Charlotte Ellen SMITH / EIGHTEEN

[James18]

[This is also on Family Tree Forum, so if you use both forums you may get some déjà vu!]

Hi all,

Having made excellent progress with my family tree, I am nonetheless a little stumped as to exactly who my great-grandmother was, as information we have on her is limited and I am still no closer to finding exact birth and death dates. Information I've found on other people's online family trees seems suspect when studied in any detail, and so I thought I'd ask for your help rather than just 'go with the flow' and make assumptions.

Her details on her marriage certificate to my great-grandfather are:

Name: Charlotte Ellen SMITH
Age: 18
Condition: Spinster
Profession: -
Residence: Arthur Road
Father's name: Thomas SMITH
Father's profession: General Dealer [this is not 100% clear but looks about right]

She married Frederick Syer EIGHTEEN at St. John's Church, Reading on 19/06/1886.

Curiously, on my grandfather's marriage certificate to my grandmother, he has put his mother's name as Ellen Charlotte EIGHTEEN, rather than Charlotte Ellen. This may be important, I don't know.

There is a January 1923 death certificate index for her under the name Charlotte E L EIGHTEEN, but it just gives her birth as 'about 1870' and doesn't give an exact date of death. I believe the L is for either Louise or Louisa; you will find references to this on public family trees on Ancestry, and she had a daughter named Vera Ellen Louise EIGHTEEN.

I've scoured Ancestry for Charlotte Ellens, Ellen Charlottes and variations thereof, but I've not been able to locate anyone I believe to be the right candidate. I've seen mentions of a Fortunatus SMITH who lived in Reading and had a daughter named Charlotte A SMITH, but I believe the link to be erroneous. I've checked census records for 1871 and 1881, but again can't seem to find a convincing Charlotte Ellen SMITH, and of course after 1891 she appears as Charlotte Ellen EIGHTEEN and lives with Frederick Syer, which is fine and obviously that's her.

I did find a school admission record for a Charlotte SMITH at one of the same schools as some of the EIGHTEEN children went to, but her birthday was 15/10/1870 and the father's name was Wm. [sic] which I think is William, so we can probably rule her out.

If any of you kind folks wouldn't mind doing a bit of research and trying to help me pin down the right Charlotte Ellen then I'd be hugely grateful. I suppose the obvious answer would be to just order a copy of her death certificate, but I'm not sure it would give her date of birth or much useful information there besides.

Do you have any advice for me? I'm fairly new to genealogy and have been making surprisingly good progress so far, but every so often I do seem to hit a brick wall.