My paternal grandmother's ancestors were always something of a mystery to me, as she talked very little about her family, and died when I was young. Talking to other family members didn't help much, as we weren't in touch with her close family, and the furthest I could go using verbal history was her mother, Lilian Lenda CARTER, born about 1889 and probably in Essex. Sadly, there are no surviving photographs for this branch of the family either.
I have never been able to find a birth registration or baptism for Lilian Lenda CARTER. She is variously enumerated on the censuses as having been born in "Hounslow, MDX" and "Onslow, ESSEX". I suspect her given name at that time was simply Lilly as that is how she appears in the 1891 census, where she appears with both parents, Charles Andrews CARTER and Sarah Elinda nee THOMPSON. Lilian's mother, Sarah Elinda THOMPSON, was born in Harwich in 1866, the daughter of Thomas Turner THOMPSON and Elizabeth GARNETT. I am intrigued by the unusual second name, Elinda, and don't know its origins.
Sarah, sadly died in childbirth at the age of 25; her infant son Charles Thomas CARTER survived, and can be found in 1901 living with his paternal grandmother Harriet CARTER in Kent. I can find no trace of him after that. Sarah's young daughter, then simply enumerated as Lily CARTER, is with her maternal grandfather Thomas Turner THOMPSON and the housekeeper Eliza in 1901, whilst her father has remarried and is living with his new family in Dovercourt. I think there was some contact between father and daughter, but Lilian's father had himself had a very difficult childhood and had lost a parent very young.
By 1909, at age 17, Lily had reinvented herself as "Lilian Lenda", (perhaps this was a reference to her mother's middle name Elinda) and was married to 31yr old Albert Edwin THORN, a brewer's clerk from Thetford. It wasn't a happy marriage, although 8 children were born. One of the rare stories my grandmother Irene told about her youth was of being bullied by her 3 older brothers and I understood she was expected to care for her 4 younger sisters - other relatives told me that Lilian 'was often ill and frequently bed-bound'. I suspect that Lilian suffered from severe depression.
Lilian's husband Albert, much older than her, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 64. Lilian's children were adult by this time, so she sought work, and became a housekeeper for a recently widowed James Dale BEAVEN, a businessman. The couple married not long after, but the relationship remained very much one of householder & servant, and Lilian left him after a few unhappy years. Her last home was with her eldest son, sleeping on his sofa, and the verdict at her inquest was that she committed suicide. She was 59.
Moving back a generation, Lilian's grandfather Thomas Turner THOMPSON was a mariner in his younger years, following in his father George's footsteps - in fact he was born in Coastguard Cottages at Cromer - but later he worked for the railways as a quay foreman in Harwich. Thomas's wife, Elizabeth GARNETT, came from a large Harwich fishing family and was one of 11 children. They had strong links with the Navy and descendants can be found in several parts of the globe.
Thomas and Elizabeth had 6 children;
Thomas Daniel born 1860, married Alice EVERETT, died 1908
Elizabeth Sarah Ann b 1862, married Edward TURTON, died 1934
Sarah Elinda b1866, married Charles Andrews CARTER, died 1891
Ellen Brown b1870, nothing further known after 1881
Clara Rebecca b1873, nothing further known after 1891
Hilda b1875, died 1897
Elizabeth died in 1889 and Thomas didn't remarry, but is thereafter enumerated with a housekeeper, Eliza JUBY nee NIXON, until his death in 1916.
