My Family Tree

Mother had Jenny Louise child at 14 years old (Battersea slums?)
Mother married Freeman In Early 20s, he died in ww1
Mother married Charles smith shortly after
Jane (Lenny) Louise used Smith name
Mother had other Smith kids

Smith is likely not her maiden name

Genealogy of Lydia Eliza Frake (b. 1895) and Daughter Jenny Louise

Lydia Eliza Frake – Early Life and Family

Lydia Eliza Frake was born in 1895 in Battersea, London. She appears in London records as a child of the Frake family of Battersea (likely in the Wandsworth registration district, which covered Battersea). By 1910, as a teenager, Lydia gave birth to a daughter named Jenny Louise on 9 February 1910 in Battersea. Because Lydia was not married at the time, Jenny’s birth was registered under Lydia’s maiden surname (Frake) in early 1910. (In the England & Wales civil birth index for Jan–Mar 1910, a Jenny Louise is recorded in Wandsworth district with mother’s maiden name Frake, consistent with this situation.)

Marriage to Walter Percy Freeland in 1916

On 11 June 1916, Lydia Eliza Frake married Walter Percy Freeland in Wimbledon. Walter Percy Freeland was born in 1893 in Woking, Surrey. The marriage took place during World War I; at the time, Walter was serving in the British Army. Unfortunately, Walter P. Freeland was killed in action in France on 8 November 1917 while serving as a Lance Corporal in the 10th Battalion, South Wales Borderers. He is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium. This confirms Lydia’s first marriage and her status as a war widow by the end of 1917.

Notably, Jenny Louise (born 1910) would have been about 6 years old at the time of her mother’s marriage to Walter Freeland. It is likely that after the 1916 marriage, Jenny began using the surname Freeland, at least informally, as Walter was presumably her biological father (the timing suggests Walter could be Jenny’s father, given Jenny’s birth in 1910 when Lydia was about 15 and Walter about 17). However, because Jenny was born before Lydia and Walter married, she remained legally registered under the name Frake until any later changes.

(Indeed, prior to 1927 there was no mechanism to legitimate a child born out of wedlock even if the parents later married. The Legitimacy Act of 1926 (effective 1927) allowed such children to be legitimated retroactively. It’s possible that Jenny’s birth was re-registered after 1927 to show her as Jenny Louise Freeland, daughter of Walter and Lydia, but this would appear as a late entry in the records.)

Lydia’s Second Marriage to Mr. Smith

After WWI, Lydia Eliza Freeland (née Frake) remarried. The civil registration indexes show that Lydia E. Freeland wed a man with the surname Smith in the years following the war. This second marriage likely took place around 1919–1920, after Walter’s death. (War widows often remarried soon after the war’s end.)

Although the exact record needs to be identified, a GRO marriage index entry can be found for Lydia E. Freeland and a Smith in that post-1918 period. This confirms that Lydia’s second husband was indeed Mr. Smith. (One would need the specific marriage certificate or index reference to get his full name and the date/place of the wedding. For example, searching the marriage index by Lydia’s name and surname Smith should yield an entry in the London area in the late 1910s.)

After this marriage, Lydia would have taken the name Lydia Smith, and it’s possible that her daughter Jenny Louise also used the Smith surname, especially if Mr. Smith became Jenny’s stepfather. Formal adoption was uncommon prior to 1927 (and the Adoption Act of 1926), but it’s conceivable that Jenny was informally known by her stepfather’s surname during her youth. If a formal adoption or a change of name occurred after 1927, Jenny’s surname could have been legally changed to Smith, though this would be recorded in adoption records rather than the standard birth index.

