Hi everybody, I hope you are well. If you are taking the time to read this post, I cannot put into words how much I appreciate you. I spend a lot of time doing my genealogy research, and I love being able to take the time to put it into blog posts for you to read! My aim with these blog posts is always to tell the stories of those who are not here anymore, teach people tips and tricks and just spread awareness of the things our ancestors went through.
In today’s post, I will be telling you all about My Great-Grandaunt, Alice Jane Jewell. A lot of my family and friends will be surprised I haven’t made a blog post about her already! Alice is definitely the person I have spent the most time researching, and I still don’t have answers to all my questions. I spend a lot of my time looking into her and sharing her story in hopes that one day, I will find out what happened to her.
Let me start from the beginning…
Alice Jane Jewell was born on the 7th November 1894 in Kingsclere, Hampshire. She was born to her mother, Jane Elizabeth Jewell. I am unsure who Alice’s father is. The house Alice was born in was on North Street. During her pregnancy, Jane had moved to North Street, from Barkham, to stay with her Aunt, Sarah Ann Butler. I believe Sarah may have been a midwife, following in the footsteps of her mother Eliza, who was the subject of my last blog post. If you haven’t already read it, click here to read it.
After giving birth, Jane moved back to Barkham with Alice. She was baptised at St James’, Barkham, on the 30th December 1894. On the baptism record she is noted as being ‘base born’ which is a term meaning illegitimate.
At this time, I assume Jane remained at her family home, which was Rooks Nest Farm. Jane had 12 brothers and sisters. In 1900, Jane married George Marshall and the pair moved to Amen Corner in Binfield together, along with Alice. In 1900, Alice attended Easthampstead National School for just under 3 months. I do not know why she left so quickly. The record is lacking in quite a lot of detail. They do not have any parents names noted down for her, just her name, address and her date of birth, in which the year is incorrectly noted as 1895 as opposed to 1894.
In the 1901 census, George, Jane and Alice are still living in Amen Corner, along with a lodger named George Pearce. Alice is noted as George Marshall’s daughter-in-law.
Between 1902 and 1914, Jane and George had a total of 6 children together. They also seem to have moved house a few times between 1901 and 1911, including moving to Sindlesham and Bearwood. They finally moved to Tuns Hill Cottages in Earley in approximately 1910. In the 1911 census, the household contained George, Jane, May Gladys Pretoria, Elizabeth Mary, Ena Rose, Eva and George Jr. Alice is no longer living with them in 1911.
I also wanted to add that Jane and George had their final child, Kathleen Amy Marshall, in May 1914. Kathleen is my Great-Grandmother. George Sr passed away in October 1914 following a head injury he sustained at work.
Alice is now living at a ‘Church Army Labour Home’ in Marylebone, London. I am going to attach below the first 3 pages of the census record:
At first, with Alice being on the second page, I assumed she was living in the second home, which was named as a ‘recovery home’, but after finding the cover page I realised she was living in a ‘preventive home’. I have done a lot of research to try and figure out what a preventive home is. I am not 100% certain, but believe it may be a home in order to prevent girls from becoming ‘fallen’ or becoming sex workers.
This census record is the last definitive trace I have of Alice. I have contacted the Church Army, which is still running to this day, to enquire about their historical records. From what I have been told, they still have the records but they haven’t been sorted through. They asked me to contact them again in the future to see if they have started to sort through them yet.
Potential leads
I have put a header here to split up the two sections. The first section is records I am 99% confident are the Alice I am looking for, and this section is records I think could be Alice but I am not certain.
As I said before, I am not too certain on these records being Alice. The reasons I doubt this record are due to the incorrect year of birth and lack of middle name. I could understand if the year of birth was noted as 1895, as it was the year on her school record. I would perhaps think that she truly believed that was the year she was born. But I cannot see her thinking she was born in 1893, unless she had to lie about her age in order to be allowed into the home?
The details on the record are hard to read so I am going to transcribe them here for you. Alice Jewell, born in 1893, single, day servant, admitted by Ashton, on ward 5. Her nearest friend; Alfred Coleman of 20 Plimsoll Road, Finsbury Park. Admitted from 201 Albany Street. Dr Cohen? 15 Gloucester Gate.
Unfortunately, this is the most detailed record I have from her time in the workhouse. She stayed in the workhouse for around a month before being discharged on the 23rd of April.
I have been unable to find Alice and Joan in the 1921 census. I have also been having issues retrieving Joan’s birth record from the GRO as it is missing from the index. I will update this if I am able to get the birth record.
Sadly, baby Joan passed away in September 1921, after a 10 day stay at Great Ormond Street Hospital. I have attached the transcription from her hospital record below.
As you can see, the address given is 4 Liverpool Street/Road, Islington. I was able to get Joan’s death record, which was registered the day after she passed.
On this record, the address is given as 32 Hastings Street, as opposed to Liverpool Road/Street. I have searched at all these addresses in the 1921 census but have been unable to find Alice.
This is unfortunately where this lead ends, I haven’t been able to find much more out. Except for one thing. Baby Joan was born in 1921 and her birth was registered in Brentford. In 1924, a baby Kathleen Jewell was born, mothers maiden name Jewell, and was also registered in Brentford. I don’t know if this is another daughter of Alice, but I really think she could be. I haven’t been able to find her in the 1939 register or anything like that.
In conclusion…
I have looked down so many different paths, looked at so many different people and so much more in hopes of finding out what happened to Alice. I think sometimes people wonder why I am so caught up in finding her, but I just don’t think I could be happy with myself if I wasn’t constantly looking for answers. People don’t just vanish of the face of the earth.
I will always research Alice and will always do anything I can to find out what happened to her. Women’s stories get SO forgotten in history and I don’t want her to join the list. She deserves to be remembered. If you are reading this and have any ideas of things I can do or resources I can use to look for her, please comment below or send me an email: genealogywithjessica@gmail.com.
Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this post and learning about Alice’s story. I hope that someday, I will be writing a post to tell you how i have found out what happened to her <3
Sending you so much love
Jessica Jean xx
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