Another Eureka moment

Amazing, after many hours trawling through Google maps, Google earth and on-line records I have finally located the birth of Frances Jane Tyrle (Tearle/Tirrell/Terrell/Turle etc. etc - there are so many variations in the way their names were spelt). We'd always been led to believe from the 1881 census that she had been born in Little Bowden, Mkt Harborough in 1868 - but the finding of her and the family on the 1871 census living in Fortunewell, Dorset threw this out of the window. This earlier census is showing a different birthplace - Warden, Northumberland.

After looking through the whole of the 1868 register of births for all variations of the way Tearle was spelled without any luck at all, I started to look either side of the year, starting with 1869 then after that 1867 - and there it was: Tyrle, Frances Jane, Hexam in the final (Oct - Dec) quarter of that year.

I have now ordered a copy of her birth certificate which will then give Annies maiden name, so the search goes on. The postal strike is going to delay the arrival of the birth certificate, and it couldn't have come at a more inopportune time for me.

This finding has certainly raised my mums spirits, it is a difficult time for her (and the whole family) as my dad (Ken, as we all call him) is currently spending the start of his sixth week in hospital after some sort of infection. Ken has deteriorated quite rapidly on the Alzheimers front, going from an albeit slightly confused old man into a bedridden shell of his former self. It is breaking my heart to see my father reduced to the indignity of having to have everything done for him, right down to having liquidised food.

However, on the other side of the family spectrum I'm awaiting the imminent arrival of my own first grandchild, my eldest daughter Louise is due today (24 October 2009) and I'm writing this with baited breath.

I hope to have good news on at least two fronts within the next seven days, so watch this space.