Identity not known, can you help?

Maud Jarvis · Post by **Maud Jarvis** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:48 pm

Hi
Hope I am posting this on the correct board.

I have entered a picture in the gallery, sorry I did not know how to put a caption on it. But the picture was inserted on Aug 21st and is of a sailor Royal Navy and his bride, seated.

http://talkingscot.com/gallery/displayi ... p?pos=-718

These are my late husband`s parents, the sailor is Artur Jarvis and the bride, who stated her name to e Blanche Eileen Mitchell
her father to be John Mitchell, a sgt major in the Cameron Highlands

I have searched all known sources but cannot trace her birth, Scotland or England/Overseas etc
Nor can I trace her father as having been in the Cameron Highlanders.
The photograph was taken in 1913, I assume their wedding picture

I am hoping and praying that someone may know of her and can identify her. She also used another maiden surname, that of Fraser, and dropped her middle name, she had a son born 9 Jan 1918, Gordon Graham Stuart Stringer (a good Scottish name!) and gave the above maiden name of Fraser!

Which I wonder could have been her REAL name
she stated her age to be 21 in 1913
i

Post by **paddyscar** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:39 pm

Hi Maud:

I've possibly located her on ScotlandsPeople, but my time's expired, so I couldn't retrieve the image.

I entered the following birth search:

Surname: Mitchell
Forename: Blanc, but did not get a hit with Blanc*
Sex: F
Year range: 1900 - 1905, but narrowed it down to 1900-1900

Perhaps the spelling was a bit of a problem at the Registrar's office, or illegible by the transcriber - here's hoping it's her!

Frances
P.S. Went back and had a look for her under Fraser as well, with 2 results for Fraser, Blan* 1900-1905

P.P.S. Went back again, due to bad math and did locate Blanc Mitchell F 1890-1891

Post by **Tracey** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 10:11 pm

Name: Arthur Jarvis
Year of Registration: 1913
Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
Spouse's Surname: Mitchell
District: Medway (1837-1941)
County: Kent
Volume: 2a
Page: 1233

Do you have any idea why they were in Kent ?

Maud Jarvis · Post by **Maud Jarvis** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 3:29 pm

Sorry for the delay Tracey in responding.
I have been tied up for a while doing a search on the Scottish 1841 census(on Ancestry) trying to find my gt grandmother, I have her address India Place, when she married in 1841 just before the census was taken, thought ,oh easy peasy, I found her husband to be & even the minister who married them, but can I find gt grannie!!

So I have been sitting at the computer until I nearly fall off my chair searching all the people with the surname I`m looking for to try and find who could be at her address, but can I find her NOPE, can only assume she may have just used the address of where someone else was living to etablish herself in the parish perhaps, I have thought of so many theories.
So now I have giv en that up for the moment and getting back to other things instead.

Anyway, to answer your question, they were in Kent because Arthur Jarvis was in the Royal Navy and was stationed at Chatham, where they married in 1913, she later went to live in his hometown of Southend on Sea, Essex.
Blanche remained there until Arthur divorced her in 1920, then she disappeared (perhaps abducted by aliens?!)

These ancestors are a pesky nuisance the way they keep disappearing!!
I`m sure they are all up there somewhere having a right good laugh at me tearing my hair out.

I thought she could be Scottish because of the names she chose for her children, her first child (who sadly died as an infant) was named Donald, the next my late husband did not have a Scottish name, but the next child had several first names all Scottish, Gordon Graham Stewart (not Jarvis surname though) she even gave herself another maiden name, again Scottish, Fraser, so that does seem to hint at a Scottish background I thought!

I have tried and tried to trace her birth but with no success, and can only surmise that she may have used a false name, I cannot trace her father either, she claimed he was a Sgt Major in the Cameron Highlanders(Scottish again!!) but no trace of him either.

My only hope therefore is that someone may recognise her photo and know her correct name.

Maud Jarvis · Post by **Maud Jarvis** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 3:34 pm

Padyscar
Sorry also to you for delay, same excuse as abov e I`m afraid.

I did have a look on the Scotspeople site but unfortunately the one you mentioned was not the Blanche I`m searching for her.
"my" Blanche`s father according to the name she used, was John Mitchell,
and her middle name was Eileen, not Elizabeth as indicated on the Scottish one.
Thank you anyway for trying.

Post by **Tracey** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 3:43 pm

Hello Maud

I think its going to take me some time replying today, my parrot has just bitten me so i can only type with two fingers at the moment !

Have you found her on 1901 census. SP has three Blanche Mitchell -no restrictions - none of these her ?

Post by **emanday** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:23 pm

Tracey wrote:Hello Maud

I think its going to take me some time replying today, my parrot has just bitten me so i can only type with two fingers at the moment !
Have you found her on 1901 census. SP has three Blanche Mitchell -no restrictions - none of these her ?

Ouch, Tracey! I hope your tetanus jabs are up to date. After my husband got bitten by a friend's Hyacinth Macaw (only got bitten by the best, my old man!) he had to have one done.

Post by **Tracey** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:28 pm

Ouch, Tracey! I hope your tetanus jabs are up to date. After my husband got bitten by a friend's Hyacinth Macaw (only got bitten by the best, my old man!) he had to have one done.

They will be on Monday ! Your husband is lucky he had a hand left after being bitten by one of those

Sorry for the diversion Maud

Maud Jarvis · Post by **Maud Jarvis** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 10:33 am

Hi Tracey
Oh dear, that sounds very painful, I do hope your hand will be ok, these bites can turn quite nasty, I fortunately, have never had anything like that myself, but I`ve heard of other people who have, so have a good idea of what you must be feeling like, ouch!

I think I have trawled the 1901 census so often, anything on there should jump out and bite me! I have lost count now of just how many times I have tried to find Blanche, but without success, she MUST have used a false name.

Sometimes I think she may have been much younger than 21 as she claimed to be, she does look so young in her photograph, and its always possible she may have run away from home to marry Arthur.
Their witnesses at the marriage were an aunt of Arthur & her husband, and she was staying with them when she got married, so it could be that she was not known in Chatham perhaps, or did not have any friends there, makes the marriage seem even more hurried!

I do`nt think she could have been pregnant, of course there is always the possibility that she my have thought she was and Arthur had to marry her in a hurry, and the one thing also that puzzles me is, Arthurs parents were very religious, they were members of the Peculiar Peoples religious sect in Essex, and I would have thought him being married in a registry office would have been displeasing to them.( For his second marriage he married in a Congregational church) after banns being called.
Since none of that happened with Blanche, it seems even more likely that it was a hurried marriage!

I have also searched the birth indexes over several years, but still could not find her, she has become a real mystery!

Anyway, thanks for trying and for your interest, it is appreciated.
Maud

MaryB · Post by **MaryB** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:36 am

Maud I got a marriage and 2 bapts certificates from the site below. All for free. Medway got a grant from the lottory funds and put all their info on the site.

http://cityark.medway.gov.uk/query/resu ... Ancestors/