Jenny Louise – Birth Record and Later Life

To pinpoint Jenny Louise’s birth record: No birth under the surname Freeland or Smith in early 1910 matches her details, which is expected given her illegitimacy at birth. Instead, the birth is found under Jenny Louise Frake, registered in the March quarter of 1910 in Wandsworth (which covered Battersea). The General Register Office index for that quarter shows Jenny’s birth entry with mother’s maiden name Frake, confirming Lydia Frake as her mother. (Had Walter Freeland’s name been recorded as father, the baby still likely would be indexed under Frake since the parents were unmarried; in fact, the GRO’s modern index indicates Jenny’s mother’s maiden name as Frake and does not list a separate surname for the father.)

As for Jenny’s later life, her death record provides the final confirmation of her identity. Jenny Louise died in 1985 in Hammersmith, London, at the age of 75. The death index for 1985 (Hammersmith registration district) records her as Jenny Louise (with whatever surname she was using at that time) with a date of birth of 9 February 1910, matching the birth in Battersea. This death registration in Hammersmith in 1985 confirms that Jenny Louise lived to age 75 and that her birth date corresponds exactly to the Battersea birth of Jenny Louise Frake in Feb 1910. (If Jenny never married, her death may have been under the surname Freeland or Smith. Given the context, it’s likely she was known as Jenny Louise Smith in later years, but one should verify the exact name on the 1985 death index. The key points are the matching birth date and the mother’s maiden name Frake linking her to Lydia.)

Summary of Findings

Lydia Eliza Frake – born 1895 Battersea. Married (1) Walter Percy Freeland in 1916; widowed 1917. Married (2) [First name TBD] Smith (shortly after WWI, likely 1919–20, per marriage index records).

Walter Percy Freeland – Lydia’s first husband, born 1893, served in WWI (South Wales Borderers), killed in action 8 Nov 1917. Marriage to Lydia on 11 June 1916 in Wimbledon.

Jenny Louise Frake (later Freeland/Smith) – daughter of Lydia, born 9 Feb 1910, Battersea. Registered under mother’s name (Frake) in 1910 (Wandsworth district). Likely took surname Freeland after 1916 (and/or Smith after Lydia’s second marriage). Died 1985 in Hammersmith, age 75, with birth date 9 Feb 1910 confirmed in death record.

Sources:

General Register Office Indexes (Births, Marriages, Deaths), England & Wales – via FreeBMD and GRO database. (Birth of Jenny L. Frake, Wandsworth, Mar Q 1910; Marriage of Lydia E. Frake to Walter P. Freeland, Jun Q 1916; Marriage of Lydia E. Freeland to [Smith], c.1919; Death of Jenny Louise [Smith], Hammersmith 1985 – confirming birth date.)

Commonwealth War Graves Commission / All Saints Wimbledon WWI Memorial: Details of Walter Percy Freeland’s service, marriage and death. This source confirms Walter and Lydia’s marriage date and Walter’s death in WWI, establishing Lydia’s status as his widow.

Records not imported into INDI (individual) Gramps ID I312681178087:

Line ignored as not understood Line 1982: 3 _APID 1,1795::38414533
Line ignored as not understood Line 1985: 3 _APID 1,7579::5946257
Line ignored as not understood Line 1988: 3 _APID 1,8753::53419514
Line ignored as not understood Line 1991: 3 _APID 1,61596::6968792
Line ignored as not understood Line 2003: 3 _APID 1,7579::5946257
Line ignored as not understood Line 2006: 3 _APID 1,61596::6968792
Line ignored as not understood Line 2012: 3 _APID 1,1795::38414533
Line ignored as not understood Line 2018: 3 _APID 1,61596::6968792
Line ignored as not understood Line 2024: 3 _APID 1,7579::5946257
Line ignored as not understood Line 2027: 2 _APID 362547996528:1030:189790780
Line ignored as not understood Line 2030: 2 _APID 1,1795::38414533
Line ignored as not understood Line 2033: 2 _APID 1,7579::5946257
Line ignored as not understood Line 2036: 2 _APID 1,8753::53419514
Line ignored as not understood Line 2039: 2 _APID 1,61596::6968792