On paper, according to documentation, Phyllis Vera Peters is the illegitimate daughter of Hannah Peters, and sister to Florence Peters, my grandmother.
Phyllis Vera Peters showed up on the 1921 British Census, within the family unit of Hannah, Ellen, Edith and Albert Peters. The mystery is whose daughter is Phyllis REALLY? Her birth registration lists Hannah as her mother, with no father. Hannah would have been 45 at the time, so I have come to the conclusion that Phyllis was either Ellen’s or Florence’s daughter.
I felt that if I could find a descendant of Phyllis, perhaps I’d get the answers I was looking for. So I continued my search through the Electoral Registers.
1946 Electoral Register – 89 Tudor Court
1954 Electoral Register – 89 Tudor Court
Bernard is on the bottom of the previous column
Ellen has passed away. I recorded her passing as 1962, however I actually do not know if this is true.
1962 Q4 Death Index
Ellen – 69 – fits the age.
1974 Electoral Register – 1 & 3 Otter Walk, Bedfordshire
1975 Electoral Register – 1 & 3 Otter Walk, Bedfordshire
1980 Electoral Register – 11 Devon Road, Bedfordshire
The DD/MM/YY is the date the person would turn 18.
1982 Electoral Register – 11 Devon Road, Bedfordshire
September 1982 – Bernard Bramwell Thorpe passes
1983 Electoral Register – 1 & 3 Otter Walk, Bedforshire
Phyllis and Edith are together.
1984 Electoral Register – 11 Devon Road, Bedfordshire
Stephen would turn 18 on May 27, 1984
1986 Electoral Register – 11 Devon Road, Bedforshire
Phyllis is living with her the Canning family – Brenda must be a daughter.
and one prior page in the 1986 book…
11 Charlbury Court, Merton Rd., Bedfordshire – Edith (age 83)
1989 – June 28 – Edith passes away – age 86
My next step would be to try and find any Canning on Facebook and in particular Suzan Dove nee Canning and Brenda Canning nee Thorpe. I felt that women might be more inclined to keep old boxes of photos and memorabilia.
I found a marriage between a Suzan Canning and a Dove. Looking from the other “side”, I could find a marriage between a JONATHAN Dove and a Canning.
I searched Facebook for months, looking for a Suzan Dove, Suzan Canning, Stephen Canning or Paul Canning in England. And then….. I find her. Suzan Birdsall Canning, who has “Friends” who are Dove’s and a brother Paul!! I messaged her a few time, but I saw she wasn’t very active on Facebook, but Paul was. So I FB messaged him and he messages back promising to tell Suzan to message me.
AND SHE DID!
This is a picture I already had of “Edie in her garden”. This one and Gramma Gallson’s passport picture were the only pictures we had of the Peters.
Suzan sent me this picture of Edie! Ancestry has a “colorize” option. It looks great!
This is a picture of Phyllis and Bernard Thorpe.
Suzan let me know that her Mom, Brenda Thorpe was adopted. Phyllis had a son, Phillip, who only lived a few days, and then adopted Brenda. I was a little disappointed but Suzan also told me that her “Gran” (Phyllis) was very dear to her and she had great memories of her. Brenda died a couple of years ago (around 2020ish).
Suzan also had very fond memories of Aunt Edie and then revealed the open family secret: Brenda was actually the daughter of Aunt Edie and when Aunt Edie was dying she told Brenda that she was real family – not an outsider. Edie was born in 1903 and Brenda was born in 1943. The story is likely true. Phyllis would have known that when SHE was born, Hannah adopted her to save whatever scandelous repercussions against the reputations of Florence or Ellen. So Phyllis likely didn’t think twice to adopt Aunt Edie’s baby as her own, her only son having died as an infant.
Suzan was born Canning and married Jonathan Dove. They had 3 children and then Jonathan died. Suzan entered into a relationship with Giovanni Lisi and had 2 more children. She is now with Mark Birdsall and goes by Suzan Birdsall.
Shortly after this, Shelley Canning reached out to me on Facebook. She is Suzan’s younger sister. Shelley had Aunt Edie’s scrapbook which is where the drawing of Gramma Gallson came from. I hope to get more insight into this scrapbook soon.
UPDATE: Suzan Birdsall passed away January 2024, and her father passed away Christmas Day 2023.