Amanda Annie Gething b.1858 (General)

by Gill C., Saturday, June 11, 2011, 18:53 (4918 days ago) @ Jefff

Hi Jefff,
I'm touched you have put so much thought into your reply. I have also of course thought and thought about it all. Amanda Annie Turner (married name) died in Newark, Notts in 1926, so even my dad never met her. It was my grandma, Annie's daughter-in-law, who told me about her. My grandma (Irene) worked as a domestic servant from age 13 in some big houses and so was brought up to have a huge respect for people of higher social class - that's how it was then! To her Amanda Annie was well-educated, but then my grandma only received a basic education as the daughter of a farm worker. Like you say, maybe Amanda Annie embroidered her story. The fact she used her second name on her wedding certificate, as did the groom, made me wonder if she also used her father's second name.
I had no real reason to believe she was illegitimate. I think the fact she ran away to get married to someone her father disapproved of was what caused the rift, and apparently the family took it very badly. I've thought, was her first name REALLY Amanda, since she's untraceable before she married: no birth record, no census entries. But against this, they called their first child Amanda Annie Turner, parents often naming a child after themselves in those days; also she reverts to her full name in the 1901 and 1911 censuses, like she's come out of hiding, if you like - in 1881 and 1891 she and her husband were still using their second names. So I'm convinced her name really was Amanda and that she did indeed marry beneath her status and that she was afraid of her father finding her.