Brummie On Exmoor
master brummie
One of my mother's Birmingham family lines was JAMES. They arrived in Birmingham from Worcester in about 1835.
My Great Grandfather's younger brother Frank JAMES took over his father's Hairdressing shop in Congreve Street in about 1880. Later he reverted to his original profession of Lithographic artist, and the family moved to King's Norton. He and his wife Mary Jane had only 2 children, and the older child, their daughter Frances Mary JAMES married a Frenchman in King's Norton in the last quarter of 1905. I have found a very little information, but otherwise this has proved a complete dead end.
Frances Mary was born in Handsworth in July or early August 1879, and christened at Christ Church, Sparkbrook on 13 August. She lived at home with her parents and her much younger brother until she married. Her husband was Paul Marie Jean Francois HÉBERT, who was born in France in about 1883-1884 (aged 27), according to the 1911 Census.
In 1911, Frances Mary and her husband were living at 7, Woodbrooke Road, Bourneville with their 3 year-old son Paul Francis, who had been born on 23 January 1908 in Gloucester (at that point their only child). Paul Marie was a Fancy Goods Merchant working on his own account.
Frances and Paul later had 2 other children, Phyllis M G H HÉBERT in the 3rd quarter of 1911 and Philippe G in the 3rd quarter of 1914, both in King's Norton. I think there is evidence of Paul Francis and Philippe G later marrying in the UK (Paul Francis perhaps twice), and Paul Francis died in Barnet in early 1996.
However, after the 1911 Census and the birth of their 2 children, Frances Mary and Paul Marie disappear without trace, and so does Phyllis. I can find no other sign of them on any of the big Genealogy sites (Ancestry, Find my Past, Genealogist): no deaths, no remarriage; no emigration/re-emigration. I can find no sign of them in National Archives (I have found naturalisation records for another family member who married a Hungarian); I have tried Google and found no trace.
Please can anyone come up with any clues about the fate of this couple? Their apparent disappearance after 1914 suggests to me that they went somewhere else to live and that it just was not picked up. But perhaps they changed or anglicised their name during the War.
I would love to know where they went and what happened to them, and to the missing child, Phyllis.
I would also love to know what brought Paul Marie to Birmingham in the first place, and where in France he came from.
Many thanks.
Jane
My Great Grandfather's younger brother Frank JAMES took over his father's Hairdressing shop in Congreve Street in about 1880. Later he reverted to his original profession of Lithographic artist, and the family moved to King's Norton. He and his wife Mary Jane had only 2 children, and the older child, their daughter Frances Mary JAMES married a Frenchman in King's Norton in the last quarter of 1905. I have found a very little information, but otherwise this has proved a complete dead end.
Frances Mary was born in Handsworth in July or early August 1879, and christened at Christ Church, Sparkbrook on 13 August. She lived at home with her parents and her much younger brother until she married. Her husband was Paul Marie Jean Francois HÉBERT, who was born in France in about 1883-1884 (aged 27), according to the 1911 Census.
In 1911, Frances Mary and her husband were living at 7, Woodbrooke Road, Bourneville with their 3 year-old son Paul Francis, who had been born on 23 January 1908 in Gloucester (at that point their only child). Paul Marie was a Fancy Goods Merchant working on his own account.
Frances and Paul later had 2 other children, Phyllis M G H HÉBERT in the 3rd quarter of 1911 and Philippe G in the 3rd quarter of 1914, both in King's Norton. I think there is evidence of Paul Francis and Philippe G later marrying in the UK (Paul Francis perhaps twice), and Paul Francis died in Barnet in early 1996.
However, after the 1911 Census and the birth of their 2 children, Frances Mary and Paul Marie disappear without trace, and so does Phyllis. I can find no other sign of them on any of the big Genealogy sites (Ancestry, Find my Past, Genealogist): no deaths, no remarriage; no emigration/re-emigration. I can find no sign of them in National Archives (I have found naturalisation records for another family member who married a Hungarian); I have tried Google and found no trace.
Please can anyone come up with any clues about the fate of this couple? Their apparent disappearance after 1914 suggests to me that they went somewhere else to live and that it just was not picked up. But perhaps they changed or anglicised their name during the War.
I would love to know where they went and what happened to them, and to the missing child, Phyllis.
I would also love to know what brought Paul Marie to Birmingham in the first place, and where in France he came from.
Many thanks.
Jane
