Frances Mary Paton HARRIS

[KiwiChris]

Here is another one to have some fun with!

Frances Mary Paton HARRIS married Rev Cyril Patrick HANKEY on the 21st April 1925 St George Bloomsbury. Her father was Frank HARRIS author.
1939 she was born 2 September 1898.

Assuming I have the correct Frank HARRIS, he was a rather colourful character, with a number of wives, muses and random children.
https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWharrisF.htm

1898 he was in St Cloud France living with actress May CONGDON, although there seem to have been other women around at the same time. There is a report that he had a daughter with her.

1911 May CONGDON actress b c1872 at sea, is with her actress sister Mabel ADAIR b c1875 Capetown, in Kensington.
Also in Kensington in 1911 is Frances PATON b c1899 St Cloud France who is a ward of Rosamond FAWCETT b c1863 Dublin. Is this Frances Mary Paton HARRIS??
She is possibly also in Bocking Essex in 1901 as Frances May PATON b c1899 France, lodger with Selina SUTTON monthly nurse, b c1845 Bocking Essex

Can anyone find if May CONGDON is the mother of Frances PATON? I am assuming that CONGDON is a stage name, given that her sister has a different surname.

I cannot find a death for May so if anyone can find that the probate might be useful, but I have the probate for Frank HARRIS which was to wife 3 so not helpful, and the probate for wife 2 who died in 1927, she is not the mother as she left him in 1894.

[Merry]

I have been looking, but not found much. There are a few Trove entries for actress May Congdon stating she had started her acting career in London, but I've not read them to see if there's anything about her background or death etc.

[Merry]

Another useless snippet - Frances Mary Hankey died in the hospital where I was born!

[kiterunner]

I thought we had Frank Harris's autobiography in our house, but if so, I can't find it, and my OH is out at the moment so I can't ask him where it is. But in any case, I seem to remember him saying it was a work of fiction, so probably wouldn't be much use.

[kiterunner]

Use this link to access the Saint-Cloud birth records for 1898:
http://consultation.archives.hauts-de-seine.net/mdr/index.php/rechercheTheme/requeteConstructor/3/2/A/405227/Naissances#truc
Click on the image for 1898 and you should get a pop-up window. Go to image number 39 of 54 and there is the birth record for Harris, May Paton (it is continued on image 40). Now to try to decipher and translate it...

[kiterunner]

I should add that it is one of those sites where you have to use the mouse scroll wheel to enlarge the image. Those always confuse me!

[kiterunner]

And yes, it says she was born 2 Sep 1898, the daughter of Frank Harris and May Congdon. Will leave proper deciphering and translation to someone else if needed!

[Merry]

Well done Kate. :)

[Mary from Italy]

Yes, well done for finding it. I don't think there's anything particularly interesting in it apart from the date and parents' names, but I'll have a go at transcribing it.

[Mary from Italy]

This is the first page with the important parts; the second page is declarations by midwives etc. The dots and question marks indicate the parts I can't decipher. Translation to follow.

L’an mil huit cent quatre-vingt dix-huit le cinq septembre à dix heures du matin Devant nous Victor Boutillier, adjoint au Mairie de la Ville de Saint Cloud ... par délégation le fonction d’affaires de l’Etat-Civil, a comparé le sieur Alexandre Roger, cocher, âgé de trente-cinque ans, démeurant à Saint Cloud, avenue Magenta maison? sept, lequel nous a présenté un enfant du sexe féminin, née le deux septembre courant, à cinq heures du soir, fille de Franck Harris, journaliste, âgé de quarante-deux ans ..., démeurant à Saint Cloud, avenue Magenta maison? sept, e de May Congdon, son épouse, sans profession, âgée de vingt-cinq ans, ... auquel enfant il a donné les prénoms de May, Paten.

[Mary from Italy]

The 5th day of September One thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight at 10 a.m. Before me, Victor Boutillier, clerk at Saint-Cloud Town Hall, holding? delegated power for Registry Office matters, there appeared Mr Alexandre Roger, coachman, aged 35 years, resident at Avenue Magenta house? 7, Saint-Cloud, who presented to me a female child born on the 2nd September last, at 5 p.m., daughter of Franck Harris, journalist, aged 42 years, ... resident at Avenue Magenta house? 7, Saint-Cloud, and of May Congdon, his wife, no occupation, aged 25 years, ... to which said child he gave the forenames May, Paten.

[Mary from Italy]

I have to go out now; the rest is more difficult to decipher, but I'll have a go at it later if nobody else does.

I see Franck and May were said to be married.

[Merry]

Also in Kensington in 1911 is Frances PATON b c1899 St Cloud France who is a ward of Rosamond FAWCETT b c1863 Dublin. Is this Frances Mary Paton HARRIS??

Of passing interest... when Rosamond Mary Fawcett died in 1944 one of her executors was Frances Mary Hankey, wife of the Reverend Patrick Hankey clerk.

[KiwiChris]

Wow, thanks everyone, she was exactly who I thought she was.

I am having some fun with the clergy wives as I go through the data base trying to tie up the loose ends before we make it available on line.

It is interesting that there are several with rather colourful backgrounds! I guess that if I did not easily identify them on the initial work up then there is a reason for that. I wonder how much they all knew at the time.

[KiwiChris]

Looking through the newspapers, May CONGDON is mentioned between 1899 and 1929, so she was acting for quite a long time. They all seem to be reviews of plays and I cannot find anything about the person.