I really am stuck now..............

[girlandboy]

Just need a few suggestions really. Please put your thinking caps on!

I am trying to trace what happened to my great grandmother Ellen Timlock.
The last time I can trace her is from the 1911 census where she appears in Monmouthshire with her elderly mother.

According to family lore, Ellen ended up an alcoholic with melancholia, and had a nervous breakdown. Also according to family lore, she spent some years in a nursing home near Marylebone, London. Whether there is any truth in this, I don't know, but I would love to find out what happened to her eventually. I have trawled the death indices for her name with no luck.

So therefore, I am asking you to maybe suggest some avenues to go down, because frankly I can't think what to do next.

I am really stuck here.

Hiya. Did you check the records to see if she married? If yes, it might be that a death was recorded in her married name. Also, have you tried alternative spellings for the surname? Good luck!

Yes, I know she was married and had children (one being my grandad).

Her husband had a touch of the wanderlust and went abroad for a world trip taking some of the children with him. She went back to Wales and that's the last we know of her.

I have tried many variations of her name. We are quite used to the wierd and wonderful versions that it changes to!

I'm just trying to think of alternative ways to track her down. I don't want to have to wait until the 1921 census comes out.

Wow - you really have been working on this! When you checked the death indices did you also check for Scotland (Scotlands People)? I found quite a few of my rellys had gone north and they didn't show up on the England and Wales database at all. So frustrating to get so far and then get stuck - wish you all the best

have you checked the mormon records? they often keep more records from years ago than are on the normal database.

No I haven't checked any Scottish records. I'd not thought of that. I suppose I have got sidetracked by the family story that she went to London, but that may just be a story and nothing more.

Ledodgy - which Mormon records do you mean? I'll have to look into that.

The mormons dont do death - they only do baptism and marriage as it was all for religious reasons they collected all the data and their religion doesn't do the death burials.

Anyhow mormon records online stop around 1875-85 ish for the records extracted.

Look again throuugh the GRO indexes - but actually go and use the fiche in a large library or record/archive - the online GRO indexes have pages missing so it maybe the death is registered on a page that is missing or if you have only been using the databses online the record may have been missed, mistranscribed.

It may well be that she had a breakdown and ended up in an asylum - thing is asylums got full and if the one nearset home was full she may have been moved 100 - 200 miles away. Once in the asylum she may have well stayed their till her death - this could ring true with the family story of a "nursing home" in London - nursing home sounds so much better than lunatic asylum and there was stigma with such things.

First though look again for the death, then you will know where in the country she died and can take things rom there - good luck

when was ellen born?

She was born in 1868 in Llanvapley, Monmouthshire. However, during her life she lived in Marylebone, and also in Leicester.

I've so far looked through the on-line indexes (indices?!) for the years 1916-1945 with no joy, and that is taking into account different spellings of the name. I'll keep trawling through!!

Thanks for the suggestions.

So is your great grandfather William John Timlock or William Kent?

OK, William John Timlock, married Saint John The Evangelist, Charlotte Street 3 July 1887>

Ancestry are expected to have indexed all the death records up to 2005 by the end of this year, so that may turn up something.

No deaths on Scotlandspeople.

PortAndLemon - Yes my g.grandfather was William John Timlock. The reason they had the same surname is that they were first cousins.

Will keep checking Ancestry then, thanks.

Ancestry often have mistranscriptions - so however long you look for you will not find what you are looking for

I have an uncle Clive - his birth is transcribed Olive Mortimer on ancestry.

On the GRO it is indexed as Clive Mortimer - but whoever transcribed it typed in O instead of C and so inthe furture whoever trys to look for him will forever miss him on ancestry bnut would get what they want from the GRO indexes if they search through them fiche by iche.

wish you luck