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Messages - Althea7

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 ... 55
1
Devon / Art Shop in Newton Abbot around 1948 to 1949.
« on: Monday 19 May 25 14:59 BST (UK)  »
Does anyone know the name of an Art Shop in Newton Abbot around 1948 to 1949?  What was the owner's name?

2
Australia / Re: Samuel Alexander Park 1851-1894.
« on: Thursday 24 April 25 07:47 BST (UK)  »
Samuel Park is given as the father on Beatrice's marriage certificate.

3
Australia / Re: Samuel Alexander Park 1851-1894.
« on: Thursday 24 April 25 07:39 BST (UK)  »
Birth certificate of Herbert.


4
Australia / Re: Samuel Alexander Park 1851-1894.
« on: Thursday 24 April 25 07:33 BST (UK)  »
Birth certificate of Beatrice.


5
Australia / Re: Samuel Alexander Park 1851-1894.
« on: Wednesday 23 April 25 13:07 BST (UK)  »
Looking at the family, it is complicated isn't it!

If I'm correct, the 2 children, Herbert William and Beatrice Elizabeth were born long before the 1884 marriage, in 1875 and 1877. They have the surname WILSON, and their mother is called "Honoria Clara WILSON formerly BELL" and father Thomas WILSON on Herbert's birth certificate (on a Public Image on Ancestry). Though the mother was born Rebecca Hartley WOOL - who married Samuel Alexander PARK and then Harry Thompson in 1895. And appears with son Herbert and daughter Beatrice in 1891 as Clara PARK (widow).

"Honoria Clara WILSON" is a vocalist. This sounds like a stage name - there are a few mentions in newspapers of vocalist Miss Clara WILSON around the 1870s, but hard to know if this is the same woman.

I'm not sure that I would assume Samuel Alexander PARK was the biological father of Herbert and Beatrice. Herbert is in the 1881 census as Herbert W WILSON (with Rebecca's sister Rosina and family). And Beatrice is in the 1881 census as Beatrice Elizabeth WILSON (with the LUCKIE family).

Do you have any links to the newspaper articles mentioning vocalist Miss Clara Wilson?

It is very complicated.  There was a Thomas Wilson, age 28, born in West Linton, Peebleshire, Scotland, on the 1861 census onboard the Ardent, a Royal Navy ship in Buenos Aires, South America, working as an engineer under chief engineer George Park, Samuel Park's father.  No information that he was ever married to Rebecca, and other than that census I couldn't find any information about him.

I can believe that Rebecca really was a vocalist, as she claims on her children's birth certificates.  It was very odd for Samuel Park to just disappear immediately after their marriage and never appear with them again, the two children even taking his name, and Harry Thompson was listed as a lodger on censuses before marrying Rebecca after Samuel Park's death in 1994, which presumably they learnt about.  Harry Thompson in one newspaper article is described as a Sailor.

It does sound as though Samuel Park worked on ships around the far east and Australia, never as a Captain or even 1st Mate in spite of being qualified with his Masters Certificate.  The Wing Sang, aboard which he died in 1994, was apparently a little tea clipper and he was 2nd Mate.

If I knew more about Thomas Wilson, I could see if any DNA matches link to the paper trail.  Nothing on Samuel Park DNA match wise, and his extended family tree seems to show a lot of Scottish upper middle class to aristocracy, though his own parents seemed to die in relative poverty, retired in Plymouth, England.

It does look as though Thomas Wilson knew Samuel Park.  He definitely knew his father.  I actually wonder if Thomas Wilson had died, maybe lost at sea, and Samuel Park knew him, or of him through his father, and knew this so suggested to Rebecca to use his name on her son Herbert's birth certificate.  Thomas Wilson would have been 22 years older than Rebecca.  The Ardent was in Buenos Aires for some sort of wartime purpose, the Royal Navy was about fighting so loss of life would have been more likely than in the Merchant Navy.

6
Australia / Re: Samuel Alexander Park 1851-1894.
« on: Tuesday 22 April 25 13:21 BST (UK)  »
Marriage in London, June 1884.


7
Australia / Re: Samuel Alexander Park 1851-1894.
« on: Tuesday 22 April 25 13:02 BST (UK)  »
Thanks everyone, you proved that it isn't the same Samuel Park.

I thought all the comings and goings around Sydney, Australia, on passenger lists, and that he is listed as a Mariner, and that he disappeared after marrying my ggg grandmother Rebecca in London in 1884, apparently appearing on a ship in Sydney.  And why Rebecca was hiding her identity on censuses.

I thought this explained why he disappeared, and maybe why in spite of his Master Mariner qualifications, and naval family background he was only ever a 2nd Mate, even on the ship he died on.

8
Burial 15th March 1873.
 
Source: England and Scotland Select Cemetery Registers. Thomas Greenwood born 1817. Occupation: Millhand. Philips Park Cemetery, grave number 405, position 4.

Also his wife Bridget Greenwood, buried 2nd January 1868.
Philips Park Cemetery.  Plot:  Roman Catholic, grave number  688, position 2,  Section E.  One of sources gives her age as 49, born about 1819.

9
Australia / Re: Samuel Alexander Park 1851-1894.
« on: Monday 21 April 25 14:40 BST (UK)  »

Several articles in the papers including this one ....he is a fencer....brother-in-law named...


Sydney Morning Herald 31 Aug 1882
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28376403?

Strange, I am sure this is the same person.  I am not sure who Robert Thomson, publican, is who says he is his brother in law.  Samuel Park's wife, Rebecca, later, after Samuel Parks' death, married a Harry Thompson, described in one newspaper article as a Seaman, in London, England, and his brothers were all close, and Rebecca's sister's husband was a publican and heir to a wealthy "owner of drinking houses" and licensed victualler. Her other sister's husband, who drew up that sister's will, was Joseph Townsend Thompson, who seems to have been literate and educated but ended up in a workhouse, age 21 he was described on the 1881 census as a Solicitors' Clerk.  The Thompsons were a big family born in Canterbury, Kent, very involved with Rebecca's family.

Another explanation is that my ggg Samuel Park committed bigamy, which could explain why Rebecca was very cagey about her name and data on censuses.  I wouldn't be surprised if he had other families in Australia.

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