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This is excellent information. 

It is my understanding that Blanche's sister Kate Tilley emigrated to the USA prior to anyone else in the family.  Kate married Thomas Harvey and had two daughters.  Kate lived to be almost 100 years old.

I assume that my grandmother, Constance, was able to stay with relatives once she arrived in the US.

By the time the rest of the family emigrated in the early 1920s, Constance was married and had three children.

Mary Vivian Richings married John E. Hersam, who was the publisher of The New Canaan Advertiser (which he founded in 1908 and is still run by the Hersam family today and has expanded to include 19 weekly publications in three counties in Connecticut).  It was John's second marriage. and he had children by his first marriage.  John died in 1949.  My mother (who is 92) recalls attending the funeral.  He apparently was an important  and respected community leader.

As you state, Mary Vivian died in 1959.  I recall having dinner with both her and my great aunt Audrey in downtown Los Angeles sometime in 1958.  Both Vivian and Audrey died of cancer.

Regarding Blanche's nephew, Arthur Tilley, my genealogy simply states that he "died without issue" - and doesn't mention WWI specifically.  His father was Blanche's brother, Llewellyn Frank Lewis Tilley (1863-1919) who apparently was married two times (Florence Alice Duckering 1876-1901 and Lillian Agnes Harriet Browne 1874-1967 m. 1902), had 6 children and emigrated and died in India.  Our handwritten family genealogy does not mention either of his two English wives, or the German woman who gave birth to Arthur (do you have her name??).


I'll ask Scott Richings if he has any information regarding James Richings' birthplace.  Scott tried tracing James Richings to John Richings, but couldn't make the connection. 

Thank you !!

No, I don't have a photo of Albert.  I believe that some old family photos are being kept by my cousins on the east coast.  I can certainly e-mail them to see what they might have.  My great grandfather Albert must have been an interesting fellow.  My great-grandfather on my mother's side, however, was a Presbyterian minister.  He died in 1953 at age 83 - and I recall meeting him in 1950 when I was 3.

I know very little about Albert, except that he and Blanche had a bit of a falling out toward the end of his life.  Blanche died in 1942 in Stamford, Connecticut.

Actually I'm surprised how little I actually know about the Richings, given that I'd visit my father and grandparents every summer in Connecticut while growing up.   No one ever sat down with me to explain the family history. 

My records go back to John the Baker - although I don't know how many children he actually had.  As for the "lisp" - I had one too as a child (ha, ha), but fortunately an elementary school speech therapist worked with me to correct it .

I've seen a photo of Elton in uniform.   So sad that he was killed in the Great War, and that his namesake, my uncle Elton, was run down at age 7 by a drunk driver 9 years later.. 

Any information you have regarding Albert, his kin, and Elton would be most appreciated.  I will share it with my siblings, cousins and my own children.

THANKS !!!!!!!

This message is addressed to anyone who has been following this fascinating thread.  Thanks to the information posted by Ishtar, I've confirmed that my great-grandfather, Albert Richings (1855 - 1929) was indeed the son of John and Mary Richings, and the younger brother of the infamous John Richings.    I would love to connect to any of my distant cousins in the UK, New Zealand and Austrailia.   My grandmother, Constance Richings (1893-1966), daughter of Albert, married John A. Jones (another Brit from Birmingham) in the USA (Connecticut) in 1914.  They had five children, including my father David P. Jones (1924 - 2005).  I was born in 1947 and currently live in Phoenix, Arizona.