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We are trying tofind information on Violet Newell, sister of Robert Henry Charles Newell born in London September 20, 1896. My Grandfather insists that he had a sister who dropped him of at a Bernardos orphanage and never returned.
We have copies of the following documents:
1. birth certificate of Robert Henry Charles Newell (my Grandfather), born September 20, 1896.
2. birth certificate of Robert Henry Newell (my Great-Grandfather), born December 10, 1867.
3. birth certificate of Matilda Mahala Smith (my Great-Grandmother), born September 4, 1870.
4. marriage certificate of Robert Henry Charles Newell & Matilda Mahala Smith, wed April 7, 1889.
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5. death certificate of Matilda Mahala Newell, died August 20, 1899 (age 29) of general tuberculosis.
We searched for Grandfather Newell's sister Violet's but were unable to locate any record of her birth. It is our assumption that she was an older sister - since she supposedly took Grandpa to the orphanage.
We searched for Great-grandfather Newell's death certificate from 1899 forward for approximately 30 years but found nothing - then we ran out of time.
Based upon information received from my cousin Diane, my mother & I contacted Barnardos. After a couple runs at it we finally received a confirmation that Grandpa had indeed been at Barnardos. Grandpa was originally taken to the Liverpool Sheltering Homes - when they closed down Barnardos took over their records. Some of the information they had on Grandpa includes a log of the correspondence from him and various statuses of his well being. Included in there is an entry "Annonymous letter received stating M. Shouldice had gone out of his mind and complaint laid as to cruelty to the boy". This seems to confirm what cousin Diane thought and what my mother remembered. Mom said Grandpa would never talk about it.