Lying about age when admitted to workhouse

[saffyBoo]

Is there any reason why a women would lie about her age on workhouse admittance records? My great grandmother seems to appear from nowhere on workhouse admittance records saying she was a good few years younger than she was. The same date is on her discharge paperwork and the census later that year. Basically I can't find any other documentation for her apart from later down the line electrol rolls and a marriage certificate from much much later on. Everyone in the family always spoke about how amazing it was she lived untill 90-somthing but that wouldn't add up if you go by the date of birth on her workhouse docs. I'm really confused why she would have lied about her age

"Care of Mrs Holloway" - presumably was going into service and Mrs Holloway could have been the housekeeper or employer.

"Leaving 2 young children, chargeable, care of Miss Bandy" - could that mean her children were taken in by another woman and she paid for their keep?

Do the other lines relate to your relative OP, or to other individuals whose records are also on the page?

Looks like either Mrs Holloway or W Holloway. You can't always tell without comparing with more examples of that person's handwriting.

< gets completely sidetracked and goes off at a tangent... ponders Bandy surname, bit unusual.... mmm... looks like a local Bedfordshire name... lots of Bandys in Woburn... rather close to a big stately home, might need a lot of servants thereabouts... Dukes of Bedford had a lot of property in London as well... that might need servants too... >

@yamadori no just that line relates to her. I think it means care of workhouse Holloway. But it could mean care of Mrs Holloway? I found out that she was transferred to a workhouse in Thanet Kent then got a job as a servant in a local hotel and her baby was put in a foster home half a mile down to road. Not sure if it was a foster home but there was a women and daughters listed as looking after various infants and they listed them as "nurse child". I don't know who or how this was organised arrangement. I have so many questions it's frustrating.

Does anyone know if pregnant mothers or those who have had a baby while in the workhouse were transferred around or were they found jobs etc ?

Paupers were usually removed to their home parish, as other parishes were unhappy about having to pay for someone else's problem. If a woman was abandoned or widowed, then she could be sent to her husband's home parish, which often meant being sent to a place she had never even been to, let alone lived in.

Was she, in fact already widowed? Had she been abandoned by her husband, maybe, or had she run away from him? If she had been married before, she might have moved to a new area and lied about her age and marital status when she got there. If she says she is 27 on the earliest record you can find her on but could be as old as 32, then it is highly likely she had already been married (and possibly even had other children). That could explain why you can't find her earlier than that. She could be under a different surname.

Any update OP. Found this thread fascinating.

I think yamadori is probably right. She was married before and was either abandoned or ran away. That would fit with her being religious and being pregnant and appearing out of nowhere.

It’s W and small o

I would think she’s been discharged to Holloway workhouse

Take a look at Holloway workhouse admissions (if they survive) and see if she was admitted

Age wasn’t as important to get correct, and unfortunately going into the workhouse wasn’t somewhere you’d knock years off to bag a husband - wh was segregated and males and females didn’t mix

If knocking the years if took your ancestor from being an adult to a child then this would be worthwhile- less harsh conditions for children

Saffy

Look in the workhouse minute books, for both workhouses, as it may be minutes why your ancestor was moved

"Leaving 2 young children, chargeable, care of Miss Bandy" - could that mean her children were taken in by another woman and she paid for their keep?

It’s three separate people in the discharge book

One going to Holloway workhouse
The next person / possibly discharged and leaving two children behind
Third person to care of Mrs bandy

It’s a great big ledger with lines going across and each person got a line - op has taken a screen shot and cropped the photo

It wouldn't have been unusual for people to not actually know their date of birth, it may have been an honest mistake.

If you know the workhouses involved, there is a fascinating website here www.workhouses.org.uk/Islington/ that will give you more information on them.

Hello, thanks for all the posts on here. I don't know where to start.....

This is a major mystery to me because I did a DNA test and it came back with a very surprising result and having traced my family back on every other branch so to speak this is the last piece of my puzzle so to speak.

I always thought she must have been married before but when I cross reference her first name and married second name I don't find anything that's a solid connection. On the workhouses documents it says she's Roman Catholic and my mum remembers (from when she was very little) her great grandmother being extremely religious. That makes me think that someone who's so religious would have been married at 32 and probably not had a baby out of wedlock but I can't find any info to support this.

The Kent workhouse documents aren't online so I emailed the Kent archive where they are kept and the person who emailed back confirmed that she would have been sent to Kent for a reason I.e. connection somewhere. Listed as her birthplace on all documents I can find it says Poplar London, on all censuses, workhouse records etc. Also the Kent archives can get me the documents for a small fee so I have filled out the relevant forms to get The Kent workhouse forms. I also need to get the governor minutes from the Islington workhouse. Apparently in those minutes recorded by the workhouse governors will be the reason why she went to Kent.

On the workhouse documents and the census in 1911 it says she's single. Although it seems given everything I think she actually might have been a single pregnant servant.

Have you considered that she may have been raped and that's why she ended up pregnant? Droit de seigneur I think was the term when the men of the house felt they were entitled to have their wicked way with any of the servants?

My Nan (born in the 1880’s) was always unclear about her age - always claimed to be younger than she was. Not sure that registration was as accurate back in the day...

Where are the records to say that this woman was in service before getting pregnant?

ivykaty44 her profession was listed as servant on the workhouses documents

@poshpenny yes that did cross my mind, regarding the address she listed as a previous address on the workhouses docs when I searched that I found press clippings advertising the dwellings as flats for professional or married couples not sure if they would have been grand enough for a servant? They were two bed places.

Saffy it was regular to have a domestic servant but not all lived in, a bit like many have cleaners today many had doestic servants

How's your research going op?