1910 and great-grandmother not where she's "meant" to be as a 10 year old

[contrary13]

Recently, on a social media "local history for..." the town my mother's family stem from, a complete stranger to me posted a photograph of 3 postcards, dating back to 1910, addressed to my great-grandmother, wondering who the "Miss X" was, and what relation their author was to her (she presumed a sister). All well and good. No idea how the postcards came to be circling outside of the family, but these things happen... A distant cousin and I responded and explained some of our family's history, so that the stranger's questions were answered (primarily "Miss X"'s identity and that the author was her paternal aunt) and I said "if you ever think of parting with them, please give me first refusal" (she is going to send them to me, she says, because I'm a direct descendent of the woman to whom they were addressed - distant cousin is fine with that, as he descends from one of my great-grandmother's sisters). Everything's fine there, and I think I've made a new "friend" on the site - which is great. Complete Stranger is actually very nice and intrigued by the conundrum of these postcards, too. (She was given them by a friend when she moved to the town because they depict streets in the town during the early 20th century - and has no idea how the friend came by them, either).

However - in 1910, my great-grandmother was 10 years old. And she was moving around quite a lot as each postcard has a different address upon it. I know that two of her sisters went "into service", but when they were around 14 or 15 years old. Which was, to my understanding, "the usual age" for such a thing. My great-grandmother never spoke about, or admitted to having been "in service", herself, though - and 10 is a very young age for such a thing, surely?

We know, from the stranger's research once we got talking, that my great-grandmother was with a "Dr. Brierley" in Hereford, then she moved to Cardiff... I cannot find any trace of a "Dr. Brierley" in Hereford itself - but there is a "Dr. Edward E Brierley" living with his family in Cardiff. He had a son born in 1908, so now I'm wondering if perhaps my great-grandmother was some sort of "mother's help" - or even if she was ill, and living with this "Dr. Brierley" so that he could treat her more easily. Given that she never spoke of having left the town at all, how can I find more information? How might I find out if "Dr. Brierley" was a medical doctor - or some other sort (perhaps theological)?

My great-grandmother died in 1987, and her siblings pre-deceased her (plus there was an estrangement in the family between the distant cousin's grandmother and my great-grandmother, which makes figuring things out a little trickier - he and I only realised we were related to one another at the start of the year!). The aunt who wrote to her, from the town they'd both been born in, married and moved to Birmingham... and until a couple of years ago - I didn't even know she existed! The other 3 lines that are my genealogical lineage have been relatively easy/smooth sailing to decipher... but my great-grandmother's? Or, more specifically, my great-grandmother's life itself? Not so much...

Anyone got any ideas?

Just to clear up this point, on the 1911 census, Dr Brierley describes himself as 'physician surgeon', so yes, he was a medical doctor.

Have you managed to find your GGM, her parents or her siblings on the 1911 census?

What does 1911 census give as her address and relationship to the head of household, where was she living in 1901? Could Dr be a relation by marriage?

There are professional registers on Find My Past and National Archives.

My great-grandmother never spoke about, or admitted to having been "in service", herself, though - and 10 is a very young age for such a thing, surely?
My great grandmother went into service at 11 in about 1922 after running away from home, so it could be possible. Her home situation wasn't ideal though, with her mother living with a man my great grandmother didn't like as a 'housekeeper' (he was the father of some of the children).

Perhaps her parents were ill, and she went to stay with relatives.

Dr Brierley seems to have moved around a lot. He married an Elizabeth Maud Cooper from Birmingham, so with the Birmingham connection, perhaps she's the relation?

I think it's also important to remember the census is a snapshot of what's happening on that one night only. I found one of my family members on the 1911 census in the household of her husband's brother, at the opposite end of country to her husband and kids. In the household with the husband and kids was the wife's sister. You could easily have assumed there was a bit of wife swapping going on but it's impossible to tell.

In 1900, the minimum school leaving age was raised to 14. So a 10 year old in 1910 should have been in education. But obviously there were children flying under the radar and not attending school for whatever reason just as there are now.

In 1911, my great-grandmother was in the rural town she was born, supposedly spent her whole life in, married in, raised her family in, died in. Same for 1901, when she was a baby. It's simply this 1910 "thing" where she's moving all over the place, seemingly at a rate of knots.

Her parents ran a boarding house, so I'm now wondering if "Dr Brierley" stayed there, maybe. And perhaps my great-grandmother was ill and he took her under his wing until she was better - which might also explain why her Aunty Alice wrote to her/knew precisely where to send the postcards...

The fact that he was a medical doctor makes me feel a little better about the whole thing (no pun intended!), because otherwise the thought of my 10 year old great-grandmother being off with seemingly a complete stranger not only baffles me - it does so with unease.

That side of the family were seemingly devout to remaining in the rural setting - Aunt Alice and her husband, Alfred Perkins, were the only ones to move to Birmingham. I suspect they did so because he couldn't find work in the small town that had been their ancestral home (on both Alice and Alfred's sides) for centuries. So Dr Brierley's wife, Elizabeth Cooper, in all probability wasn't a relation - unless it was on Alfred's side. I know my great-grandmother's family was close, so it's not entirely implausible that Elizabeth Cooper or Dr Brierley were somehow connected to Alfred Perkins, my great-grandmother's uncle through marriage.

@Kowari - I don't think her family life was unhappy, per se. Chaotic, most probably, given how many children her parents had and the fact that they ran/grew up in a boarding house. Also there's the glaring fact that her parents were step-siblings, which would have raised a few eyebrows in the small town. In the 1881 Census, when her mother (so, my great-great-grandmother) was 11 years old, she was recorded as being a "daughter-in-law" to the head of the household, and living with my then 18 year old great-great-grandfather, Aunty Alice, and their parents (father and stepmother). I had no idea until very recently that the stepmother was a second wife and not Aunty Alice and my great-great-grandfather's actual mother - and yes; I have felt horrified for a long time at the possibility that an 18 year old man had somehow attached himself to an 11 year old girl and "married" her. The relief I felt when it transpired, through my distant cousin, that there were two separate mothers (both with the same first name, hence the confusion!) and the "daughter-in-law" bit meant "step-daughter"!!!

@RaspberryCoulis - this was a very rural, very agricultural town/area, so being out of education as soon as you were big enough to help with harvesting wasn't that unusual. Also they would have been expected to help in the fields with hop-picking and finding stones so that they didn't break the ploughs. The man my great-grandmother married left formal education at the age of 8, in 1909, because he was expected to help with his grandfather's dairy herd. It was "the norm" for that part of the country, as abhorant as that is to you and I. They were both so proud when my mother ended up in the town's grammar school, and when I was 7 or so and struggling (with boredom) in school, both of them gently telling me how lucky I was to have the opportunity to stay in school. This is why I was wondering if my great-grandmother had been a mother's help, or... I don't know. That's the problem. I don't know. And it's bugging me!

Thank you to everyone who replied. I have some thoughts now how to proceed.

on a tangent, thanks for this post. I didn't know "family history" was on here.

@contrary13 Off on another tangent, now that you've mentioned that her parents were step-siblings, do you think there's a possibility that there might be another person with the same name as your GGM and that would explain the discrepancy in her location. That maybe it wasn't her at all, but another family member. Have you done a whole country search using just her first name (and spelling variants)?