Could These Be Alice Mackenzie's Relatives ?

[Debra Arif]

Thanks, How.

Boston (Lincolnshire) would have been a local paper for the Peterborough area. And they are obviously talking about a real family who had lived there just a few years prior to the article being written. So, their claims seem fairly convincing to me.

Finding the marriage would seal it, but perhaps there wasn't one.

I agree that this information had to have come from someone who genuinely thought that Alice McKenzie was the daughter of this Charles Pitts from Peterborough.

The only down side would be if it was a similar story to the one printed in the newspapers from a source in Llanelly who said that Mary Jane Kelly was a local girl named Abby Kelly, daughter of a Marine Store Dealer in the town and who had worked for Mary Jane Rees the abortionist (I think that's a correct summary of the story first investigated by Paul Begg and others) but it turned out that Abby had married and left the country for the US, but the rest of the story was perfectly true.

[Gary Barnett]

Yes, Debs, there is always the possibility that a girl named Alice from Peterborough disappeared and family/neighbours simply suspected she might have been the Whitechapel victim.

Worth trying to track Alice Pitts's movements after 1861, I'd say.

[Debra Arif]

I'm excited to see what you turn up, Gary!
I'm going out soon but will check back later to see what's new. Good luck.

I did find see a baptism date of 4th April 1845, daughter of Martha and Charles as you already have. The surname was spelt with one 't' in those records.

[Gary Barnett]

An Ancestry family tree has an 1863 marriage for this Alice Pitts to a Joseph Kinsey. Joseph died in 1867.

[Anna Morris]

Wonderful information, Gary!

Of interest in the newspaper article is the sentence that says, as I understand it, that Alice had recently visited the city. Peterboro? If that is what it means, Alice is the only London murder victim in the series who had the means to travel just prior to her death. (I know Kate walked about 15 miles to go hopping but Peterboro is far north I think.)

[Gary Barnett]

Wonderful information, Gary!

Of interest in the newspaper article is the sentence that says, as I understand it, that Alice had recently visited the city. Peterboro? If that is what it means, Alice is the only London murder victim in the series who had the means to travel just prior to her death. (I know Kate walked about 15 miles to go hopping but Peterboro is far north I think.)

Thanks, Anna.

Peterborough is about 70/80 miles north of London.

Good point about her having the means to travel back to her home town.

*

Am I clutching at straws in noticing the similarity between 'Kinsey' and 'McKenzie?

[Debra Arif]

Am I clutching at straws in noticing the similarity between 'Kinsey' and 'McKenzie?

They are very similar sounding names. Also, I was just checking my original post on the Whitechapel Infirmary entries for Alice McKenzie in 1884 (four of them) and in one the name of her dead husband looks like john but the other three look like Joseph, a cabinet maker or carpenter. If Joseph Kinsey was a carpenter or similar...

https://www.jtrforums.com/showthread.php?t=23745

[Gary Barnett]

They are very similar sounding names. Also, I was just checking my original post on the Whitechapel Infirmary entries for Alice McKenzie in 1884 (four of them) and in one the name of her dead husband looks like john but the other three look like Joseph, a cabinet maker or carpenter. If Joseph Kinsey was a carpenter or similar...

I haven't found him in '61. His father was a coal carrier. The marriage cert would help, of course.

[Robert Linford]

Great find, Gary!


You say Kinsey and I say McKenzie
You say Carthy and I say McCarthy
Kinsey, McKenzie
Carthy, McCarthy
Let's call the whole thing off.

[Gary Barnett]

And of course Kinsey and 'Kenzie are almost indistinguishable. (Another straw!)

[Gary Barnett]

Great find, Gary!


You say Kinsey and I say McKenzie
You say Carthy and I say McCarthy
Kinsey, McKenzie
Carthy, McCarthy
Let's call the whole thing off.

Thanks, Rob.

If nothing comes up online, I may disturb the moths in my wallet and order the marriage cert. (Just don't tell the Mrs.)

[Robert Linford]

The moths are safe.

[Gary Barnett]

Well done!

In my book, a chair maker is close enough to a carpenter.

(The moths have asked me to pass on their thanks.)

[Robert Linford]

Yes, chair making is what you might call a splinter group of carpentry.

[Pat Marshall]

In the earlier Workhouse records 75-83 .....3 in Tower Hamilets and one in Mint Street Southwark it looked like widow of Joseph a Cabinet Maker
After that it looked like John Carpenter. I thought this must be John McCormack. Brilliant find by the way....Lets hammer this one !
Pat .......

Sorry just seen I am repeating your post Debra. Apologies....