The following is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Michael John Neill.
Assumptions can get us into all kinds of trouble.
We've seen Eleanor Frame in "Casefile Clues" before. The native of Whitehaven, County Cumberland, England, was the wife of Robert Frame. She appeared with him and their children in every census in Carlisle, County Cumberland, from 1841 through 1871. Until 1861 she appears as Robert's wife, providing ages that give a birth year of approximately 1815. Those censuses that provide a specific place of birth indicate she was born in Whitehaven, County Cumberland. Robert Frame died in the 1860s, and Eleanor apparently appeared in her last census record as a 53 year old widow in 1871. Despite trying a variety of creative search approaches, I could not locate Eleanor in any post-1871 census. Based upon this, my conclusion was that she died sometime between the 1871 and 1881 census enumerations.
Of course, a death for Eleanor Frame could not be located in the 1871 through 1881 time frame. This search was conducted using the FreeBMD website (http://freebmd.rootsweb.com). Given that it was possible she was overlooked in 1881 (by either me or the census taker), my search of deaths continued after that year. Still no Eleanor. Users of FreeBMD should note that it is not 100 percent complete, so the possibility also exists that her death record had simply not been indexed. First-time users of FreeBMD are encouraged to learn more about it before spending hours searching it.
While at the Family History Library recently, I decided to take another look at Eleanor and her family while I had ready access to the many church records that have been microfilmed for the Carlisle area. My hope was that perhaps something on one of Eleanor's children would lead me to her.
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