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Institutions for pregnant women

  • Thread starter Thread starter quaysidegirl
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quaysidegirl

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Hello guys
Could anybody help me please. My g-g-g-grandma was pregnant with her first child, and her husband had been sent to prison for 1 years hard labour, he died 6 months into his sentence.
My question is this, do you think that she would have been sent to a workhouse?
If so, which one. The address she gave when she gave birth was Keats or Kents Building, Lodge Road, Hockly or Hockby, Birmingham. At the time of the birth her husband was in Stafford Gaol and still alive.
I cannot find any info on the address she gave as her residence, does anybody know if there was a workhouse at that address?
Many thanks in advance.
Sandra:)
 
opps, I guess that would help alot....LOL
The child was Henry Walter Smart and he was born in may, 31st 1867. George, the father, died in prison in September 23rd 1867.
Mum was Elizabeth, so the year is 1867.
Thanks for replying gypsysue.
Sandra
 
Hi, Sandra!

I have some copies of Ordinance Survey maps from 1904 which show a massive workhouse (also a Fever Hospital, a Lunatic Asylum and Winson Green prison all next to one another) in the area probably about a mile away from Lodge Road (there is a large cemetery called Lodge Hill Cemetery) and if she had no family to take her in she may well have ended up in the workhouse but you must realise that many people ended up there for many different reasons and usually didn't spend too long there. Perhaps your next port of call would be to view the 1871 census?

Also let me tell you that the spelling is Hockley and it is the 'Jewellery Quarter' of Birmingham where there has been a lot of money spent renovating the buildings over the last few years. There are hundreds of small jewellery manufacturing units/shops most of them existing when your ancestor was alive, where you can now actually take your own jewellery design and they will make it up for you. Even more recently it has become very much one of the sought after areas to live - how things turn around!

Good Luck hunting!
 
Thanks for your help gypsysue.
I have had no luck with any of the later census. Elizabeth seems to dissapear. Her son turns up on the 1871 census with her father in Gloucester, and he brought him up.
This is why I was interested in finding out about her address when she gave birth.
She either died shortly after the birth or abandoned her son with her father and got remarried. However, I have been unable to locate a death cert for her.
I have been stuck on this for a lot of years and seem to have exhausted my lines.
Sandra
 
Yes, I see what you mean.....

Two things come to mind....either like you said she got married again and perhaps the new hubby would not take care of the infant or maybe she simply thought the child would have a better life with it's granddad....or she died say in childbirth and the person who 'informed' of the death got the details wrong. It seems she may have been alone and a long way from home. She would have given birth at her lodgings and if she had died there they would only have the scant information she had given. ( Example: the neighbour 'informed' the doctor at my gggranddad's death and got his name wrong.) But then how did the child get to her father???

Have you looked through the marriages for a second marriage under her maiden and her first married name?

It's a shame to get so far with her only to lose her again.....
 
she actually gave birth at the lying in hospital, which I believe was in Broad street, later changing to the childrens hospital. She was the informant on the birth cert, so I know she did not die straight away, and as for looking on the marriage certs, there are an awful lot of Elizabeth Smarts married, and her maiden name being Cooke, well, what can I say. Escpecially as I have no idea when she gave the child to her father.
I was hoping for a clue in her address when she gave birth.
Thanks very much for your time, I really do appreciate the extra thoughts you have had.
 
Ah! The lying in hospital! A lot of women still did not go to the hospitals as there was more chance of you dying there than at home!!

Oh, well, good luck in your search and something will pop up when you least expect it!
 
Thank you gypsysue.
You sound as if you know about the lying in hospital, do you have any info other than what I had?
 
Hi there,in 1861 there was a Kent Buildings,Lodge Rd,All Saints district.By 1871 I think it had been renamed Kent Terrace.It was situated near to Woodland Place,Lodge Rd.
 
Take a look at this site - it gives lots of information about the hospitals and workhouses in Birmingham. Scroll down to the picture at the bottom and click on the link to more photos - go to the picture Ref No 101117s1 and it shows Lodge Road and the layout of the hospital, workhouse, etc.

https://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/england/warks/birmingham_union_workhouse.htm

You will also see Aberdeen Street in image Ref No. 101118s1 where, co-incidentally, I lived as a child!
 
Hello - I can't tell you where she may have gone only that she would probably have gone to a workhouse. My G Grandmother was pregnant with her third child and because of abuse at home left to go to Bromsgrove Workhouse to have her child, my Grandfather. I understand workhouses often took in pregnant Mothers in dire circumstances.
 
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