Genealogy Chat

I probably won't ever be able to prove this either way but would love some opinions.

When I started doing my tree way back in 1997, my gran was still alive so I asked her about her parents. She said her mum Alice Ada May was born in Canada and gave me a birthdate and name. I was also told that Alice's dad died in Canada.

Some years later, I identified my gran's mother on the 1901 census - named as May Worsley, aged 8, born in Bootle. She lived with her mum Ada but her father (a draughtsman in the merchant navy) was not there.

To cut a long story short, I still don't know where Mr. Worsley was in 1901 (John, b. 1850, Lowton, near Warrington) but now know he died at Lancaster Lunatic Asylum from an aneurysm. I have been told an aneurysm can affect a person so that they behave unusually.

Does anyone think it is likely or reasonable to assume that the story of John dying in Canada was concocted to explain to little Alice where her dad was, or possibly to hide the fact that he died at the Lunatic Asylum, and that this story was then handed down as fact? John did have brothers who went backwards and forwards to Canada as cotton merchants.

Oh, forgot to mention that bit, Laura. On Alice Ada May's birth certificate, it gives these bits of information -

30th March 1893 at 57 Rimrose Road, Bootle
name - Alice Ada May
girl
father - John Worsley, his occ - marine engineer merchant service
mother - Ada Worsley formerly Willday
informant - A Worsley, mother, 57 Rimrose Road, Bootle

I'm supposing from this that John could well have been out of the country when Alice arrived because the birth was registered on 11 May 1893 (almost at the six week limit) by Ada, her mother.

Also, Alice married on 15 Feb 1915 to Fred Rothwell - fortunately I have the copy certificate - and all it says about her father is "John Worsley (deceased), engineer".

I think I've found John in 1901 for you, Kate:


Name: J W
Age: 51
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1850
Relation: Patient
Gender: Male
Where born: Lowton, Lancashire, England
Occupation: Marine Engineer

Civil Parish: Lancaster
Ecclesiastical parish: Lancaster Christchurch
Town: Lancaster
County/Island: Lancashire
Country: England

Registration district: Lancaster
Sub-registration district: Lancaster
ED, institution, or vessel: Lunatic Asylum
Household schedule number: 1
A A 50 (etc., for other patients)


The entry in the disability column reads "lunatic" for all persons on the page (he is the last one on the page).

Oh, thanks, Kathryn! Never occurred to me he would be down under just his initials (although I know a lot of people in institutions often were).

You're welcome! I went looking for "John W" by his personal details.

Certainly supports your theory about what his daughter was told.

All my gran ever told me was that he died in Canada, which I presume was what her mother (Alice Ada May) was told. But, given that Alice Ada May was only 10 when her father died (her mother remarried in 1910), by the time my gran was old enough to hear about it, it must have been getting on for thirty years after John died.

I can easily imagine Alice being told a simple story that she (as a ten year old) would understand about her dad going out to Canada - possibly to visit relatives - and dying before he could come back, and then over the years it would get watered down further.