The life of a con man part 2

[deb usa]

ummm will keep looking

just as a reference


1851;
Birmingham
Josiah James 56 Gt Malvern, Worcester
Mary Ann 34 Deal, Kent
Frederick 18, oxford
Edwin 12 , Oxford
Emma 10 , Cheltenham
Charles 6, cheltenham
Frank  2, Birmingham

Julian Alexander Turner b 1855 Birmingham
Ann Maria Turner b 1853, Birmingham

deb

jay .... geezzzzzzzzz I have no clue where JTO was ... he was in Canada by 1885 when he married Margaret Close .... I can't find her either ....

[Trees]

I've been working practically all day filling in the data on my tree that you have found and I am still only up to page 5 gosh this is a book not an entry on a twig of the tree I am wondering how it is going to look when I print it out
WONDERFUL

[Dinosaur]

Archives are closed today (Sunday) so I can join you for a little while.

About ETO's siblings, his eldest brother was Frederick Turner (who never used the surname Osbaldeston). Frederick was baptised at St Thomas', Jericho, Oxford on 12 Aug 1832. In the parish register the name of his mother, Mary Ann Turner, is recorded but there's no father's name. According to ETO Frederick was raised by relatives but I don't know who they were or where they lived. Maybe the Oxford neighborhood of Jericho? I didn't find him in the 1841 census.

As you already know, Frederick is with his parents and siblings at the time of the 1851 census. On 11 April 1855 he enlisted in the Royal Artillery in Birmingham and went on to have a distinguished military career. He was an instructor at the RA School of Gunnery in Shoeburyness, Essex for several years and then moved to Newcastle. He married twice, had a son in 1862 by his first wife Elizabeth Murray who died sometime between 1862 and 1871; a daughter Elizabeth "without benefit of clergy" ca. 1879, and several children by his second wife (his first cousin Frances Maria Turner) who he married in June 1884.

ETO also enlisted in the RA, on 22 Jan 1859 in Birmingham. He was stationed in Malta from 26 May 1860 until 28 Aug 1861. When he returned to the UK he was stationed on the Isle of Wight. He deserted from the RA in mid-July 1862.

Every time ETO was asked to fill out an official form he would insert a lie or two. His RA enlistment form was the first of many forms on which he lied. He also lied when he applied to become a naturalized US citizen, claiming that he was Swedish and that he had arrived in the US in 1850. On his 1902 passport application he claimed he had arrived in the US in 1854. He also fibbed on the Adelaide Gaol register and the Yatala Labour Prison register.

ETO's first visit to the US was to San Francisco in late 1875 as passenger ship's physician. He and his daughter Annie Mabel stayed about six weeks and then moved to New Zealand from Jan-Oct 1876. ETO, Alice Agnes Moore (who ETO met in London), and his daughter Annie Mabel appear to have emigrated to New York from England in Feb 1880. Deb, where did you find the passenger list that shows an S Osbaldestone, 28, Mrs O, and Miss I or T O, 6 arriving on board the ERIN on 26 Feb 1880?

The third child of Josiah Scudder Osbaldeston and his step-daughter Mary Ann Turner was Emma (aka Emily), born in early 1841. I haven't found her exact date of birth or her baptism. On 6 Aug 1860 she married Joseph Harnel Vernon at St Martin's in Birmingham. On the certificate her name appears as Emily Turner Osbeldeston.

I have not found Mary Ann Turner and her youngest children or Joseph and Emily Vernon in the 1861 census. They may have been living together.

Josiah Scudder Osbaldeston and his wife Mary Ann Lewis Turner, the widow of Royal Navy lieutenant Charles Pye Turner, had four children:  Maria, baptised in Woodstock, Oxon on 28 Oct 1825; Henry William, bapt Witney, Oxon 6 Apr 1828; Bridget, born ca. 1832 (I haven't found her baptism); and, thanks to Sue Teakle, Joseph, bapt in Gloucester in 1835. Sue, can you pls tell me on what date and in which church?

The family appears to have had an acrimonious parting in 1844:  Josiah Osbaldeston, Mary Ann Turner and their children went to live in Birmingham. Mary Ann Lewis Turner Osbaldeston and her daughter Maria moved to Oxford. (Mary Ann Lewis Turner Osbaldeston began receiving her Royal Navy widow's pension in Oxford in the last quarter of of 1844.) She died in Oxford on 11 Dec 1857. Daughter Maria remained unmarried and didn't die until 1912!

In the article “Had a Life of Adventure,” Detroit Free Press, Sunday, 9 January 1898, ETO's youngest brother Julian said he and friend stowed away on a ship that took them to Norway. He later went to South Africa. I don't have the article with me so can't tell you the dates but the stowing away must have taken place before the 1871 census.

What is the reference for Francis James, visitor in Worcestershire in the 1861 census?

