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Hello
I have spent most of today using the census information to trace my family. It is quite revealing, as my grandmother spent her entire life claiming to have been born and brought up in Aberdeen, when in fact she is listed as on the 1911 census as living in Devon!
My mother only ever once met her uncle, and never met any of her other family on her maternal side. My gran passed away in 1999, and nobody knew anything about her, until an uncle discovered her birth certificate very recently. Having learned that she was born in Devonport, I decided to try and trace her family, armed with the knowledge that her father was called John Drown, and her mother's name was Haley.
Due to John's mother being Irish I have reached a dead end there, though I have traced his father's side back to Cornwall. But my gran's mother's side is bizarre, as they appear on the 1901 and 1911 census, but there is no trace of them before that. The fact my gran was so secretive makes me a little suspicious, and there is a suspicion that the name was changed for Healey/Healy to Haley (both have proved fruitless). They weren't abroad, it would seem as on the 1901 census it lists children being born in Devonport in 1889 and 1892!
It's a mystery, and being an amateur I don't know where to go from here. They were Catholic, and that may be why the parish church searches have proved fruitless...
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