Find Ancestors

I'm trying to find my mothers aunt - Mary Lee born around 1923 - 1927 in Hampshire or Wiltshire.She lived in Andover with her parents Frederick and Elsie Lee and older sister Marjorie (1913).She had 2 more older sisters Alice and Lily E (1917) but not much is known about them. Alice was my mothers mother but she left Fred and Elsie to bring my mother up as their own.Mary was only a few years older than mum and they grew up as sisters.They lived for a while in St. Maryborne in a thatched tied cottage then moved to The Crescent in Andover where they stayed until the early 50's.

Mum thinks that Mary married someone called Broom from Southampton and they lived in Andover and had 2 or 3 children and mum remembers one of the boys having red hair. Mary had long black hair and Mum remembers her getting it caught in a machine at work but doesn't now where it was. She might have worked in The Linger Longer Cafe in Andover.Marjorie worked as a cook in Andover hospital and mum worked as bench hand printer and at the local jam factory. They used to go to the Saturday dances at the Guild Hall in Andover where the girls used to meet soldiers from Tidworth army base.

Elsie's maiden name was Lovelock and I know her dob and marriage to fred. Fred is another mystery - He was a boxer known as Tansey Lee in London where he worked whilst living in Andover and where he was also badly injured in the 1st world war. Tansey is apparently a name given to an Irish gypsy so his parents could have been Irish but he was a Londoner according to mum. His fathers name we think was Matthew and thats all we know of Fred except that because of his injuries from the war he had a metal plate in his head which gave him terrible mood swings.

As far as I know,Mary stayed in Andover.Fred and Elsie lived in T he Crescent until their deaths in the mid 1950's and mum and Marjorie moved to Yorkshire. If anyone has any information on Mary or the Lee family please contact me - It would be wonderful to find out for Great auntie Marj - now 95 yrs old and mum.

Here's hoping

Rosie

Your best bet is probably to sit tight for a few weeks or months while FreeBMD catches up with transcribing births.

http://www.freebmd.org.uk

If you search now for Lee births with mother Lovelock, you will get Marjorie and Lily, but no more.

Once the people you are interested in are transcribed, you will have the info you need to order their birth certificates. The certificates will give you their exact date of birth.

If they have died since 1984, it is possible to search that death index at Ancestry using only given name(s) and date of birth. Sometimes a married woman's death can be identified that way even without knowing what her married surname was.

Of course if Mary is still living, as you hope, this would not find her. But if she has died, you might find the date and place and her surname, and could look for her family members with that info. Newspaper obituaries, on microfilm at local libraries, can provide a wealth of information.

Be patient for a bit, is probably the best strategy!

Or you could take out a 14-day free trial at Ancestry and search through the birth records for the 1920s (you have to download at least one page for each quarter of each year and read the list of names).

If you do that, and I do recommend it, this is the direct link for the search page you need:

http://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=8964

no mary lee born 1923-27 with mmn lovelock

May has replied to a PM, with thanks for this info.

Re the next census, May:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/156.htm

Starting in 2009, as I understand it. If a 1911 address is known, most information can be obtained now:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/1911census/

£45 per address search