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Florence Ada Shilton gave birth to twin boys in 1903, possibly out of wedlock, after moving from Handsworth to Liverpool. I believe she may have had another child in 1899 called Ada, who possibly died or was adopted. Can anyone help me as I've come up against a brick wall?

She lived in an affluent household with her brother, a dentist, but the 1901 census shows her as a servant in a house in Kings Norton. I am assuming she did something to be outcast from the family home. The birth certificate of the twins, who both survived to old age, shows Florence living in West Derby, Liverpool. It shows their father as being James Frederick Shilton, but I believe this to be untrue as I can find no marriage record (also the same surname Seems a little unbelievable). All my research shows that Florence was unmarried at the time births and the only marriage record I can find is 1914 to Ellis Mason, who died in 1916.

Any help and suggestions most welcome.

For Reference:

1911 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription
30 Cross Street Waterloo, Waterloo, Lancashire, England
Florence Ada Shilton Head Widow Female Family Laundress 47 1864 Redditch Birmingham Warwickshire
Frederick Victor Shilton Son - Male - 8 1903 Waterloo Lancashire

An Edmund Roy Shilton is also listed (age 8) but his name has been crossed through.
Florence listed as having 2 children- both still living

---------------------------------

Birth:
SHILTON, FREDERICK VICTOR mmn: SHILTON
GRO Reference: 1903 M Quarter in WEST DERBY Volume 08B Page 258

SHILTON, EDMUND ROY mmn: SHILTON
GRO Reference: 1903 M Quarter in WEST DERBY Volume 08B Page 259

1911
: Edmound Roy Thillon
[Edmound Roy Shilton]
[Edmond Roy Shilton]
Age in 1911: 8
Estimated birth year: abt 1903
Relation to Head: Son
Gender: Male
Birth Place: Waterloo, Lancashire, England
Civil Parish: Waterloo
Search Photos: Search for 'Waterloo' in the UK City, Town and Village Photos collection
County/Island: Lancashire
Country: England
Street address: 30 Cross Street Waterloo Lancashire
Registration district: West Derby
Registration District Number: 455
Sub-registration district: Crosby
ED, institution, or vessel: 10
Piece: 22309
Household Members:
Name Age
Flounes Ada Thilton 47
Frederick Vietn Thillon 8
Edmound Roy Thillon 8

me: Flounes Ada Thilton
[Florence Ada Shilton]
Age in 1911: 47
Estimated birth year: abt 1864
Relation to Head: Head
Gender: Female
Birth Place: Reddeteh Brzmryham
Civil Parish: Waterloo
Search Photos: Search for 'Waterloo' in the UK City, Town and Village Photos collection
County/Island: Lancashire
Country: England
Street address: 30 Cross Street Waterloo Lancashire
Marital Status: Widowed ------------------
Occupation: Fannlz Landrer
Registration district: West Derby
Registration District Number: 455
Sub-registration district: Crosby
ED, institution, or vessel: 10
Piece: 22309
Household Members:
Name Age
Flounes Ada Thilton 47
Frederick Vietn Thillon 8
Edmound Roy Thillon 8

There's no birth for an Ada Shilton with mmn Shilton on the GRO records

Only ones showing
SHILTON, ADA GWILT
GRO Reference: 1899 D Quarter in WEST BROMWICH Volume 06B Page 920

SHILTON, ADA DOROTHY ELIZABETH HAMBLIN
GRO Reference: 1899 M Quarter in READING Volume 02C Page 356

fmp version
Florence Ada Shilton Head Widow Female Family Laundress 47 1864 Redditch Birmingham Warwickshire
Transcription
Frederick Victor Shilton Son - Male - 8 1903 Waterloo Lancashire
Transcription
Census details
First name(s) Florence Ada
Last name Shilton
Relationship Head
Marital status Widow
Sex Female
Occupation Family Laundress
Age 47
Birth year 1864
Birth place Redditch Birmingham Warwickshire
Address 30 Cross Street Waterloo
Parish Waterloo
County Lancashire
Country England
Archive reference RG14
Registration district West Derby
Registration district number 455
Enumeration district 10
District number -
Sub district Crosby
Sub district number 1
Census reference RG14PN22309 RG78PN1318 RD455 SD1 ED10 SN142
Piece number 22309
Folio -
Page -
Other household member first name(s) Florence, Frederick
Other household member last name Shilton
Record set 1911 Census For England & Wales
Category Census, land & surveys
Subcategory Census
Collections from Great Britain

