Margaret Roberts - Gt. Crosby

[kwr]

Grrr - I've been looking fruitlessly for her in the 1911 census. I have her birth, her death(1918 0f Spanish flu - in Crosby), her marriage, her children etc.

In the 1891 and 1901 censuses she is living with her son James and is described in both as a laundress and in 1901 additionally to laundress she is also charwoman - so a big career change there then.

I've searched under a variety of name variations, listing her as a widow, giving a wide birthdate range - she was actually born in 1843 in Great Crosby, Lancs, I've tried using her occupations and the only response from the fmp has been when I leave out everything except her name, date of birth, and county when I put in Lancashire. Then I DO get a list but all of them are NOT her.

So, can anyone tell me if the Great Crosby bit of the 1911 census has gaps or can someone more fiendishly cunning than poor simpleton me, inveigle wicked and treacherous fmp to just tell me this last little thing I want to know about her?

Ken

[dickiesam]

Hello Ken,
Wondering if your Margaret was a strong and independent minded woman was she a suffragette? Found this paragraph in FMP's comments on the 1911 census, particularly the sentence I have put in italics:

The 1911 census and the suffragettes...
Frustrated with the government’s refusal to grant women the vote, a large number of women boycotted the 1911 census by refusing to be counted.

There were two forms of protest. In the first, the women (or their husbands) refused to fill in the form, often recording their protest on the household schedule. In the second, women evaded the census by staying away from their home for the whole night, and so did not lodge their protest on the household schedule.

In both cases, any details relating to individual women in the households will be missing from the census.

For the family historian, a refusal to fill in the form (accompanied by a protest statement) at least registers the presence of a woman, or women, in the household. But the women who evaded the count by leaving their home for the night are entirely untraceable via the census.

The exact number of women who boycotted the census is not known, though some people have estimated that it may be as many as several thousand.

Dickiesam

[Hilary]

What was her address in the 1901 census and on her death certificate? Have you tried a directory for around 1911 for an address and then done an address search for her?

Hilary
Ed Officer

[dickiesam]

Hi Ken, Been doing a bit of digging... Margaret may not have been an active suffragette after all.
Fairly sure Margaret's son James married in 1906...
FreeBMD Marriages Sep 1906:
ROBERTS, James - W. Derby - 8b - 967.
THORPE, Margaret Bond - W. Derby - 8b - 967.

4 to 5 years later this couple are at 20/22 Brownlow Street, but his mother isn't with them. However, I think she might be living at 59 Coleridge Street. For 'charwoman' read 'office cleaner'; one of my g.g.mothers made the same switch in occupation at about the same time.

Dickiesam

[kwr]

My thanks to both Hilary and Dickiesam. I take the point about suffragettes though like you given her previous history I just can't see her being one.

Hilary I don't actually have a copy of the death certificate. I got the date of her death and the cause from a family bible.

I have looked at the suggested address and "Hurrah! Hurrah!" it is the right answer so muchly thank you Dickiesam.

Just to tell other readers of this super site a little more about Margaret she writes under where she is born "British by parentage". Also she indicates that of ten children she bore only two are still alive in 1911. It may be she has the two figures reversed (I shall check) but if not how sad she must have been - a widow since 1889 and her family diminishing.

Ken