given the Occupation of "imbecile". We can only guess as to what this really means; brain damage at birth, Down Syndrome, or Cerebral Palsy are the most likely conditions he might have suffered.
The only other real possibility (the 1885 Philip Drew), when checked on the 1891 census, appeared to be still with his parents.
It didn't take long to come up with a death of a Philip Drew in March Quarter 1894 in Darenth, Dartford, Kent. So, Jane would have just turned 7 when Philip passed away.
I suppose the lesson here is that we should not discount the family oral history even if it appears fanciful or unsupported by 'facts'. We just haven't checked out all the possibilities. The other lesson is that people don't always appear on the census where we think they should be.
And some never appear on a census - Arnold Drew, John Drew's brother, was born and died between the 1841 and 1851 Census. And, to make matters worse, his mother married and died in that same time span. This latter occurrence had me most confused (for a while) as to who was really my great-great grandmother!
posted by Geoff_D @ 12:57 pm
1 Comments:
At 9:01 am,
Geoff_D said…
Speaking of people not showing up on the Census. I have been looking through the images of the 1841 and 1851 for Mousehole and Newlyn, and I have noted that a lot of household records start with a female with the occupation "Wife of Fisherman". Note that it says "wife", not "widow". This seems to indicate that the male head of household was out fishing when the enumerator came around, so searching for his name in a transcription index will probably come up with a blank. Better to search for the wife (if known) or a child (if known). I now download the census images and do my own transcriptions.
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