1939 /???
47 Crosfield Street , Liverpool C.B., Lancashire, England
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First name(s) Last name(s) DOB Sex Occupation Marital status Schedule Schedule Sub Number
Florence A Shilton 05 Jan 1864 Female Old Age Pensioner Married 18 1

Name: Florence A Shilton
Birth Date: abt 1865
Date of Registration: Sep 1946
Age at Death: 81
Registration district: Liverpool North
Inferred County: Lancashire
Volume: 10d
Page: 115

Edmund is crossed through on the 1911 with his Mum- he appears again in 1911 as a visitor in William Perrin's home:

1911 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription
9 Oxford Road Waterloo, Waterloo, Lancashire, England

William Perrin Head Widower Male Coachman And Horsetreaker 69 1842 Lancashire Liverpool
Edmond Ray Shelton Visitor Single Male Coachman And Horsetreaker 8 1903 Lancashire Liverpool
-----------------------------------------------

Just to add- the 1939 register above is transcribed incorrectly- Florence is living at 47 Scourfield Street (not Crosfield Street)
------------------------------------------------

Baptised at 22:

First name(s) Florence Ada
Last name Shilton
Gender Female
Baptism date 06 Jun 1886
Baptism age 22y
Residence Birmingham, Warwick, England
Place Birmingham
County Warwickshire
Father's first name(s) Edward Spencer
Father's last name Shilton
Mother's first name(s) Harriet

Thank you everyone. I know all of the above as this lady is my great-grandmother. Although you have given me some extra info along the way.

Edmund Roy, one of the twins, lived with her childless sister Gertrude (Shilton) and her husband, John Morrall, a business man in Everton until she died in 1910, so the bit about him being a ' visitor' on the 1911 census is interesting and I shall look this up.

I need to know what happened to Florence immediately before she went to Liverpool. What happened to make her leave a secure, affluent home?

My mum, her granddaughter, who is ailing, desperately wants me to find out why her beloved grandmother left her brother's affluent home to become a laundress. This lady was well travelled and had been to the USA several times with her father's business - which I know all about. I need to know why she left home.

Many thanks.

It's probably unlikely you'll ever know the reason, although if she did have a child before the twins, that is most likely it.

Why do you think she had a daughter Ada?

It might well be impossible for you to find out why she did as she did .........


None of us know her personally, we can only look up and see where she was at certain moments in time, eg one night in 1901 and another night in 1911.

It sounds as though there was a family break-up ............... could well be that the wealthy brother felt himself too respectable to continue to have a sister and her illegitimate twins living with him in his home.

Maybe she felt the censure and left home

Maybe she left home before anyone knew she was pregnant to avoid any "problems".

From the age of the twins, she was around the age of 40 when she had them .......... that could well have had a bearing on her leaving, or being thrown out.


But as I say, you will never know unless you find a personal letter. It is not the kind of thing that would be published in the papers!


As for her calling herself married or widow on the census and on the 1939 ....... an attempt to make the family unit appear respectable, a very common thing to happen.



sorry to be so blunt.

could this be a child of Florence
SHILTON, GERTRUDE    
SHILTON  

GRO Reference: 1895  D Quarter in NUNEATON  Volume 06D  Page 463

She had already left her brother's home and was working as a servant before she could have been pregnant with the twins.

So she may have had an earlier child, as you suggest - although as already said above, the child couldn't have been called Ada.

Malyon -

Gertude isn't Florence's child - she's in censuses with her parents, Caroline (nee Shilton) and George Shilton.

Thinking about Florence's brother Edmund, with whom she was staying in 1891 -

1890 was a difficult year for him and his wife. Their son Roy was born, and another son Edmund Gower Shilton, died aged 5.

Maybe Florence went to help them at that time, and then moved on amicably to live her own independent life once things had settled down again. Maybe there was no family rift.

Florence's family seems to have broken up in any case, between 1871 and 1881.

Florence's father died in a mental hospital in 1879.
I can't see mother Harriet, nor Florence, nor Edmund junior, in 1881.(Can't see Harriet at all after 1871.)
By 1881 Henry 's lodging in Birmingham, Helena's married, and Gertrude's living with Helena and her husband.

