Mary Elizabeth Bannister missing 1911

[Jill on the A272]

Mary Elizabeth Bannister is on the 1921 census as "adopted daughter" in the household of William Formston in Bolton Lancs. I'm not sure he has a adopted her though as his daughter and her husband William Bannister are also living there. William was my great grandfather's brother. I sent off for Mary's birth cert which gives William as her father and Alice Ann Bannister nee Ayrton as her parents. (Have ordered their marriage cert)

From the birth cert Mary Elizabeth Bannister was born in Brierfield, Lancashire on 2nd Feb 1903. I cannot find her in 1911 at all, her mother Alice Ann Bannister nee Ayrton had died in 1907. She is not with her father (who says he is single and is lodging with another member of the Formston family In Bolton) nor is she with her Ayrton grandparents.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

[Jill on the A272]

Of course now I've posted about her after a week's fruitless searching I've gone and found her mistranscribed as Barundsen, as an adopted daughter in a overcrowded house with 6 adults and one other child.

I shall have to look into who the adopters are.

[Darksecretz]

that's what usually happens Jill, I've been the same with some of mine.

[kylejustin]

Could she be his "adopted daughter" because he recognised her as his own?

[Jill on the A272]

She is definitely William Bannister's daughter, I think the "adopted" in 1921 refers to William and his second wife, 2nd wife is the daughter of the householder so he has filled in the form with regard to his daughter having adopted Mary (although she was only 8 years older than Mary)

The "adoption" in 1911 appears to be fostering. Having researched further the couple are not related. William was in a similar position himself at a young age having been orphaned and "adopted" by an unrelated couple while his three siblings went to live with various uncles or older cousins.

[Jill on the A272]

William's marriage cert to Mary Elizabeth's mother Alice Ann Ayrton came, it turns out he was in the army when they married in 1902 which was a surprise. It appears he enlisted in the East Lancs Regiment in 1899 and was in South Africa which will be why I couldn't find him in 1901. He had left the army by the time his daughter was born in 1903 and gone back to being a railway porter.

[Darksecretz]

I wonder why he left? ooooh maybe in the recess of my memory you could sign up for 3, 5 or 20yrs? or perhaps I dreamt that!..