Genealogy Chat

No it wasn’t

Births Sep 1944
House Brian - Southampton 2c 55

Births Mar 1930
House Brian Unknown Southampton 2C See S'44


So it refers to the late registration in 1944

Shirley ............ he was born in November 1929, so registered in the first quarter of 1930.

THEN he was re-registered in 1944, and that information was added to the 1930 registration as it was superseded by the new information.

There’s no way of ordering the 1930;registration though !


The GRO doesn’t recognise it either

On the actual gro lists it’s a written entry on the bottom of the page referring to the 1944 registration

481 Bitterne Road also has Elsie A House and two children......family related.?

Re 481 Bitterne Road -

The children's births , in South Stoneham, show mmn Spencer.

Marriages Sep 1915 (>99%)
House Henry W Spencer S. Stoneham 2c 205
Spencer Elsie A House S.Stoneham 2c 205

I also had a look at possible births and it would appear there maybe 6 children.

I also looked at Henry Walter House and his family origin and some of the names that came up sounded familiar to me. I shall to

morrow get my own House family tree out and study it to see if any of these names are connected to me.

I'm quite excited at the prospect!

We are no closer to seeing where Brian originates from but time may tell.

But it is strange Kay with the 2 houses having a "house" in them. I can't connect them after looking at the moment.

I had a look through my House family tree etc but so far cant see the people mentioned on here are connected to me, that's a shame!

I decided to order the birth certificate as curiosity got the better of me. This was reg in 1944

It says the child was found on the 27 Feb 1930 at the Picture House, Above Bar St, Southampton aged around 8 months.

Parents unknown.

Informant; E H Taplin in charge of the child. 481 Bitterne Rd, Southampton.

So the child was left outside the picture house! How very sad.

He was given the name possibly by the family that took him in?

You hear these stories of Foundlings on the tv but usually they are newborns that young mothers leave near a hospital etc where they would be found. But this little boy was a few months old.

At least a kind family took him in and gave him a home.

I wonder though, why no-one from that family came forward re his estate or would it be, that as they were not his "blood family", they couldn't claim his estate maybe?

Anyway thought all of you involved would be interested in what I discovered

Florence in the hebrides

Very sad.


BABY ABANDONED IN A KINEMA. Sad Southampton Case. A seven-months-old boy was abandoned in a Southampton kinema. A note attached to the child's clothing read " Please somebody be good to my Brian. His father promised to marry me, but he is too fond of fresh faces, and now he has ruined my life at 19. Nobody wants me, and I can't get a job with baby. I have struggled along for nearly seven months alone. Please don't send him to a home. Let somebody adopt him, as he is a lovely baby, and I was brought up in a home. I have no parents, and I know what a home is. So as I have nobody to turn to, I am going to end it all as nobody will miss me.
Brian's mother."

A young woman was seen to carry the baby into the kinema. A nurse looked after it until the arrival of the police.

Published: Saturday 01 March 1930
Newspaper: Portsmouth Evening News
County: Hampshire, England

Oh AG, how very sad indeed. Amazing that you found this article. But what is a Kinema, was that a cinema? But how was his birthdate given as Nov 1929 when his mother has said he was 7 months old? So he must have been born around Jul?

Kinema's just another name for cinema - ie - pronouncing "cinema" the way it's spelled..

Yes, I wondered that about the birthdate. Can't explain it!

I hope his mother changed her mind, and didn't "end it all".

I've looked at all the 19-yr-old girls who died in Southampton in 1930, and 20-yr-olds in 1931, but none of them are likely.
None of them were in children's homes in 1911, as far as I can see.
Most were with their parents, or had married before 1930.

Of course she may have died somewhere else - but I hope she lived a long and eventually happy life.

If she did die in Southampton reg district in 1930, a possibility might be Bessie E Smith.

Her parents were Isaac Henry Smith and Laura Minnie Bourne who married in 1903 - but I can't see them, or Bessie, in 1911.

Don't know anything about Isaac, but Laura was born in Holt, Wiltshire in 1886.

Parents William J and Matilda Catherine.
She's with her parents in 1891; her mother died in 1892; in 1901 Laura is a servant in Bath.