Searching for Kitty Smith

Kitty


Kitty Smith born 1905


Very little was known about Kitty, her birth family, or her life before she settled down with Henry Stephen Jowett (known as Harry Smith) when her son Frank was born in 1929. Kitty was my grandmother and the mother of Frank Henry Smith (b1929), Edward Stephen Smith (b1930) and Jeanette Ann Smith (b1944), There were other children who unfortunately did not survive infancy.

Kitty claimed to have been born in Barrow-in-Furness and said that one of her parents was Irish and the other Scottish. She told the family that she ran away from a convent in Barrow-in-Furness when she was 14 years old and that the nuns were cruel to the girls. She gave up her catholic faith because of it.

Harry


A search of Birth, Marriage, and Death records, and of the UK Census, soon found that Harry was born Henry Stephen Jowett in 1901 and that he changed his name to Smith before 1924 when he married an Elsie Maud Tutton. The reason for his change of name is still unknown.

Harry's marriage to Elsie Maud Tutton didn't last and they parted company soon after. I discovered this when I found Elsie living with her two sisters on the UK Electoral Register for London in 1931 and, later, on the 1939 register with her new partner, James Sinclair Ross, who she eventually married in 1947.

Elsie's 2nd husband, James Sinclair Ross, died in 1977 and Elsie once again moved in with one of her sisters in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, where she died in 1986.

At some point before or after Harry and Elsie parted company, Harry met Kitty and they eventually set up home together in Paddington and, after 1939, in Willesden, both in Greater London.

Kitty and Harry in Islington, London

Kitty told her daughter, Jeanette, that she had worked as a waitress in a Lyons Corner House. She also told the family she was a part-owner in a market stall in Islington with Henry Jowett Snr. (born 1877, in Islington) father of her future partner, Henry Stephen Jowett.

Henry Stephen Jowett had also worked on the market stall for his father but gave up that role, and became estranged from his family before 1924, the year he married Elsie Maud Tutton. He had also changed his name by that date as his marriage certificate was in the name Smith. Henry’s marriage failed and he and Elsie separated. Henry and Kitty had become a couple by 1929/1930 and went on to bring up their family in Paddington where Frank and Edward were born, and Willesden, where Jeanette was born. Kitty appears to have assumed the name Elsie Maud Tutton for most of her life and used this name to register all her children except her eldest, my father Frank Henry Smith.

Kitty died 16/1/1984 in Willesden, London, and her death certificate gave the maiden name Elsie Maud Tutton and had Elsie Maud Tutton's date and place of birth (6/1/1900, Isle of Wight). However, Kitty had a definite Northern accent, not a southern accent, and celebrated her birthday on the 9th October, not the 6th January. Also, the real Elsie Maud Tutton, who married her 2nd husband, Mr James Sinclair Ross, in 1947, didn’t die until 1986.

If I really wanted to find out the truth I knew I had a mammoth task ahead of me - one that I couldn't have attempted before the internet, DNA and family research websites existed! Luckily, all of these options were available to me and I took advantage of all of them in an attempt to solve the mystery......

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