Having been researching family history for a while now, I have always thought it strange that in the box on Ancestry where you can enter a keyword to help with your search they give two examples - "Teacher" and "Tower of London".
Now, "teacher" is fair enough, there must be lots of people with teachers in their trees who would find it helpful to be told that could be a keyword. However, "Tower of London" ? How many people are going to have a relative connected with The Tower ?
Answer : me for one !!
Now, "teacher" is fair enough, there must be lots of people with teachers in their trees who would find it helpful to be told that could be a keyword. However, "Tower of London" ? How many people are going to have a relative connected with The Tower ?
Answer : me for one !!
One of my 2nd cousins a few times removed, Helen Maria Bird was born in The Tower on 26th September 1857. Her father wasn't imprisoned or awaiting execution, he was in fact a schoolteacher with the 3rd Grenadier Guards who were stationed there at that time. I wrote about him in Week 62.
Interestingly it doesn't simply say "The Tower of London" on the birth certificate. It says "In the Barracks Tower".
"The Duke of Wellington was Constable of the Tower from 1826 to 1852. Under his invigorating leadership the increasingly smelly and sluggish moat was drained and converted into a dry ditch. The Grand Storehouse was destroyed by fire in 1841. The Duke arranged to clear the rubble and started work on a huge new barracks. On 14 June 1845 the Duke laid the foundation stone on the barracks named after his greatest victory – Waterloo." (Source : Historic Royal Palaces / Tower of London). The building could accommodate 1,000 men. At the same time, separate quarters for the officers were built to the north-east of the White Tower. This was almost certainly where Helen was born. Different regiments are posted there for a period of time and is currently the headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Interestingly it doesn't simply say "The Tower of London" on the birth certificate. It says "In the Barracks Tower".
"The Duke of Wellington was Constable of the Tower from 1826 to 1852. Under his invigorating leadership the increasingly smelly and sluggish moat was drained and converted into a dry ditch. The Grand Storehouse was destroyed by fire in 1841. The Duke arranged to clear the rubble and started work on a huge new barracks. On 14 June 1845 the Duke laid the foundation stone on the barracks named after his greatest victory – Waterloo." (Source : Historic Royal Palaces / Tower of London). The building could accommodate 1,000 men. At the same time, separate quarters for the officers were built to the north-east of the White Tower. This was almost certainly where Helen was born. Different regiments are posted there for a period of time and is currently the headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Helen's childhood must have been very different from most kids. We don't know how long she was living at The Tower but by the time she was 3, on the 1861 census, her father had been posted to the Infantry Barracks in Windsor. Shortly afterwards they moved again to the Portman Barracks in Marylebone where her brother Frederick was born the same year. By the time she was 11 they had moved to the Chelsea Barracks where another brother, Ernest William, was born. I haven't found her on the 1871 census but her parents and younger siblings were at the Wellington Barracks near St James' Park, Westminster. Perhaps she was away at school somewhere ? Certainly not an ideal life but certainly varied.
Her life must have changed dramatically in February 1872 when she was just 14. Her mother sadly died while giving birth. That must have been heartrending as she would have been just about old enough to understand what was happening.
She was the informant on her father's death certificate in 1880 and had become a drapers assistant by the time of the 1881 census living with other drapers at Hornsey Road in Islington. I haven't been able to find her on the 1891 census but she reappears aged 43 on the 1901 census living with her brother Ernest's family in their 8 roomed house at 70 Connaught Road, Cardiff. Her occupation is now "living on own means".
Her life must have changed dramatically in February 1872 when she was just 14. Her mother sadly died while giving birth. That must have been heartrending as she would have been just about old enough to understand what was happening.
She was the informant on her father's death certificate in 1880 and had become a drapers assistant by the time of the 1881 census living with other drapers at Hornsey Road in Islington. I haven't been able to find her on the 1891 census but she reappears aged 43 on the 1901 census living with her brother Ernest's family in their 8 roomed house at 70 Connaught Road, Cardiff. Her occupation is now "living on own means".
Although she wasn't there in 1911, she must have moved back at some point because she dies there in 1920 from "cardiac failure and bronchial asthma". Having been born 62 years before in the historic Tower of London she died a rather less memorable "spinster and shop assistant (Drapery)".