Searching for Kitty Smith

The Sisters of Nazareth, Lancaster

As I had reached a brickwall in the search for Kitty after 1911, I decided to join a family history Facebook group for Newcastle, and another group for Barrow-in-Furness. Information I found on the group for Barrow-in-Furness suggested that the girls may have been sent to a convent in Lancaster run by the Sisters of Nazareth - the same order of nuns that ran the Convent in Southend where my father recalled taking his mother. The Sisters of Nazareth were a Roman Catholic order of Nuns. I decided to email the Sisters at their Head Office in London for any information they may hold for Catherine and Margaret Skivington.

Letter from The Nazareth Sisters

The Sisters wrote back to me within a week with a lot of information about Catherine and Margaret Skivington. They confirmed that the girls were admitted to Nazareth House, Lancaster, on the 15th December 1916 and stayed there until 6th May 1919 when they were returned to their father, James Skivington. The records showed that their father had been a soldier and their mother was deceased. Their last known address had been 26 Arthur Street, Barrow.

I assumed that James Skivington couldn't look after his young daughters after their mother died as he had been called up to fight in WW1.

I now needed to find out what happened to the girls after they were returned to their father's care in May 1919.