Eleanor DAVIES or DAVIS in Oswestry

9 replies [Last post]
Eddie Orchard
Offline
Last seen: 30 weeks 6 days ago
Joined: Friday, 11-05-2012

I am trying to find out more details about my wife’s great x 4 grandmother – Eleanor DAVIES or DAVIS.

In the 1841 Census she was living in Upper Church Street, Oswestry with her daughter and son-in-law – Sarah (b. 1807 Llangedwyn, Denbighshire) and John W JONES (b. 1804 St Martins, Shropshire).

In the 1851 Census she was still living with Sarah and John and their family. She was recorded as an 84 year old widow, born in Kilham, Flintshire (around 1767) and formerly a shopkeeper.

I have only been able to find one candidate death in the Oswestry area (1856 March Oswestry vol 6a page 453). Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the correct Eleanor DAVIES. [Certificate gives Date of death as 23rd December 1855 in Pant Crickheath, aged 75 and the Wife of Nathaniel Davies a Labourer in Limestone Quarry. Informant was Elizabeth Jones of Pant Crickheath.]

Any help in finding further information about Eleanor DAVI[E]S, or pointers where I can look next, would be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Eddie Orchard, Derby

Pam Willing
Offline
Last seen: 34 weeks 5 days ago
Joined: Friday, 23-09-2011

Oswestry Library volunteers have indexed death announcements in the local newspaper, the Border Counties Advertizer. I suggest you ask the Library to check for an entry for Eleanor Davies (Davis).

 

Eddie Orchard
Offline
Last seen: 30 weeks 6 days ago
Joined: Friday, 11-05-2012

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try that.

Eddie Orchard
Offline
Last seen: 30 weeks 6 days ago
Joined: Friday, 11-05-2012

Oswestry Library have been very helpful. Unfortunately, there was no relevant information in the name index to the Oswestry Advertizer. However the library advised that the parish registers for St Oswald’s, Oswestry, contains an entry for the burial of an Eleanor Davies of Church Street on 12th April 1853, aged 80. This is of some considerable help but, as I cannot find a corresponding GRO index, I am still a long way from obtaining her death certificate. The search continues.

Michael J Hulme
Offline
Last seen: 2 hours 43 min ago
Joined: Saturday, 4-06-2011

Hello Eddie

When you said you couldn't find the GRO Index entry for the death of Eleanor DAVIES my first thought was that she might have died a short distance from home. This could include Shrewsbury (if she was in hospital) or one of the Welsh registration districts close to Oswestry in Denbighshire, Flintshire or Montgomeryshire or even Merioneth(shire).  Whilst I can't immediately see any obvious entries I suggest you try those areas again.

Casting the net even wider there is an entry for West Derby (part of Liverpool) which is not impossible but difficult to check without buying a death certificate.

You could try ordering a certificate from the local Superintendent Registrar at Shrewsbury on the basis of the information from Oswestry Library stipulating that the lady must be the correct age. It is not unknown for entries to get missed off the national index but be present in the local indexes.

Mike

david64
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 5 weeks ago
Joined: Friday, 22-07-2011

As you may know it was not cumpulsory for births and deaths to be registered until {I forget the date, I think it was in the 1870s). I've got a couple of people I can't find deaths for, though as M. Hulme states, they could be in places unexpected.

You may have better luck tracing her birth. FMP have PRs with original images for most of Flintshire to modern times:

http://goo.gl/WZpWx

Jason Arnold Key
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 37 weeks ago
Joined: Thursday, 5-04-2012

Hi Eddie, I had a look through the Davies deaths for Oswestry 1851-61 and noticed the following entry:

Lena Davies 1858 March Quarter Oswestry Volume 6a page 571.

I looked up the name Eleanor on Wikipedia and it showed that Lena is recognised as often being short for Eleanor.

Hope this proves useful!

Jason

Jason Arnold Key
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 37 weeks ago
Joined: Thursday, 5-04-2012

Could the 1853 entry be for 1858?

Jason Arnold Key
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 37 weeks ago
Joined: Thursday, 5-04-2012

Hello again. I too have an Eleanor in my family past, she is often recorded as Elinor,Helen or Ellen .

I have noticed that there is a death record for an Ellen Davies for the March quarter of 1853 in the adjacent registration district of Ellesmere, volume 6a page 563.

I also have family members from the Oswestry district but some of their B/M/D's were registered in the Ellesmere district.

Jason

Eddie Orchard
Offline
Last seen: 30 weeks 6 days ago
Joined: Friday, 11-05-2012

Thanks Mike, Jason and David,

I have been in touch with the local Superintendent Registrar in Shrewsbury, and they have been right though the Shropshire records and the local Oswestry record books to no avail. There is no death record for an Eleanor Davi[e]s that would correspond to the burial in Oswestry in 1853.

I have even tried the West Derby record, but that relates to the death of a 12 month old infant.

It looks very much like the death wasn't registered which, in 1853, would not be too out of the question.

Anyway, thanks for your suggestions, I'll keep looking.

Eddie