Author Topic: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park  (Read 17872 times)

Phil

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #44 on: October 18, 2016, 10:45:11 AM »
Elizabeth

If you have your original Birth certificate, then it should give the name of your birth mother at least. Also you say you were given up for adoption by your grandmother. If your adopted parents knew your grandmothers name, then surely this is the place to start your search.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

Abt

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #45 on: October 18, 2016, 12:41:16 PM »
Elizabeth, Phil will vouch for me .If you wish to message me in confidence with the details on your certificate I will see what I can find out about your birth family.

Phil

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #46 on: October 18, 2016, 12:56:01 PM »
Elizabeth

I can and will vouch for Alberta 100% as I know of many people she has helped with these sort of problems in the past. I know that I have no need to worry about her discretion in these matters so nor should you. I also know that Alberta knows the form in these matters but could I just ask you that any information concerning people that still might be living today is kept to the private messaging system.

I think the messaging system becomes available for you to use after you have made about 5 posts.
Phil died in 2020. RIP.

ELIZABETH1

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #47 on: October 18, 2016, 10:44:42 PM »
Thank you Phil and Alberta...


I am just trying to bump my posts past 5 so that I can persoanal message Alberta tomorrow    :)

ELIZABETH1

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #48 on: October 18, 2016, 10:45:11 PM »
I am just trying to bump my posts past 5 so that I can persoanal message Alberta tomorrow   
Another bump............. 

ELIZABETH1

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #49 on: October 18, 2016, 10:45:41 PM »
I am just trying to bump my posts past 5 so that I can persoanal message Alberta tomorrow   


And another one........... 

Abt

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #50 on: October 20, 2016, 03:44:48 PM »
Received your massage Elizabeth and replied

ELIZABETH1

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #51 on: October 20, 2016, 09:59:31 PM »
Thank you so much for your help. :)

somethingshort

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Woodville Home for Unmarried Mothers
« Reply #52 on: May 25, 2018, 07:08:54 PM »
My Mother has unhappy memories of this place. She remembers the Matron in Charge who would walk past and smack you across the face for nothing...she would tell you to get out of the way and find something to do. Then she used to retire to the Housekeeper's room .....(Mum thought it was her girlfriend - there were many stories going about). Doreen who was a patient was actually the daughter of a Lady somebody.......she came from abroad and had to pay to come here. She remembers Mary and Sheila - Sheila was my Mum's baby's godmother, christened at St. Edwards by Father Bull. Father Bull and Father Wall were the Priests at St. Edwards.....there was another one. My Mum was there for about 2-3 months in the late stages of pregnancy. She said she worked. Scrubbing, cleaning, toilets, washing, ironing, running errands. Sometimes you were allowed out but you had to have someone with you. You went to Church, which was St. Edwards opposite, but occasionally you went out just to walk around the streets to see where you were. There were about ten or twelve unmarried Mother's from entirely different walks of life. There were three wards (?) and they had to be cleaned from top to bottom every day. Mostly people went to Selly Oak Hospital to have their babies. (I asked if she was taken there and she replied "Oh no....there were no niceties. We walked - almost always managing to get there before the baby was delivered). My Mum remembers Sheila and Mary (both Mary and Sheila were having babies and were in a very advanced state of pregnancy - you had to be six months pregnant before you were admitted) in particular and an Irish girl (she can't remember her name) as being extremely nice girls and they all became very friendly and supportive to each other ("Very.  Very...." my Mum says). The Irish girl had a son and she was a devout Catholic. All the girls were Catholics. Mum also remembers that they had to dig in the garden and she hated this. The Housekeeper used to cook the food and the girls laid the tables, served the food, collected the plates and if anyone wanted water, the girls would serve it. Mum thinks the house was self supporting. Only a Matron, an Assistant Matron and the Housekeeper. You never questioned what they told you to do. Just did it.
Mum said there was always a question mark over the Matron who ran the Home....but she couldn't remember her name. Mum could never understand how the Assistant Matron was such a lovely old dear (old to Mum, but she could have been young?)  She thinks that the age for retirement was around 50, then. This Assistant Matron only ever spoke to the girls kindly and Mum thinks that she was retired when she came to Woodville. She thinks she was a Midwife and more than qualified to do the job. She did deliver a baby once. They were just taken across the road to the hospital, checked over and then returned to the home.

I felt it was essential to write this.......My Mum is 98 years old now, born 1919 (she was at Woodville in 1940) and remembers things vividly although she has never wanted to talk so freely as she does now, only ever with my Father. If anyone has anything to add to this - or indeed can think of any questions I could ask my Mum......please do. I doubt anyone is still living who remembers being at this place in 1940. Yet Mum says..... " -but the Children are".

Android1968

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #53 on: March 19, 2024, 04:24:09 PM »
Hello
I'm just trying to research my grandmother, Julia Doherty who was in Woodville and gave birth to my mother (Sorrento Maternity Home, Moseley) in late September 1939. From what I can gather she was only sixteen at the time and obviously had my mother adopted which was finalised in March 1941. I wonder if they were in there at the same time... She returned to Ireland and left my mother in Birmingham. I've contacted various institutions to try and trace my grandmother. St Edwards, Father Hudson's Care, Archdiocese of Birmingham, etc. I weirdly have a baptism certificate for my grandmother from St Edwards in Selly Park from 1922 which makes me think that her mother also had to flee Ireland in 1922 to have my grandmother illegitimately. But then I presumed my grandmother had at some point returned to Ireland. Unfortunately I can't find any mention of her in the General Records Office.... All very frustrating. If anybody has any ideas as to the best way to find her I would be very grateful.

Alberta

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Re: Mother and baby unit run by nuns in Selly Park
« Reply #54 on: March 20, 2024, 09:21:18 AM »
Hi, 1939  register taken 29 of December 1939 ,has an entry for Maternity hospital , 15 Wake green Road, Moseley.




Julia M Doherty , single, patient,birthdate  22nd July 1914, 25years old not 16, occupation Domestic Servant.
above the entry is pencilled in Heather Joy Handy born 28th Sept 1939, but i found a julia M Doherty mother Doherty registered in 1939. 

There is also the  name,Hunt, in blue ink by the babys entry.

It appears Julia was in the hospital for a while after her babys birth.



Do any of these names interest you.  Alberta.


 

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