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a nun ?

1911


FENWICK, Catherine Goddard Sister Single F 28 1883 Living In Community Plymouth VIEW

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RG number:
RG14 Piece:
85 Reference:
RG14PN85 RG78PN3 RD1 SD3 ED17 SN323

Registration District:
Paddington Sub District:
Paddington South Enumeration District:
17 Parish:
Paddington

Address:
Institution: Convent,
6 Hyde Park Place County:
London

Thanks Choccy. So Gwendolen and Louisa both became nuns. Was rather hoping it would be a refuge for ' fallen' women!

Wonder if they found my mother in the nunnery, she was VERY prudish

Tyburn Convent 8 Hyde Park Place, London W2 2LJ

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4734089.stm

The Convent appears to be still active---- It is a Closed Order Convent

http://www.tyburnconvent.org.uk/updates/events.html

Well well - curiouser and curiouser said Alice

Not quite wonderland but definitely strange goings on

Were they nursing nuns?

Just a thought has anyone tried contacting the convent/s for info on the Goddard Fenwicks?

Was Diane a foundling at the convent & made up a glorious past as she didn't actually know who her family were - the whole story of being born in India & father a major sounds very Kipling - very reminiscent of KIM.

(sorry Evelyn just my own thoughts slipping out - she was your mum after all)

Did she read a lot & have a good imagination - if so this could be the answer to some of the questions. Did the Goddard Fenwicks unofficially adopt her into their family?

Evelyn - do you have any photos of mother as a child anywhere?

Mind you - i don't have any of my mother as a child either - so that was a silly question. It is early in the morning - thats my excuse & i am sticking to it.

Better go before I make any other silly comments

Sadly no early photos of mother.
Yes she had a VERY vivid imagination and read a lot.
I dont get offended at any ideas as maybe that will be the key to this mystery.
This thread gets to sound more like the plot for a film everyday.

Off to hospital with Ron today , he has more chemo this afternoon.
As Evelyn G F was my godmother I must have met her but dont recall her at all or any of the rest of her family.

Evelyn Goddard Fenwick's Great Grandmother, Sarah Ferrand, was Landed Gentry. Plenty of info about her family around if you ever find you are related!

Evelyn who were the witnesses at your parent's wedding?

Thanks

Julie

Witnesses at parents wedding were
E M Roy ( Dads Mother)
F H Pratt who I believe to have been a friend of my fathers

Had a look at the Tyburn website and found it really interesting - but that's a personal viewpoint!


I have sent a message just wondering about their records etc. Of course, any reply will go straight on here.

Once again, I find it interesting that none of the G-F girls married. Hey ho.


Lots of love to Evelyn during this difficult time for her.

Cynthia

I to thought the web page very good ----

I noticed that about the G F girld
I know some were very talented ----

but they are of a age to have had a child

My thoughts are also with you Evelyn -- I know what a strain Chemo is

Love Renes <3

Weren't some of those present day nuns young Renes? Lovely to see that they seem to be a thriving convent.


Those GF girls were a very talented bunch all round I think.


One day, deep breath....one day, we will get a clue........

Okay....10.25pm.

Message from my contact at Stornoway Historical society reads thus:


I believe the Nicolson school registers are still at the school but I don't
know how many of the earlier ones are still extant. If I recall correctly
Diane was about 8 when she was here? She would have been in the infant school though. The Nicolson annuals start in 1901 but by no means were produced regularly the second issue didn't appear for 9 years (1911). The addresses of pupils are recorded.

I am of the opinion, however, that Diane did not attend the Nicolson. I would need to check when the infant school part of the Nicolson opened.

If Rev. Macleod were indeed her real uncle, then she would have been perhaps been in the Cromore school (the village he came from and presumably her father, Robert). The log books for Cromore are now in the Stornoway Library. I have examined them and there is no record of Diane. No one seems to know where the register is though.

I would assume that the school registers for Portmahomack (if she attended there) still exist. I don't know if the school is still there. If it was
closed then they would likely be in the county library at Dingwall.



Any thoughts anyone??????

I will just add that I told my contact that we doubted that Diane was her real name so I am hoping he took that on board.


I think I may get in touch with the library at Dingwall to see if they can help.


We are looking for a young girl....probably living with the MacLeod family..but we are not sure. Easy peasy then!!!!

Cynthia.
Have been wondering for ages whether to mention this or not as it´s not really very helpful.
When I was 1st married our next door neighbour was from Stornoway & she often used to talk about a presenter on the local radio, called Donny MacLeod who was her cousin.
I got the impression he was older than her & would estimate that she was born in the late 1940s.
Might it be worth asking the local radio station to put out an appeal???

All ideas are welcome wisechild........but I'm not sure how we would phrase such a request.


Our missing person is unlikely to be found under the name we know her by so I guess asking for information on Diane Leslie MacLeod isn't going to work.

I wonder if it's likely that there are any very elderly folk who remember the MacLeod family from the Manse? Mind you, it's nearly 100 years ago so not probable really.

Any ideas???




:-D

I have sent a message to Dingwall library.


Also, forgot to say that I told my contact re the Nicholon Insitute that Diane may have gone under her middle name of Leslie. He replied that it was not a local name and would have stood out.

Any thoughts on pursuing the Leslie name?

Perhaps you could ask about descendants of the family from the manse.
It was a big family & chances are that not all of them left the island.
If the local radio could be persuaded to give the problem some publicity, I´ll bet a lot of locals will want to get involved & at least they would be on the spot to do a bit of "digging".
Most of the local families will be inter related, however distantly.

Just popping in.................thanks Evelyn for the names of the marriage witnesses - no real clues there then.

Sorry if this has been posted before but this site looks interesting:

http://www.rootshebrides.com/resources/resources/

If given the backbones of the story they may be able to admit defeat before they even start or give a quote for researching if they think there's hope of finding something?!

Julie

Hi wisechild, if you look at page 46 on here, you will see a list of the family and the info we have on them so far. Admittedly, more work needs to be done on some of them in case they have descendents around.


Just going to take a look at your link Jule....thanks.

Funnily enough Julie, I clicked onto the site and went to look at the Stornoway Historical Society......one of the contributors there is the chap I am already in contact with re the Nicholson Institute etc. that was quite interesting!

I'm pretty sure Evelyn had put an advert in the Stornoway Gazette a while ago.


I'm getting to the stage where I can see I am going to be asking for sightings of a young girl anywhere between 1905 and 1915 - somewhere in Scotland.....arrrrggghhhh.