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I am trying to find out what happened to Lillian in the 1950s.
She was my Dads older sister and after an argument with their mother she left and my father never saw her again. He has passed away now but I am very curious to know what happened to her.
She was born Lily Clewes her birth was registered in Oldham in the Dec quarter of 1916. The family lived in Middlewich at this time, later in the 1920s they moved to Littleborough in Lancs and later to Leicester in the 1930s. Lillian married Ernest William Leeke in Leicester 1937 (m.7a 84 3). Ernest was in the RAF and committed suicide in 1942 they lived on Green Lane Rd in Leicester. Lillian worked for the Admiralty according to Dad, the next record I have of her is giving birth to Michael G Leeke in 1944 in Hitchin Herts. (3a 1817) Michael was adopted by my Grandmother who brought him up. My aunt says Lillian married again but I can find no record of a marriage that fits all her details. She returned home later I don't know exactly when with another son. She stayed for a while but then they fell out and she left. My mother says that her mother bought all her furniture off her for a pittance before she left.
Lilys parents were Lily and Frederick Clewes he was a bakery operative and died in 1952.
If anyone has any clues I would be very grateful

Thanks

Sue

Name:Lilian M Leeke
Spouse Surname:James w Thorpe
Date of Registration:Apr-May-Jun 1950
Registration district:Hitchin
Inferred County:Hertfordshire
Volume Number:4b
Page Number:221

Have you excluded this marriage, if so How?

Name:

Lilian Mary Thorpe
Birth Date:12 Oct 1915
Date of Registration:Oct 1996
Age at Death:81
Registration district:Hitchin and Stevenage
Inferred County:Hertfordshire
Register Number:2B
District and Subdistrict:5341B
Entry number:138

Hi Penny

Thanks for your suggestions but I have got this marriage certificate
and I don't believe its her
Firstly its Lilian Margaret Leeke and our Lillian didn't have a middle name
also her father is Wm J Leeke Dcd on the certificate and her father was Frederick Clewes and still alive, and finally she's listed as a spinster and Lilian had been married.
Even if she had bent the truth its a bit extreme to be a match.
This was the first of many marriages I looked at as it seemed to be the closest to her but I really don't think its her.

Thanks again


Sue

Lancs BMD Births for 1916

CLEWES Lily Royton Oldham WILKINSON ROY/59/369

Marriages Sep 1937 (>99%)

Clewes Lily Leeke Leicester 7a 843
Leeke Ernest W Clewes Leicester 7a 843

Including a reference to 'Lilian' is clouding the issue somewhat

Theres only one birth Leeke/Clewes and thats Michael 1944

only one after 1944

Name: Lily Leeke
Spouse Surname: Webster
Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1952
Registration district: Belper
Inferred County: Derbyshire
Volume Number: 3a
Page Number: 143
Find Spouse: William H Webster

There are two births in Edmonton after 1944 with MMN Clewes - and no obvious marriage (as far as I can see)

Thanks for all your help folks

Firstly I have put 'Lillian' at the head of this post because she called herself Lillian and her brother and sister were really surprised she had been registered as Lily. If someone has known her in the past it would most likely have been as Lillian, I do accept it confuses things.

Secondly the marriage between Lily Leeke and William Webster is not her I sent details to Derbyshire registrars office and they checked the certificate and returned my cheque as Lily was a spinster and her fathers name was not Frederick.

I did a list of births from FreeBMD of boys with MMN Leake from 1945-1960
and checked them for their mothers name none were called Lily or Lillian.

The two births in Edmonton are interesting thats new information thankyou, I have suspected for a while that she didn't remarry.

I spoke to my mother this afternoon and she seemed to think when she came home she was running away from some kind of trouble but if she was the mother of several children with no fathers in sight I am not surprised she fell out with her mother who had already taken in one of them.

''I did a list of births from FreeBMD of boys with MMN Leake from 1945-1960
and checked them for their mothers name none were called Lily or Lillian.''


her maiden name wasn't Leake/Leeke !it was Clewes!

but if she had remarried her previous name would have been Leeke that was my logic

possibly the most important thing to have (you haven't said whether you have it) is Lily's exact date of birth

If she died after 1960 and the informant knew her correct birth date, it will show on the entry in the GRO index ... which can be searched at Ancestry by given name only (or even lil*) and date of birth.

Do you know her dob, or are you considering getting her birth cert to learn it?

Births Dec 1916
Clewes Lily Wilkinson Oldham 8d 1008


also I have a family member around the same age who was called Lily at birth but Lilian as an adult, Lilian was thought to be higher class ... you sometimes see the same for May and Mary or Mary and Marion ... and it is true that even family might not know the original name.

Your maiden name doesn't ( or shouldn't ) change. its the name a woman is born with.

True Penny ... but people who want to conceal their marital status don't always give correct information about their names. :)

A woman who didn't want her partner to know she was married, or didn't want the registrar to know she was married, might declare her married surname (the one she was using and was known by) as her single surname on a child's birth registration.

It's always good to think of possible scenarios and check them out with searches!

Have come across a few cases where women have used their previously married names as "maiden" names when remarrying. Have also seen them giving their previous father-in-law's details (or their brother, or their grandfather) as that of their own father on a later marriage. Previous married name stated as maiden name on births with new partner, and so on.

Thing is, we can't always trust the info on certificates - which also means we shouldn't exclude records because they don't match what we are expecting.

As Evie says, establishing Lily/Lilian's date of birth may help resolve this.

I don't have Lily's exact date of birth and that's great advice so I will order her birth certificate and go from there. I have to admit I am very frustrated by this now I have been looking at various angles on and off for two years. I wondered if she might have gone back to her maiden name and looked at marriages for that too.
I have found in my research into my husbands family that it is highly likely his maternal grandfather was a bigamist. He married in the Isle of Wight as Henry and years later in London as Harry. So I agree you have to be open minded with certificates and as you say Evie try out different scenarios. Also I think Marie has got great examples there of how far women would go to hide there secrets, being the mother of an illegitamate child was really frowned on.

So I am off to sort out this date of birth

Thanks guys for all your suggestions

I have Lily's DOB it is 3rd October 1916 she was born at 391, Rochdale Rd, Royton, Oldham. I have searched the Death Index on Ancestry but it hasn't really helped. There's no-one with the exact same birth date and no Lily Leeke or Clewes so I am presuming she did re marry or took another name. I haven't had any joy trying to match her to any of the Lilys that are close in DOB either. Any suggestions anyone?