Finding Clara

My paternal grandad was the youngest of 6 children.

He was born in 1935, in North Kesteven, Lincoln, to Thomas Herbert Collin (known as Bert) and Florence. When Bert died in 1948, he was 73 years old and my grandad was a boy of 12.

His eldest sister, Mabel, on the other hand, was 31, with 2 children of her own.

The siblings were:

Mabel b. 1916

Thomas Hebert b. 1918

Cyril b. 1920

Mary b. 1926

Eric b. 1927

Maurice b. 1935.

My dad could talk for hours about his Auntie Mabel, and her 3 boys were quite close with Grandad as they were of a similar age. Chad and Maurice were very often getting into trouble, it seems, as young boys are want to do.

When I first started researching our family history, grandad was still alive, and he was a good resource to rely on for questions. That being said, he hadn’t a clue about any further back, and some details were a little off. He thought Tom was the oldest, he assumed his dad was an only child, he didn’t know his mother’s maiden name.

He’d been 12, he didn’t think to ask these kinds of things.

So, I did what every normal person does when they have burning questions about their family history: I looked for a marriage certificate.

At the time, I only knew Florence’s first name, and nothing else.

Well, the day came. The certificate arrived. I shook as I was reading it.

There she was. Florence Bell. 23. Marrying Tom Herbert Collin who was – oh. He was 42? An odd age to be marrying a 23 year old, I thought, and then, I saw it. Bert was a widower.

This was something grandad didn’t know anything about. I asked, practically foaming at the mouth down the phone.

So, I began to look for a marriage record pre-Florence, and wouldn’t you know, there it was.

Tom Herbert Collin marrying Kate Taylor Holmes in Q3 1900. Kate would have been about 24, Bert around 26.

What I found next had my eyebrows practically shooting off of my face – a birth record, Q4 1900. For one Clara Collin.

I spoke to grandad and he had no idea about any other children, and he didn’t seem to know anything about anyone called Clara.

It piqued my interest. How could grandad have a half sister he had no idea about?

I spent the next few weeks looking for her everywhere. Ancestry, FindMyPast, FamilySearch, even Google and Facebook.

She appeared in the 1901 census, age 5 months, living with her parents, who were living with Kate’s parents, and then she appeared once again on the 1911 census with both of her parents in Bassingham, Lincoln.

The trail went cold.

There was nothing. A veritable black hole of information, if you will. No other records, no other resources, no other family trees on Ancestry, seemingly nobody else researching her.

I could never get this off my mind. What happened between 1911 and 1916?

Kate died in February 1912 (of a heart condition, her death certificate shows) and that was the last information I had. I could not find a single record for Clara post-1911 anywhere.

It was odd, but I assumed she perhaps had died young and nobody knew to look for her. For a while, I assumed she had died in 1911 with Kate. It made sense, but it was like fitting a square peg in a round hole.

I had more questions, but nobody to ask, and the top of my list was: if grandad hadn’t known about her, did his siblings? Did their cousins?

When the 1921 census became available, I hunted high and low for her. I’d thought I might find her employed, or living with her grandparents, or even an aunt, somewhere in Lincoln. Nope. Not anywhere. Seemingly, she wasn’t on the 1921 census, adding more credence to my theory she had died in 1911.

Eventually, I found her.Visiting friends. It was no help trying to work out who or where she was, what her life was like or whether she was close with her biological family.

Earlier this year, I found a marriage record, in Bristol, for a Clara Collin marrying one Frederick Marks.

I thought I’d found her.

They had a daughter, Beatrice, also born in Bristol.

Not unusual for a person starting out to move where the work is, I thought.

If you take to Ancestry, other users have put attached Clara b 1900 with Frederick and Beatrice. It seemed to fit, all the jigsaw pieces lining up perfectly, all about to slot into place and complete what happened to her.

Except.

Beatrice was born 40 years before Clara Collin.

Except.

Clara Collin could not have married Frederick Marks 45 years before she was born.

Over a very, very weak wine and lemonade one night, I scoured every resource for the 100th time trying to confirm Clara, Frederick and Beatrice. This time, I managed to find the original, not the transcription, of Beatrice’s baptism. There it was, clear as day, a date 40 years before Clara was probably even conceived.

Time might not be as linear as one is taught to see it, but even I know that’s too wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey for family history.

Back to the drawing board.

Crestfallen, I put Clara to the backburner, just another of my many frustrating brickwalls, and tried another angle for someone else. Probably the family history version of rage quitting a game, if I’m honest.

A few weeks ago, I got an email from FindMyPast suggesting it had found a record for me to look at. I usually ignore these emails, because they’re often wrong, and they always come through while the kids are being on their worst behaviour, but this one piqued my interest for some reason.

It was suggesting a marriage certificate, between Clara Collin and Frederick Marks.

At first, I thought it was the same one before, but upon closer inspection, this couple married in Lincolnshire in July 1925, in North Hykeham (this is mispelt as Hyckham on Ancestry) . This was a bit more promising than the mid 1800s, particularly as the rest of the family lived and worked in North Kesteven.

On the transcription, they marry age 24, and she lists her father as Tom Collins. While one might initially bat this away as he was baptised Thomas Herbert Collin, it looks like he went by Tom Collins in the 1901 census.

Perhaps he wasn’t at the wedding (I have yet to order the marriage certificate to see the full details!).

I have traced this Clara and Frederick further. They have one son, Kenneth Frederick Marks, born 5 April 1929. He marries a Delia Godwin in 1953, and in 1959, he moves to America, arriving at Halifax, then Niagara Falls. I haven’t found any information between 1959 and 1965 (he is naturalised in Georgia, but I don’t know whether this is pitstop between other cities), but by 1965, Kenneth and Delia live on the west coast, in San Jose, before moving to Mountain View, then Cupertino (which is apparently Silicon Valley).

Clara died in 1991, and I don’t know whether any of her brothers or sisters knew or attended the funeral. I would love to find out if Kenneth is my actual cousin, but he has likely passed now. I don’t know if he has kids who could verify his family tree or even have stories to pass down.

I feel like Clara is going to forever have this huge question mark over her – a sister, an aunt, a cousin that nobody ever got to know. Or did they?

I’d love to hear about your stories with something like this. Do you have family members you’ve discovered through researching? Were there “secret” siblings or spouses? I wouldn’t quite say this one is a secret, perhaps my grandad just didn’t realise who she was, but you’d like to think that he might’ve known her son as his cousin.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop looking for Clara in documents, as I’m just so interested in her and what her life was like, but I feel like I’m perhaps a step closer every time I do, now..

C x