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Insititute for Friendless Girls, 206 St Vincent Str, Ladywood

F

Frank come

master brummie
Can any one help with any information re the above home. I am researching my neighbours family history. A distant relative, Bertha Fanny Davis (b1873 in Tewkesbury) is shown at this home in the 1891 census. Ten years earlier she was living with her family in Highgate Street, Balsall Heath.
I believe the home is for young unmarried mothers, prostitutes etc.
Following the 1891 census I can find no trace of her whatsoever.
Frank M
 
i cant find her after the 1891 at the min...what makes you think its a home for unmarried mothers and prostitutes...will keep searching

lyn
 
I think possibly the census enumerator got the number wrong.The 1892 Kellys lists 206 as a coal merchant,, but 220 as The Association for the Care of Friendless Girls . The attached map shows 206 as a building with a yard, next to Ladywood House . In the 1888 Kellys Ladywood House is lsited as 218. The plot would cover several plot numbers, so it is reasonable to think that 218 and 220 are the same. So the census (and Pedro's) report refer to Ladywood house

map ,c1889 showing 206 St Vincent St.jpg
 
Thanks to everyone for their help. Pedro's report explains a lot. It appears to be a well meaning and caring organisation without a man is sight.
I've had another look at the census and it shows 14 girls present at the home. Their places of birth included: Oxford, Northampton, Rhyl, Worcester, and Leicester.
I will now have to find out if any of the Home's records still exist. It would be nice to find out how Bertha came to be there, and where she went to afterwards.
 
berthas parents richard and emma were certainly still around on the 1901 census..living at 198 conybere st with 3 of their children and richard and emma are still at the same address on the 1911 no children at home
 
Astoness said:
berthas parents richard and emma were certainly still around on the 1901 census..living at 198 conybere st with 3 of their children and richard and emma are still at the same address on the 1911 no children at home
Click to expand...
Yes, the last of their children would have been 34 yrs
 
Just out of interest sister Kate (5) in 1881 was born in Birmingham, but Bertha (8) in Tewksbury. So the family must have moved to Birmingham between 1873 and 1876.
 
In 1877 there was a grant of an out-door licence to a Richard Davis, carpenter, of 76, Highgate Street !
 
So father Richard did not hold the same views on temperance as the Association for Friendless Girls.
 
Pedrocut said:
In 1877 there was a grant of an out-door licence to a Richard Davis, carpenter, of 76, Highgate Street !
Click to expand...
Thanks Pedro, Richard Davis was Bertha's father and the 1881 census shows him as a carpenter and beer retailer at 76 Highgate Str. I think he must have moved around the Midlands to get work. In 1871 they were in Tewkesbury and their children were born in Gloucester, Radnorshire, and Hereford. Your quite right they probably came to Brum between 1873 and 1876
 
As Richard arrived in Birmingham somewhere between 1873 and 1876, and knowing that he was a carpenter, I checked in the Newspaper Archives for Birmingham around that time and it came up trumps. He only gets a mention because of the licence.

I wonder why the family didn’t look after poor Bertha ?
 
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Frank come said:
Thanks to everyone for their help. Pedro's report explains a lot. It appears to be a well meaning and caring organisation without a man is sight.
I've had another look at the census and it shows 14 girls present at the home. Their places of birth included: Oxford, Northampton, Rhyl, Worcester, and Leicester.
I will now have to find out if any of the Home's records still exist. It would be nice to find out how Bertha came to be there, and where she went to afterwards.
Click to expand...
"...It would be nice to find out how Bertha came to be there, and where she went to afterwards."

You may already know this by now Frank, but this is what happened to Bertha after 1891:--

In 1894, she supposedly married 26/27-year-old hairdresser Francis Joseph THOMPSON although no record of the marriage has ever been found. However, she and Francis lived together as man and wife until her premature death in 1913, aged forty.
It seems that Francis had rescued poor Bertha from her plight and no doubt became her knight in shining armour! They had no children, and lived at 93 Saltley Road, Aston (source 1901 and 1911 censuses). In 1914, the year after Bertha died (of bone cancer), Francis married for a second time, to twenty-nine-year-old spinster and neighbour, Emma Jones, fifteen years his junior.

1901 Census RG13/2869, Folio 121, Page 18, Schedule 236
1911 Census Reg District No: 385, Sub-reg District: Duddeston, Enumeration District: 11, Piece: 18241, Schedule 9

Francis Thompson (1867-1942) was a nephew of my great grandmother, Sarah Ann Thompson (1848-1924).
All the best: John Ball
 
JLB said:
"...It would be nice to find out how Bertha came to be there, and where she went to afterwards."

You may already know this by now Frank, but this is what happened to Bertha after 1891:--

In 1894, she supposedly married 26/27-year-old hairdresser Francis Joseph THOMPSON although no record of the marriage has ever been found. However, she and Francis lived together as man and wife until her premature death in 1913, aged forty.
It seems that Francis had rescued poor Bertha from her plight and no doubt became her knight in shining armour! They had no children, and lived at 93 Saltley Road, Aston (source 1901 and 1911 censuses). In 1914, the year after Bertha died (of bone cancer), Francis married for a second time, to twenty-nine-year-old spinster and neighbour, Emma Jones, fifteen years his junior.

1901 Census RG13/2869, Folio 121, Page 18, Schedule 236
1911 Census Reg District No: 385, Sub-reg District: Duddeston, Enumeration District: 11, Piece: 18241, Schedule 9

Francis Thompson (1867-1942) was a nephew of my great grandmother, Sarah Ann Thompson (1848-1924).
All the best: John Ball
Click to expand...
Hello John, I'd almost forgotten about this thread and nearly a year to the date of the last entry you come up with the last piece in Bertha's jigsaw. This is the great thing about BHF, never say never. My neighbour is away this week and she'll be amazed when I show her this on her return.
Thanks for your help,
Frank
 
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