Most family historians will have come up against ‘brick walls’ or other difficulties in finding out certain facts about some of their ancestors, such as when and where were they born, who their parents were, or when and where did they die.
These brick walls are most likely to occur prior to the introduction of civil registration and the censuses of 1841 and beyond. I have found several such cases in my own research, but two in particular stand out as being particularly intriguing. They both concern the ‘disappearance’ of women named Eliza, sometime during the 1850s and 1860s, when records really should exist.
I am hoping that someone who reads this might have experienced similar problems and be able to offer an explanation, or better still, has researched the two families involved and knows the answers.
Introducing Eliza No. 1
This Eliza was a great-great aunt of mine. My great-grandfather was John Dance (1827-1898), who had a younger brother Joseph Dance (1833-1899). On 18 May 1858, at Christ Church,
