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Don't know if this entry in a list of foreigners granted naturalisation refers to Edith's second husband or not -

Drezins, Valentine ; Latvia ; Merchant Seaman ; 17Lustre Street, off West Lane, Keighley, Yorkshire.12th October 1961.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/42610/page/1687/data.pdf


NATURALISATION
List of Aliens to whom Certificates of Naturalisation have 'been granted by the Secretary of State and whose Oaths of Allegiance have been registered in the Home Office during the month of January 1962.The date in each case is the date of naturalisation.

The Barnardos archive service is apparently closed because of the covid situation, but you can download the enquiry forms.

https://www.barnardos.org.uk/former-barnardos-children

Just found another article, in 1938, where Florence is sentenced to 6 months hard labour for shoplifting. In the name of Norvell.

Accomplice was an Arthur Gray, who was living at the same address. Her address is Beverley Rd, where George, Rose, Edith and 2 closed records were in 1939.

I think the next step is to contact Barnardo's as her address was lodging house nothing
Solid.
Thankyou

I really do wonder, given her flight from justice a few months before his birth, if he is Florence's biological son. She wasn't legally married to Jack/Joseph at that point.

There is no corresponding birth index entry under Burrows though.

Maybe the 'adoption' was her taking him back after he had been cared for by other members of her family?

Or, as I said earlier, maybe a pregnant sister fled with her, killing two birds with one stone. Amersham seems a little off the Norvell usual stomping grounds, and Florence had a history of running off.

Anthony Rex was born Norvell, but died as Burrows.

But there's no amended birth reg - so it was just an unofficial "adoption" by relatives

That's exactly what I wondered, Londonbelle, and from the article, I suspect it very well might be. :-(

I wonder if the 10 year old boy was Anthony?

Looks like Florence was with Joseph at least by 1936, as I have found another article in the Thanet Advertiser April 1936 where Joseph Wilfred Burrows and Florence Norvell alias Mrs Burrows, are charged with stealing.

Will snip and send to Wayne.

Rather sadly, the same couple are again charged with shoplifting in Dover in 1947, along with a 10 yr old boy. There is a bit of a potted history of Joseph Burrows. Joseph and Florence were both sentenced to 3 months hard labour.

Did Barnardos have any records for your father? Wonder if Edith kept him for a while.

Also in the 30th July 1937 article where Bessie Norvell, father George, and Joseph Wilfred Burrows went 'shopping' in M&S, there was reference to a fourth person, a woman, who had been taken into custody at the same time as the others, but had absconded from her bail.

In his testimony, Joseph Burrows, who did later marry Florence Norvell, makes reference to his 'wife', in relation to the incident, which would indicate she was the woman who had absconded.

Assuming by 'wife', he meant Florence , and certainly by the 1939 register they were living together under his name, and given Florence's predilection for doing a runner, and given this was 4 - 5 months before the birth of Anthony R Newell later Anthony Rex Burrows in Amersham, could she actually be Anthony's biological mother?

Anthony appears to be a closed record in 1939, and is certainly not with Florence and Joseph/Jack Burrows in 1939.

Could he be one of the two closed records with George, Edith and Rose Norvell in 1939? One record is almost certainly Winnie, but who is the other? Was Anthony brought up by family for a while, before being 'adopted' by his own biological parents?

Or maybe another sister accompanied Florence in her flight from justice, and was actually the biological mother of Anthony. If birth certs weren't so pricey, I would be tempted to buy that one just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Wayne, have you tried contacting Barnardo's?

:-D :-D :-D Kucinta

My father was adopted through Barnardo's I think he was 3 .

Just look what you triggered, LondonBelle! :-D

Well things have certainly moved on :-D

The other, more unlikely candidate for Edith 'Norvelle', that AG found and posted, was this one.

Births Dec 1912 Norvell Edith A Smith Halifax 9a 672

but she appears to have eliminated herself by getting married before 1940.

(though just to make things complicated, Edith and her spouse are badly transcribed on different pages...)