Maybe they all had to either marry or earn their own living.
Their father Edmund Spencer Shilton doesn't seem to have been a wealthy man.
In 1851, before he married, he was a draper's assistant.
In 1861, he was a draper [and a squiggle I can't decipher]
When he was admitted to the mental hospital and died in 1879, he was a commercial traveller.

EDIT:
a tree on Ancestry suggests this is Harriet's death:

Harriet W Shilton
in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915
Name: Harriet W Shilton
Birth Date: abt 1824
Birth Place: England
Death Date: 3 Jun 1881
Death Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age at Death: 57
Burial Date: 6 Jun 1881
Gender: Female
Race: White
Street address: Ward 22, 138 W Chelton Ave
Cemetery: Odd Fellows
Marital Status: Widowed
FHL Film Number: 1003707

If that's correct then the family definitely did fragment after 1879-81.

Perhaps Florence was with her mother in 1881.
I don't see any travel records for them.

Cause of death - breast cancer:

Harriet W Shilton
in the Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-1999
Name: Harriet W Shilton
Event Type: Burial
Death Date: 3 Jun 1881
Burial Date: 6 Jun 1881
Burial Place: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Organization Name: Odd Fellows Cemetery

well found, AG!

Thank you all again.

ArgylGran - you seem to know a lot about this family. However, Florence Ada Shilton's father, my great-great grandfather Edmund Spencer Shilton was a very wealthy man, owner of the Shilton & Son Needle Factory in Redditch (confirmed). He married Harriet Walton, whose family also owned a needle factory, hence the visits to Pennsylvania where they had joint enterprises. The needle factory burned down, c1840, resulting in an employee dying. Edmund died, age 46,in the Birninghan Lunatic Asylum, which I know, often took in sick people from the workhouse., where he possibly ended up after becoming bankrupt.

I know the history of my Shilton family but I'd like to know what happened to Florence Ada between the 1891 census and the 1901 census to have caused her to move to Liverpool to live and work as a laundress. The twins were born on 29 January 1903, so why was she working as a laundress in 1901? How do I find out if she had another illegitimate child earlier?

Also can someone explain the Researching notes as I'm new to this forum?

Many thanks everyone.
:-)

I did add a child born shilton with unmarried mother 1895 named Gertrude in Nuneaton which is in warwickshire

Jackie .............

AG has given you a good reason for what possibly /probably happened to the family .........

......... and you yourself have just posted that your gt gt grandfather died in the Lunatic Asylum and you think that might have been after he became bankrupt!

As he died as a lunatic, it might equally be that he made bad business decisions because of his condition, ended up losing his business, and had to go into the Infirmary section of the Workhouse because no-one could, or would, look after him.


That's exactly what AG seems to have found ...... a fracturing of the family after the loss of their money.


BUT you know, we cannot answer your question because none of us are related to you or your family ............... we all just find information on the internet, which is where AG found all that information.


I personally think AG's suggestion that Florence had gone to help her brother and his wife at a bad time, and then liked being independent, so moved on.

She would not have been trained to do anything if her father was representative of his place and time, so she may have had to become a domestic servant. The only positions available for a women with her upbringing at that time would have been Companion to a wealthy lady, governess, or possibly taking some training.

Then somehow she met a man and got pregnant. When that happened her life would come crashing down ............. she certainly would not have been able to find a position as a Lady's Companion or Governess with a child.


It's likely to be a very sad story .................. but, as I have said, none of us can tell you what happened!

malyon ................


and AG then posted the following, which you seem to have missed seeing ...........

- - - - - -
26 May 2017 21:27

Malyon -

Gertude isn't Florence's child - she's in censuses with her parents, Caroline (nee Shilton) and George Shilton.
-- - - -

SO the Gertrude Shilton born in Nuneaton was NOT an illegitimate child.

Edmund Roy was living with William Perrin in 1911.

In 1901 Florence's sister Gertrude was also living with William Perrin.

1901 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription
22, Miranda Road, Bootle cum Linacre, West Derby, Lancashire, England

William Perrin Head Widower Male 58 1843 Horse Trainer Liverpool, Lancashire
Gertrude M Morrale Servant Married Female 33 1868 House Keeper Feckenham, Worcestershire