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#1
03-05-17, 16:55
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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 ............!!  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?) 
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#3
03-05-17, 17:24
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Wow, that's great news, Terri. Hope you're good at French!
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#4
03-05-17, 19:13
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Quote:
Well done Terri!
__________________
"Something has been filled in that I didn't know was blank" Matthew Broderick WDYTYA? March 2010
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#5
04-05-17, 09:47
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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
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#9
04-05-17, 21:25
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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
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#10
04-05-17, 22:00
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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.
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