I also had an address of albert cottages, brougham street (attached). As this is where the 3 girls went I thought he may have took lodging close by. I have received a response from Sisters of Mercy (see below) and shows that they were admitted on 7th October 1912. But then this admission date is before Georges death in 1912. Unfortunately there is no further information from the Sisters of Mercy to say why the girls were admitted or where they went afterwards.
[FONT=&] In terms of specifics, I've consulted our original register relating to admission and discharge of children from St Joseph's [Union Sisters of Mercy archive ref GB1841/1/200/8/13]. I've found the following listed:[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Name Age Admitted[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Wheeler, Florence 11 October 7th 1912[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Wheeler, Doris 10 " " [/FONT] [FONT=&]Wheeler, Nellie 7 " "[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Unfortunately there is no further information as to why they were admitted or even when they were discharged. These names and dates seem to fit with those you provided, except for the name of your grandmother - was she sometimes called 'Nellie'?[/FONT]
[FONT=&]Just to give you an idea of St Joseph's Home at this time, according to the paperwork of the Sisters, in June 1912 they had 101 children in the Home - 79 of these were from Boards of Guardians (mostly Birmingham but some Stourbridge, Worcester, Litchfield, Cardiff and Oxford). 22 of the children were not from the Guardians so presumably in these cases there was some kind of private arrangement come to between perhaps the families and the Sisters or through a priest. It is not clear what the situation was with the Wheelers, however if they did come to St Joseph's through the Boards of Guardians, it might be worth contacting Birmingham Archives to see if they have any relevant Boards of Guardians papers for Birmingham at this time that might give an indication of the circumstances of the Wheeler children before and/or after their time at St Joseph's. [/FONT]
Thinking back, I think that my Nan (Ellen) was sometimes referred to as Nellie or Nell. However, even more puzzling is that on her marriage certificate is says Helen.
On Florences marriage certificate it does not state that George is 'deceased' either. Not sure that this is relevant.
Your help is fantastic in unraveling this.
Jane