Who Do You Think You Are - Lesley Sharp 14th Aug

[kiterunner]

Looking at the BMD indexes, it seems that Norman Patient and his wife had a son Norman born in 1936 who died as a baby. Norman's marriage is listed in the Jul-Sep quarter of 1936, with the baby's birth and death both registered in the Oct-Dec quarter of that year. Interesting given what Doris said about her father's reaction when she fell pregnant before her marriage!

[Olde Crone]

Agree, no direction, all about people who were not related to her (the Barnardos boys) and at the end, she said that Norman Patient didn't feel like her father, her adoptive father felt like her father! I couldn't help wondering why she bothered.

Everyone seemed to think it was a wonderful thing that the Maybury boy had been parcelled off to Canada. Wonder how HE felt about that, as he appears to have had a happy foster placement with the Patients.

OC

[kiterunner]

Originally Posted by Olde Crone

Everyone seemed to think it was a wonderful thing that the Maybury boy had been parcelled off to Canada. Wonder how HE felt about that, as he appears to have had a happy foster placement with the Patients.

Yes, I couldn't help feeling that if the programme-makers and Lesley weren't trying to show Barnardo's in such a positive light, they could easily have followed the line of how awful it was to send young children away so far away from everyone and everything that they knew.

I saw something in the records that Lesley was shown about the foster mother (presumably Jane Patient) being ill with a kidney stone? Maybe she and Charles were unable to look after the boys any more for health / age reasons?

[kiterunner]

Great Easton and Tilty are listed among the missing pieces of the 1851 census, so no use looking for the Patients on that one.

[Merry]

Thanks for that, Kate.

Did anyone notice where William Bush/Patient got married? I felt if he married in a parish where it was known he was born before his mother married then the vicar might well insist he use his birth name for the marriage, but recording Charles Patient as his father would suggest Charles was more likely to be the biological father than not, rather than the other way about as was suggested in the programme.

[kiterunner]

Here are the Patients in 1861, at Great Easton:
1861 census ancestry

Charles Patient Head Mar 34 Ag Lab Thaxted Essex
Hannah Do Wife Mar 31 Tilty Do
William Do Son Un 13 Ag Lab Great Easton Essex
George Do Son 11 Ag Lab Do Do
John Patient Son 9 Ag Lab Great Easton Essex
Charles Do Son 7 Scholar Do Do
Eliza Do Daur 5 Do Do
Fred Do Son 1 Do Do
Thomas Do Son 7 Scholar Do Do.

[Olde Crone]

It seems a bit foolish to place a 4 year old with an 80 year old man. It's going to be a near miracle if that man is still alive by the time the foster child is of working age/an adult.

Not a word of criticism of Dr Barnardos, not a mention of British Home children and what very often happened to them in their new placements.

OC

[kiterunner]

Originally Posted by Merry

Did anyone notice where William Bush/Patient got married? I felt if he married in a parish where it was known he was born before his mother married then the vicar might well insist he use his birth name for the marriage, but recording Charles Patient as his father would suggest Charles was more likely to be the biological father than not, rather than the other way about as was suggested in the programme.

There is a public tree on ancestry which says the marriage was at Great Easton. Also he seems to have kept using the surname Bush after his marriage.

[kiterunner]

Lesley's grandfather Thomas Charles Patient's army papers are on ancestry:
army records

He got married to Margaret George 24 Nov 1906 and their first son Thomas was born 14th May 1907, according to the army records.

[Margaret in Burton]

I also thought it an odd programme. Kept annoying OH with my comments and tutting.
I wonder what happened to the other Maybury children, the elder boy and the girl? They never mentioned what happened to the other child the Patient's fostered. I know they said he didn't seem to be on a passenger list.