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Domestic servant

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sigma | 08:58 Sat 12th Jun 2010 | Genealogy
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My Great Aunt had two illegitimate children, one on 1890 and the other in 1901, both while she was a domestic servant. The children were bought up by other family members. After their births, would she have gone back to work for the same family(s) or would she have left under a dark cloud.
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If she was a live-in servant where is she in the censuses?
Possibly................but not necessarily.

Do you have her census details for 1891 and 1901 ? They may give you more idea.
That's really not possible to say for sure unless you are able to track her employment throgh either census or, depending on the standing of the family or families that employed her, assuming that you are saying they have no father given on their birth certificate nor in their baptism entry.
If the place she worked was the estate of a wealthy landed family then her details of employment would have been recorded in the estate papers and if they survive and if they have been deposited in the local CRO then you could check them.

It is probably too late a date to look for a filiation order (b@stardy bond) .

Did your great aunt never marry? Often servants married each other but in some households that was forbidden by the employer.
Question Author
I did try tracing her employment but couldn't find her on the census's.
Her name was Sarah Cox, no middle name, b.Feb.1873 Much Wenlock, Salop.
I don't think she ever married.
I can find her with her parents in 1881, and on ancestry her father William is shown in detail along with his wife Eliza, the ancestry member does not have Sarah beyond 1881. However, on the 1891 census, William and Eliza have their infant grandson William Cox living with them, and he was born in Diddlebury, Shropshire, on the 1901 he is still living with his grandparents.
Now, that means that if he was born in Diddlebury his mother must have been there at the time! I have looked for a likely sarah unmarried and living in that area and as yet nothing really matches any detail you have. On the second childs birth certificate what is the place of birth?
Question Author
At the time of Williams birth Sarah was with a family called Painter in Diddlebury.
Beatrice, the second child, was born in Blackburn, Lancs. at 72 Kings Road.
Did Sarah actually call herself Eliza?
In 1901 there is a 27 year old Eliza Cox living with her sister Mary A Livesey, Eliza has a 2 month old daughter called Beatrice born Blackburn but Eliza is born Strichley Shopshire and Mary A is born Harley Shropshire.
On the 1881 census sarah Cox aged 8 living at home with Mother Eliza and Father William and sister mary A. plus other siblings,
I also wonder if she married as Eliza as an Eliza Cox married in Blackburn in 1904, either to John Hargreaves or Walter Loynds, if you can find these people on the 1911, it may help, I can't at the moment as no credits.
I'm off to work now, have a look at the above and see if you can check the 1911.
Walter Loynds seems to have married Elizabeth Pickup, so that leaves John Hargreaves marrying Eliza Cox. In 1911 John and Eliza Hargreaves were living at 93 Ingham Street, Blackburn.
Question Author
Eliza is Sarah's sister. Whether she was bringing up Beatrice or just visiting Mary Livesey I don't know.
Access to Archives may hold a clue....I use it all the time.
Just type in A 2 A, the website is self explanatory.

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