What happened to Elizabeth?

Elizabeth Gandy marries Thomas Keeling

Great grandmother Elizabeth remarried in 1893, after her divorce from Ike in 1892. Using her maiden name Stevens, Elizabeth married Thomas Keeling on the 20th of May 1893 in Prescot. The wedding was recorded in the St. Ambrose Church registers, with Thomas’ brother Rueben and sister-in-law Maryann Keeling as witnesses. Elizabeth was then 34 years old and Thomas Keeling 30 years old.

St Ambrose Church
St Ambrose Church, Widnes, 1969. Photo Barry Miller

After the marriage at St Ambrose Church, Halton View, Widnes, a new mystery appears. What happened to great grandmother Elizabeth and her second husband Thomas Keeling after 1893? Elizabeth and Thomas were not recorded as living in Widnes in the 1901 Census, so where did they live? Did they have any children – Elizabeth was still of childbearing age on her marriage to Thomas?

Evidence points to Elizabeth dying between her second marriage in 1893 and the 1901 Census. If so, what was her cause of death? And where is she buried? So far I have found no record of Elizabeth’s death or burial.  There are however details of her husband, which provides som clues. See Who was Thomas Keeling?

Grandfather William Stephen Gandy

In 1901 Ike and Elizabeth’s only child, son William Stephen, my grandfather,  age 23, occupation coal merchant was living at 19 & 21 Marsh Street, Widnes with his grandmother Mary Stevens (Elizabeth’s mother), widow, publican age 81 and her son Thomas, Elizabeth’s older brother, joiner, age 46.

William Stephen Gandy
Grandfather William Stephen Gandy

That same year, 1901, William married Mary Agnes Murphy and they then had 15 children, including my father Harold Gandy. The family lived in Church Street, West Bank and then moved 20 Midwood Street in Widnes.