Thanks to Rick I have found (most likely) a new line for my family. Harriet Leach (b. 1828 in Southampton) married James Lacey (b. 1812 in Portsmouth area) in Alverstoke in 1849. James was in the Royal Navy and I have managed to work out most of his time-line -in 1851 he and Harriet are together in Alverstoke and in 1861 he was in Portsmouth Harbour, in the gunboat Hunter, tender to HMS Asia. According to Naval records, he was on a number of ships up until at least 1867. In 1881 James is a Naval Pensioner living alone in Alverstoke, saying that he is a Widower. I then found a very interesting newspaper article from February 1897, with an interview with James who at that time was in the Portsea Island Workhouse. James had been on the HMS Birkenhead when it sank in 1852, with a large loss of life - this sinking was the first time the drill of "Women and children first" was used. In the interview it said that after the Navy James had entered the Merchant Service and spent 8 years in the Black Sea, and also visited Bermuda. Presumably he was somewhere around these places in 1871. The article also mentioned that James was on the "Imbecile" ward, and I then found he had been admitted to the Hampshire County Asylum in 1884, until 1894, when he presumably was sent to the Workhouse. He is in the HCA in 1891 as J.L. James died in Portsea in JunQ 1898.
Harriet meanwhile, had obviously spent most of her married life alone. She and James had their first child in 1851, and in 1861 she was living in Alverstoke with 5 children, aged from 9 years down to 9 months. (James must have come home at fairly frequent intervals!) The youngest child, Charlotte Amelia b 1860 died in Sep Q 1861. Harriet is admitted to the County Asylum in October 1861 and stayed there until her death in 1887.
I can find no trace of the surviving children after 1861 - Harriet b. Mar Q 1851 Droxford; James b. MarQ 1853 Alverstoke; Eliza MarQ 1856 Alverstoke and Ann b JunQ 1858 Alverstoke. They would have been too young to go out to work in 1861 when to all intents and purposes they become parentless. Can anybody find them?
1851 - http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/88...&usePUBJs=true
1861 - http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/87...&usePUBJs=true
Harriet meanwhile, had obviously spent most of her married life alone. She and James had their first child in 1851, and in 1861 she was living in Alverstoke with 5 children, aged from 9 years down to 9 months. (James must have come home at fairly frequent intervals!) The youngest child, Charlotte Amelia b 1860 died in Sep Q 1861. Harriet is admitted to the County Asylum in October 1861 and stayed there until her death in 1887.
I can find no trace of the surviving children after 1861 - Harriet b. Mar Q 1851 Droxford; James b. MarQ 1853 Alverstoke; Eliza MarQ 1856 Alverstoke and Ann b JunQ 1858 Alverstoke. They would have been too young to go out to work in 1861 when to all intents and purposes they become parentless. Can anybody find them?
1851 - http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/88...&usePUBJs=true
1861 - http://interactive.ancestry.co.uk/87...&usePUBJs=true
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