View Full Version : Found! One missing great aunt, whoo hooooo
Well .....................!!! Absolutely gobsmacked!
Great aunt Maud Jessie, vanished after 1911, no marriage, no death, no trace.
Disappointing because she was the only member of a very large family whose details were not complete and I'd long since given up searching.
An hour ago, I received a message - in very broken English from Maud Jessie's grand daughter. In 1912, the cheeky woman went to Paris to work as a chamber maid, married a French fella and stayed. She apparently had 8 children and died in Versailles in 1971.
Not in a million years would I have guessed ............!! :D
So I have a whole and large new family to get to know and the grand daughter has photographs too!
(Am the only softie who goes all shaky and tearful when this sort of thing happens?)
That is amazing, Terri!
I've never made contact with anyone closer than a third or fourth cousin.
kiterunner
03-05-17, 17:24
Wow, that's great news, Terri. Hope you're good at French!
Hope you're good at French!
lol!
Well done Terri! :D
Omg, I have acquired loads of photos - of my English ancestors too, including one of my great great grandmother. And this: (Sorry, I just had to post this!)
Maud came to France in the 1910s, after her mother Harriet died (in 1909). Maybe in 1911, when her employer died too, maybe later, we don’t know (certainly before august 1914!). We had been told that she came to Paris to meet her fiance, an officer from the British Indian Army. To be honest, this part of the story sounded weird, until yesterday when I noticed on your website that she worked for Emily Bayley, who had so many connections with India! Maybe she met him there... (my mother used to say that she was working for a Miss Baily - the real name of the lady changes everything).
Maud went to Paris and didn't marry the mysterious officer for an unknown reason (there are so many things Maud kept secret). She stayed in Paris anyway, there was a great need for maids at that time. She worked as a housekeeper for a wealthy English family. First in Neuilly (smart adress), then in a huge apartment located 43 avenue de l'Opera (smarter adress). Their name was Mander. We suppose they were investors, as many of them came to Paris from all over the world during the Belle Epoque. They had two sons, Henry and Mark. We know that Mark was rather snobish: he couldn’t eat his breakfast before his horse ride along the Bois de Boulogne. If I give you all these details, it's just because Mark, the very handsome Mark, is... my grandfather.
As a matter of fact, it was not the kind of story you read in Maupassant's novels (or Thomas Hardy on your side of the Channel), she wasn’t a young girl raped by an horrible boss... It was sad, but not sordid. Actually, she loved him (and he loved her, I hope). But for obvious reasons, it couldn’t end in a mariage, could it?
Their love affair lasted a few years, maybe 5. Mark Mander was much younger than she. When Maud became pregnant, in june 1919, the family proposed a deal: the child would be adopted by the Mander family and live somewhere in the countryside (if ever he survived). Maud would stay, as if nothing had happened. In case of refusal, she would be sacked.
She refused. So she was sacked.
As she wanted her baby to be English, she came back to England and gave birth at Brentford : my mother, Winifred Joyce, is born on 12th March 1920. Father « unknown » so Winnie was given the name of Randall. Maud was 38
Great stuff, Terri. Well done you. :)
What a story! Real Sunday evening telly stuff! Wish it was mine - I'd really enjoy writing
about it. And no, you're not alone in your emotional response. Its part of your personal
history, after all.
What a great find! There is hope for all of us with those missing relatives who must be out there somewhere!
Olde Crone
04-05-17, 21:25
I remember my similar astonishment when trying and failing to kill off a very ordinary ag lab. In the end I googled and discovered the reason I couldn't find his death in Cheshire, where he should have been, was because his uncle/ godfather had died and left him a huge estate in the Turks and Caicos islands!
OC
Mary from Italy
04-05-17, 22:00
What an excellent contact, Terri!
I've had some wonderful contacts over the years; some of them knew very little about genealogy, so I gave them far more genealogical information than I received, but in turn they've given me stories and photos and put me in touch with living relatives.
What a wonderful find Terri. A sad story but wonderful that you know it.
anne fraser
05-05-17, 18:38
An amazing story and brilliant to have the photos. Not long after I started this hobby I was contacted by the grandson of one of my grandfather's uncles who I had assumed had died young. It turned out George had become a missionary to native Americans. You would have expected that some of these stories would be handed down through the family.
It's amazing - I guess the moral of the story is, never give up on your ancestors. They might appear to have vanished off the planet .......... but they are there ....... somewhere you least expect them to be.
I've had the 2nd instalment of "Maud's story". The gist being, she went back to France with her daughter, and got a job working for a high-class prostitute, (doing what I have no idea!!) This was very near to where her daughter's father lived - presumably hoping to "bump into him". Not the best environment for a small child however, so then she got a job working in a posh shoe shop that sold American shoes. Apparently Maud couldn't speak a word of French and despite her long years living there, never could!