I don't know how long a post can be so before this one self-destructs, I'm going to sign off. ttyl

[Trees]

Wow Dinosaur that answers a lot of questions now dare I add a few more?
Do you have the death of Alice?
Do you have the death of Annie Mabel? We have found one
MI in Carlyle
located between Rutherglan and Wahguiyah
In Loving Memory of John KNOWLES 29 12 1938 age 76
In Loving Memory of ANNIE MABEL KNOWLES 24 9 1935 age 58
but as you know she married Fredric Elliot KNOWLES so who was John?
Why  was Edwina Agnes the only one found in the IGI were Ethel Augusta and Edwina one or two people there is a mystery about Edwina?
how many children did Alice have  i think I am missing one from what it said on the censuses
H

[deb usa]

Hi and WOW!!!!

Thanks for the info Dinosaur ...what a story!!!!

I found S, mrs and Miss I/T Osbaldestone passenger list on ancestr*. The date of arrival seems to fit with what Annie Mabel says and they are there in time for ETO to marry Alice Agnes in March 1880. The fact that ETO states that he arrived in the US on board the Erin (passport application for him and Edwin Julian) seems too coincidental!

deb

[fishweb]

Hi to all ,
re Mary Ann Turner otherwise known as Emily/Emma married to Joseph Harnel Vernon.

Don't know if this means anything but in this article in the New York Times re
Say His Father is Cruel
 http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C01E4D61F3FEF33A25755C0A9609C94629ED7CF

a Mrs Vernon is mentioned as an Aunt of Edwin Jnr. Could this be Mary Ann Turner/ Vernon?

regards

Cathy

[Dinosaur]

Some answers ...
Alice Agnes Moore Osbaldeston died on 9 Jan 1921 in East Orange, New Jersey. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, in the borough of Bronx, New York City.

She had 7 children:  Ethel Monica Augusta (born 4 Oct 1880, Rome, Oneida County, NY); Edwina Agnes (born 30 Jan 1882, NYC-died 27 Aug 1881, Newport, Rhode Island); Edwin Julian (4 May 1883, NYC); Geneva Agnes (23 June 1885, NYC); my grandmother Normandie Alice (27 July 1887, NYC); Francis Scudder (18 July 1889, NYC); and Alberta Victoria (7 June 1891, NYC). I have no idea why Edwina is the only one on the IGI. (Our great-aunt Ethel left notes with the names, birthdates, and dates of death of all her siblings so I hadn't bothered to look for them on the IGI.)

When ETO was in jail in Binghamton, NY in Nov 1880 for stealing a horse and carriage Alice Agnes took baby Ethel and her 14-year-old stepdaughter Annie Mabel to England. They sailed from New York to Liverpool on the SS Italy on 1 Dec 1880. In the “Passengers Sailed” section of the New York Times their surname was mis-spelled Ospaldeston.

ETO escaped from Broome County Jail in Binghamton on 6 Dec 1880. I believe he made his way to England before the end of April 1881. One of the newspaper articles on www.fultonhistory.com mentions that the Broome County sheriff in Binghamton received a letter from ETO from England. Also, as several of you have already noticed, daughter Edwina was born at the end of Jan 1882.

By the way, another excellent website for newspapers from northern New York state is:  http://news.nnyln.net  (the Northern New York Library Network). I found a number of ETO-related articles on that website, mostly but not exclusively in the Franklin County newspapers.

ETO's eldest daughter Annie Mabel Osbaldeston Knowles died in St Luke's Hospital, NYC on 11 Jan 1913. She married John Frederick (aka Fred) Knowles. (I think the name Frederick Elliot is an error that somehow crept into the family record.) I believe he died not long after Annie Mabel but I don't have that info with me here in the UK. I know that they're both buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NYC.

Also buried in Woodlawn Cemetery is ETO and AAM's youngest daughter Alberta Victoria who committed suicide in March 1921 at Hot Springs, Arkansas. She was married to artist Phil(l)ip Plaistridge in 1914 but they had separated. She was very talented, studied painting with Gruppe, and signed her paintings as Alberta Ludbrook (a surname from the Suffolk side of the family). If you google "Alberta Ludbrook" you should find an interesting article that appeared in the Atlanta Constitution on 20 May 1917.

ETO's brother Charles went to Australia before ETO did (as Charles Turner) but that will have to be the subject of a later posting as I do not have the info with me.

I'm ever so pleased with the new (to me) information re ETO and his family members that RootsChatters have found. Thanks again to everyone who's contributed.

[Dinosaur]

Hello. Just to clarify things:  Emma Osbaldeston Vernon is ETO's sister and the aunt of Edwin junior who is mentioned in the NYTimes article.

Mary Ann Turner was the mother of Edwin senior (aka ETO) and Emma. Contrary to what it says on the census, she was born in Union Street, Lambeth, Surrey (on 22 May 1815) and baptised on 14 Aug 1816 at St Mary's, Lambeth.

[fishweb]

Sorry Dinosaur got a little muddled up there for a minute.
You say you had not found Emily and Joseph Vernon for the 1861 census and I wondered if she had gone to America by then and whether you had seen her in the New York Times article.

Best wishes

Cathy