Hi Jean,

That is very interesting findings.

When you say the birth index doesn’t have an obvious girls name which could be Lily, which birth index are you referring to? Do you mean the Lawson’s one? Do you think that Lily’s parents died when she was young? She is listed as a visitor on 1891 census, does that mean she just happened to be there, in their house at the time of the census? In 1901 census she is also without parents, living with her cousin.

I think it’s very interesting that a Thomas Shields is listed in the same village, albeit a 66 year old. I can't access the census at the moment on findmypast as I keep receiving an error message.

However I just did a general search for a Thomas Shields on the 1901 census site and findmypast site but both sites return no results, am I doing something wrong? In fact there were zero Thomas Shields registered on the Isle of Man in 1901 census.

We’ve always presumed that Eleanor got pregnant whilst working as a servant in England, it never crossed my mind she could have got pregnant in IOM and gone to England to give birth (perhaps to keep it more secret?).

Thomas is listed as a ‘Contractors Agent’. Do you know what that is exactly? Someone in this equation must have had money to provide for the baby’s future so I’m wondering how good a job this was.