Name: Edith A Norvell<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Registration Date: Jul 1935
[Aug 1935]
[Sep 1935]
Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration District: Halifax<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Inferred County: Yorkshire West Riding
Spouse: Bileliff<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Volume Number: 9c
Page Number: 1213



Name: Bernard Bilcliff<<<<<<<<<<
Registration Date: Jul 1935
[Aug 1935]
[Sep 1935]
Registration Quarter: Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration District: Halifax
Inferred County: Yorkshire West Riding
Spouse: Norvell<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Volume Number: 9a
Page Number: 1215

Name: Eduth Annie Nowell
Event Type: Marriage
Marriage Date: 10 Aug 1935
Marriage Place: Halifax, St Mary, West Yorkshire, England
Parish as it Appears: Halifax, St Mary

Father: James Alped Nowell
Spouse: Banard Bilcliff <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Edith Annie Norvell, , aged 22, Worsted worker on the image, father James Alfred NORVELL, a joiner. Spouse Bernard Bilcliff, a 29 yr old machine moulder.

Sadly, she died in 1937

Probate
Name: Edith Annie Bilcliff
Death Date: 7 Dec 1936
Death Place: Sheffield, England
Probate Date: 1 Jan 1937
Probate Registry: Wakefield

Admin to husband Bernard Bilcliff

Name: Edith A Bilcliff
Death Age: 24
Birth Date: abt 1912<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Registration Date: Oct 1936
[Nov 1936]
[Dec 1936]
Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration District: Sheffield
Inferred County: Yorkshire West Riding
Volume: 9c
Page: 661

Thankyou for all your good work I am planning on visiting the public records at kew so this research is amazing thankyou I didn't know where to start .

Same feeling here, AG. Also, not sure whether they simply lived there, or also worked there, but there was more than one housemaid, ie domestic servant, at 121 Croydon Rd in 1939.

Lots of good stuff there, Kucinta.

"Respectable family" sounds like defence-lawyer-speak, given the general family history!

I, too, am sure that Edith 1920 is Wayne's grandmother.
Perhaps she had to give up her factory job when she was pregnant, either at her employer's demand, or else because the work was too strenuous, but managed to find domestic work.

Not including the birth of John Norvelle, there are three Norvell births mmn Norvell, in Bromley RD, between 1940 & 1947, one girl and two boys.

AG has already posted one of them, the others can be found on freebmd, one is the same quarter as John Norvelle was born.

It would seem that at least two of them, possibly all three, are attributable to Winifred Norvell, Edith's sister.

A piece entitled 'Paternity order' in Norwood News 23rd May 1947

"Saying that if he was the responsible person he would admit it as he had done before Thomas George Crawford , Weighton Road, Anerley at Penge on Friday denied paternity of the youngest child of Winifred Norvell, Beverley Rd, Anerley.

Miss Norvell said there was an order against the defendant in respect of her eldest child. She went to Crawford's house twice in May of last year. He sent her 5 shillings later in the year.

Complainant's father George Thomas Norvell stated he had heard Crawford admit paternity.

Crawford was ordered to pay 10 shillings a week"


EDIT:

Have forwarded clippings of this article,together with one where soldier Harold Norvell drops in on married sister Ethel Dumbrell and glass gets broken (1935), one where Bessie Norvell goes shoplifting with father George (1937), and one where Albert James gets accused of receiving stolen goods (1958), to Wayne by pm. Also a photo of a mysterious missing 18 yr old Miss Norvell of Penge in 1922, who may be Florence?

2nd EDIT.

Seems the missing girl almost certainly was Florence, as when it was reported she was charged, aged 21, with stealing a purse in Huddersfield in 1925, it was mentioned that she had run away twice, from her respectable family in London..

3rd EDIT

When Bessie Norvell & father George were accused of shoplifting in 1937, their partner in crime was one Joseph Wilfred Burrows, who as AG posted previously, married Bessie's sister, Florence Norvell, and ended up adopting Anthony R Norvell, who became Anthony Rex Burrows