Anstey Nomad
06-05-17, 12:40
Every high class prostitute needed a maid. It was an essential part of the set up.
What a great story! You are so lucky to have this.
An amazing story and brilliant to have the photos. Not long after I started this hobby I was contacted by the grandson of one of my grandfather's uncles who I had assumed had died young. It turned out George had become a missionary to native Americans. You would have expected that some of these stories would be handed down through the family.
I'm always amazed at just how much isn't handed down. A New Zealand - born
ancestor was described by my Gran as 'having done very well for himself' but
that was all. I forgot about it until I discovered him for myself a few years
ago - what a life! Business tycoon, writer & inventor, he was awarded the OBE
for his fund raising during WW1 & donated six Hurricanes to the WW2 war
effort. Oh, and he married the NZ Premier's daughter & fathered an
illegitimate son with a Maori princess, causing a curse to be placed on the
family.
You'd have thought at least some of that would have been worth mentioning,
wouldn't you?
On the other hand, some of what was handed down in my family had to be taken with a very large grain of salt. The captain in the Indian Army turned out to be a corporal, twice busted down from sergeant rank; his 'Spanish' bride was more likely an Anglo-Indian; his youngest son (my gt grandfather), a timber feller, who reputedly died with a fork in his hand actually died while in his tent when a large tree fell on him -the fork was the fork of the tree which smashed his watch.
My mother had a fairly unusual maiden name which was easy to trace and although I was able to confirm that one of her gt uncles received an OBE for services to the British Museum and a cousin's second marriage (to a knight) made her 'Lady Wotsit', I was sadly unable to substantiate Mum's claim we were related to the Queen's gynaecologist.
You win some, you lose some.
The story nobody wanted to remember was 'Aunty May' who acquired a long history of intermittent jail sentences for drunken behaviour, soliciting and shop lifting.
Olde Crone
07-05-17, 12:35
One set of ggps had a large family. TWO of their sons were kicked to death by a horse on their farm, ten years apart. As this was in living memory of several of my relatives, you would think someone would have mentioned it!
OC
One set of ggps had a large family. TWO of their sons were kicked to death by a horse on their farm, ten years apart. As this was in living memory of several of my relatives, you would think someone would have mentioned it!
OC
I would, OC - if only to warn the family to be extremely careful around horses
(!)
The total lack of verbal family information is something that has constantly amazed me.
My gran (bless her!) knew everything about everyone in her street, going back generations, and gossiped about them to anyone who would listen, but said not a word about her own family. As a child I never even noticed .........
But you don't, do you? A few years later I would have wanted to know exactly what was
meant by 'doing very well for themselves' but at the time it just didn't seem as if it had
very much to do with me. Big regrets about not questioning my Gran on all sorts of
topics.
maggie_4_7
07-05-17, 15:07
Wonderful news.
I have a missing ancestor and have never ever found out what happened to her, she literally disappeared at age 24 after marrying above her station and him dying 3 years later - gives me hope that one day I will find her.
Uncle John
12-05-17, 18:28
As far as I know my only "missing link" is the man who appeared from nowhere after the 1901 census, married my granny's sister and then disappeared again before the 1911 census. A large search party from FTF failed to find out anything about him.
kiterunner
12-05-17, 18:45
Feel free to start a thread on here about him if you like, UJ.
Oooh, yes please - I'm bored stupid!
ElizabethHerts
12-05-17, 18:59
We don't get enough queries these days to get our teeth into!
Margaret in Burton
13-05-17, 04:59
Oooh, yes please - I'm bored stupid!
Feel free to carry on looking for Peter Henry Harrison. :D:D
lol Marg!! What would it take? A time machine to go back and stop the MoD culling his military records?
Margaret in Burton
13-05-17, 07:14
lol Marg!! What would it take? A time machine to go back and stop the MoD culling his military records?
Or even further back to stop the b*gger seemingly lie through his teeth all of his life.
kiterunner
13-05-17, 09:09
Oh, and Maggie, of course, feel free to post a thread about yours too!
maggie_4_7
07-07-17, 15:47
Oh, and Maggie, of course, feel free to post a thread about yours too!
I keep meaning to do this but haven't got around to it yet, so much going on.
I shall put my mind to it over the weekend hopefully.
I still have a few missing ones I can dig out. :)
No update from me:
The Mysterious Mander family (despite being wealthy business people) seemingly came and went on this Earth without leaving a single trace of their existence. Every lead has been a dead end.
I've had my French relatives trotting off to the French version of our archives and they have found not a single mention of them in any context.
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