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On behalf of a friend in Canada, hoping to locate Pamela (nee)Reeves, daughter of the late Macdonald Sidney Bennett Reeves, or any family connected with her.
A photo suggests that she was born early in 1954. Her mother’s name was Marjorie and there is a possible birth connection with Tonbridge or the Kent area. The only Pamela Reeves whom we can find, with a mother named Marjorie, was born in 1948. Thank you!

Here's the marriage:

Marriages Sep 1939
Reeves Macdonald S B Williams Tonbridge 2a 5089
Williams Marjorie E A Reeves Tonbridge 2a 5089

From this site:

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl


Rose

Possible daughter born in 1943.

Rose

With Marjorie born in 1906, seems unlikely there was a child born in 1954.

Deaths Dec 1973 (>99%)
REEVES MARJORIE ELEANOR A 2OC1906 TONBRIDGE 5F 2175

Rose

Births Dec 1906
Williams Marjorie Eleanor A Strood 2a 673

Rose

1939 register

Reeves Household (3 People)
207 Cemetery Road , Cannock U.D., Staffordshire, England

First name(s) Last name(s) DOB Sex Occupation Marital status Schedule Schedule Sub Number
Marjorie E A Reeves 25 Oct 1906 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Married 4 2
Elizabeth K Reeves 02 Dec 1882 Female Unpaid Domestic Duties Widowed 4 1
Macdonald S B Reeves 29 Jul 1913 Male RAF, L.A.C, No 6, S Of TT, No 522816 Married 4 3

The 1948 Pamela has the wrong mother's maiden name. Might she have been adopted or fostered within the family? Although unlikely for a child to be born to a mother aged 42, it is possible.

MacDonald remarried in 1977. His 2nd wife was NOT a Marjorie even if you were to consider she might have had a different maiden name to the one she married under.

MacDonald's death
MACDONALD SIDNEY B
Last name REEVES
Gender Male
Birth day 29
Birth month 7
Birth year 1913
Age -
Death quarter 1
Death year 2004
District EASTBOURNE
District number 454/1
Register number A89E
Entry number 154
Date of registration mm/yy 0104

His Estate went to Probate - you might want to purchase a copy for £10 to see if he named his children and gave their married names.
https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

Surname REEVES
First name MACDONALD SIDNEY BENNETT
Date of probate 04 February 2004
Probate number 1428324
Date of death 08 January 2004
Document type Grant and will
Registry Brighton

His second wife survived him until at least 2006 being the last date she appeared on the Electoral Roll

Marjorie also left a Will

REEVES Marjorie Eleanor Amy of 27 Quarry Hill Rd Tonbridge died 27 Nov 1973. Probate London 1 April (1974)

Although it’s likely that all of her Estate was left to her husband, there’s the outside chance that she may have made individual bequests to other family members.

Order from the same probate site, but make sure you select the tab labelled
Wills and Probate 1958-1996 and type the year of death as 1974. Before 1996 the calendar is arranged by the year Probate was granted rather than year of death.

Thank you very much indeed Rose and DetEcTive for all the extremely helpful information. I need to study what you’ve found now and make sense of it. From what you say it’s apparent that Macdonald’s first wife Marjorie Williams may have been too old to have been Pamela’s natural mother, so we could be looking at adoption. The baby photo now seems to be a red herring and finding Pamela has just got a whole lead more interesting, and complicated! Thanks especially for the information on the Wills and how to obtain these as they may well have further information. I now have plenty more things to consider, due to your kind help. Thanks again. Janey

Don't completely rule out the possibility that Marjorie was her natural mother. After all, Cherie Blair (wife of ex UK Primeminister Tony) was in her 40s when her youngest was born.

What we are having difficulties with is finding birth reg for a Pamela Reeves, mmn Williams. No one has suggested the birth might have taken place in Scotland? Is that feasible?
Scottish BMD are held in a seperate pay-to-view site http://scotlandspeople.gov.uk/
From what more experienced users have said, it not possible to filter results by MMN.

That's correct - only births before 1855 can be search by mmn.

The only Pamela Reeves born in Scotland 1930-50 was born 1935 - so can't be their daughter.

There's a Keith who has Marjorie and the 1943 daughter in his tree on here. Try contacting him.

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/tree/index

Rose

DetEcTive, thanks for the suggestion of a possible Scottish link. With a name like Macdonald, of course that was a possibility, but I'm grateful to ArgyllGran for confirmation that this isn't the case. I'll still keep in mind that Marjorie may still have been Pamela's natural mother though. Rose, thanks for the link to Keith's family tree. I'd looked to see if there was someone with Macdonald on theirs, but hadn't considered Marjorie. I'll be following this one up very soon. Many thanks all of you for your helpful suggestions.

Re the possibility of Marjorie have a child when she was 48 -

while idly looking for the reason for Macdonald's name (couldn't find one immediately, and have given up, as not relevant to this thread), I noticed the mildly interesting fact that his mother was 45 when he was born.


Births Sep 1913 (>99%)
Reeves Macdonald S B Bennett Tonbridge 2a 1767


Marriages Dec 1912 (>99%)
Bennett Elizabeth K Reeves Tonbridge 2a 1827
Reeves Charles M Bennett Tonbridge 2a 1827


Births Mar 1868 (>99%)
BENNETT Elizabeth Kate Tunbridge 2a 573

Goodness! Thanks ArgyllGran. Surely it couldn't have been all that usual to have a child quite so late in life, and yet it could just have happened twice in this family. However, the 1943 Pamela does sound more likely so I'll contact Keith, the owner of the tree which Rose has highlighted. Many thanks for everyone's interest in this search.

I don't think having babies in their 40's was as unusual as we imagine.

I have just been looking at my tree and several of my ancestors who had large families gave birth to the youngest child in their mid-forties.

The 1939 register lists Elizabeth born in 1882.

Elizabeth K Reeves 02 Dec 1882

The image looks like 83 for her death:

Deaths Jun 1965
REEVES ELIZABETH K 63 Tonbridge 5f 800

Rose

In that case, perhaps this is her birth:

Births Sep 1881 (>99%)
BENNETT Elizabeth Kate Greenwich 1d 954

Greenwich was part of Kent until 1889.



The 1868 Elizabeth was living with her parents in 1911.
Presumably this is her death (unmarried) in 1936;
Elizabeth K Bennett
in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
Name: Elizabeth K Bennett
Birth Date: abt 1868
Date of Registration: Jun 1926
Age at Death: 58
Registration district: Tonbridge
Inferred County: Kent
Volume: 2a
Page: 912

Andysmum - that's interesting, I'll have a look at my own family tree and see how old they were on the births of the youngest children, as we also had some pretty large families. It hadn't occurred to me to look at this. Also adds weight to the theory that Pamela's mother may have been one of those thought to be in her 40s when she gave birth.

Rose & ArgyllGran, many thanks for the info regarding Macdonald's mother Kate Bennett's possible birth dates, however not sure I'll need to go back up the family tree this far. My friend is related to Macdonald's second wife, so knew of Pamela as his daughter, and would like to locate her in the hope that she's still a living relative. I'm sure the Wills must have some useful info in them, so will ask her if she wants me to obtain these. Many thanks for all the continued interest in my quest.