Edward & Marie Jay

[avm228]

in the 1911 census I found him (as Edward Leopold Jay) and Eliza and my father (their son aged 7) living in Newport where he was a master tailor.

I can't see any 1911 entry that is specifically Edward Leopold Jay - is it spelt correctly?

What is his birthyear and birthplace shown on the entry

How many years do they say they have been married as there is no obvious marriage

Was Eliza'a maiden name Johnson?

1911 free index shows a 26yr old Eliza Jay in Newport, Monmouthshire.

[CaroleW]

And the Edward Leopold referred to above is only shown as Leopold

[tycho]

The 1911 census entry I could only find by looking up Eliza Jay (Monmouthshire). The entry seems to be in Leopold's handwriting and is signed by him. The name given is Leopold Jay (no Edward, no Johnson), the same as appears in the Red Cross internment records. The 1911 census gives his birth as Germany, and he is 37 (which would mean he was born about 1874), and the marriage is 5 years old.. The Red Cross data gives his birth as Insterburg, East Prussia 1871. On my father's birth certificate he is simply named Leopold Johnson (no Jay!) so it's all rather mysterious. Given that the three documentary records call him Leopold, the chances of him being Edward Leonard Jay who died in Liverpool 1940 I guess are slim. But an unsent postcard of about 1914 addressed to him in the interment camp is addressed E L Jay, so the Edward is quite possible. Hope this makes sense. My main concern is to see what happened to him after his separation from Eliza after the war.

[CaroleW]

Was Eliza'a maiden name Johnson?

What was Eliza's maiden name on your fathers birth cert

[tycho]

No,she was Eliza Fairclough and she went on to have two more children by a Parker Dunscombe in 1925/6. In family lore Johnson was the name of the family doctor who delivered my father but in reality this was the surnname Leopold gave on my father's 1907 birth certificate - "Leopold Johnson". Johnson may have been a version of his German name, posssibly. I have plenty of data on the Dunscombes.

[avm228]

Presumably you have not found a marriage for Leopold and Eliza - is that right? Was she the Eliza Fairclough who had married Charles Henry Bridgens or Frank Ridge in Ecclesall Bierlow RD, Dec qtr 1902?

[tycho]

I don't think she was married to them! Though who knows? It's the right location. But she was with Leopold by 1906 and according to family lore had spent time abroad with him (as tailors) in Germany before returning to London by 1907, when my father was born.