What happened to Elizabeth Ann Orchard? 

Elizabeth Ann Orchard was born on 14th November 1846 at West Milton, Dorset, and baptised on 13th December in Chickerell, Dorset. She was the eldest child of Thomas Orchard and Eliza née Grant.

Elizabeth married Edward Meaden in Weymouth, Dorset in 1868. The couple had two children, Edward, born in 1869 and died within a few weeks, and Alice born in 1870, both in Weymouth.

Edward senior died early in 1870, just a few months before the birth of his daughter.

In both the 1871 Census Alice was living with her grandparents Thomas and Eliza Orchard, on Portland. Her mother Elizabeth was working as a servant in the home of John Allen, farmer, in Wyke Regis. The most likely situation is that Elizabeth was 'living in' and had left her baby daughter with her parents whilst she was away from home. (Wyke Regis is, in fact, only a few miles from Portland.)

In 1881 Alice was still living with her grandparents. In 1896 Alice married Edward Stone in Weymouth.

What happened to the family after Edward's death?

After 1871 there is no trace of Elizabeth Ann in any Census searched. Various 'lateral' searches have been made, e.g. using variations on surnames, and even searching the UK Censuses for just the christian name(s), age and place(s) of birth. None have revealed any trace of her.

However, family 'legend' says that she married someone with the surname Verion. In fact she appears in official documents using the name Elizabeth Verion, Elizabeth was the informant at her mother, Eliza Orchard's death in 1888 & her sister Alice Orchard's death in 1886 & her name was clearly given as Verion in both cases. Both these deaths occurred in the Weymouth/Portland area.

The mystery is that there is no trace of a marriage to anyone called Verion and no record of a death of Elizabeth Verion has been found so far.

Any help in solving the mystery would be much appreciated!

Back to Family Mysteries Index

Back to Homepage

All content © Alan J Brown

Contact e-mail web@ajbrown.me.uk