M
Morris Dancer
Guest
I have hit a brick wall with my gt.grandmother’s family. Her name was Mary Jane McGrath her mother was Welsh, maiden name Llewellyn who was a free lance cook and her father was a soldier who came from Waterford in Ireland. He deserted from the army and cut his face out of all the family photos and took his family from London to Birmingham changing their names to Smith. They lived in the Winson Green area. Mary Jane should have been born around 1870 but I have been unable to find her birth cert. I found a Mary Jane Mcgrath b.1871 at Hanover Sq. London, but the mother is Irish not welsh and maiden name Gothings, so I have discounted this one. She told my mother she was born at Queen Charlottes hospital, which was then at Lisson Green, Marylebone, London. She has given Marylebone as her birthplace on the 1911 census. She gave her age as 22 in 1893 at the time of her marriage to Walter Samuel Bishop, who was aged 23. But we believe she may have been older than that, as when they went to view their new home she was mistaken for Walter's mother! She was living at 2 Victoria Terrace in Heath Street, which seems to be a lodging house, and they married at St. Cuthberts. Mary Jane and Walter moved to Worcester, Shrub Hill after they married.She had a sister called Daisy who was a bit crazy (saying she had seen Christ on the cross), a brother called Fred who is supposed to have drowned (falling overboard ship) another sister who married a Mr Green and they lived in Erdington. Mary Jane told my mother that she had trained as a nurse at Guy’s hospital, then went to work as a children’s under nurse at a large house near Lancaster Gate owned by a member of the Rothchild family, before coming to Birmingham with the rest of the Mcgrath’s family and changing their names to Smith. If anyone has ever heard any family mention similar stories of the McGraths/Smiths or can suggest anything at all, I would be very grateful. :wave: