Dance teacher mystery

I read with great interest the 'detective' story about the life of Angela Redgrave who died recently aged 106, the difficulties in tracing her origins not being helped by untruths in the written records. Thanks for relating this story - it made my day.

I noticed that in the 1921 census for the family, in the right hand column (ages of all living children under 16) the father had (I assume) correctly entered the ages of his children as : Under one, 2, 3, 4 and 8 years, and then the enumerator had altered this in green ink to match the ages given against each child. I wonder how often this sort of discrepancy occurred in the 1921 census? Has anyone come across anything similar, I wonder.

 

As to some of the children having been born in Canada:

The Rev. Mr. Redgrave's biography in Crockford's contains a significant gap, from 1913 to 1920 (for obvious reasons). That he was eventually granted a PTO in 1923 is somewhat shocking by modern sensibilities, as such an offense today would usually result in permanent removal from the ministry. That he was employed as a schoolmaster before 1921 is also concerning, although it does seem that Hannah was not a minor. Traveling to Canada might have been a way for him to continue clerical employment without revealing too much of his past.

 

Being away from people that knew him would definitely allow him to hide the impropriety that he had been embroiled in. It would have provided distance and a certain amount of "cover" for him and his children.


I always thought that my 2x great grandfather moved from South Australia to Victoria to better hide the fact that he wasn't actually married to the woman who he was presenting as his wife... (needless to say when they did get married 26 or so years after they got together it was back in South Australia, not Victoria...). One of his descendants of his second wife firmly believes that her ancestor was legitimate... but the records don't back that up (plus he and his partner kept changing the date of their marriage on their children's birth registers - it was as if they kept forgetting what date they'd put in last time...)

 

jorghes,
I have some of the same in my own tree. My great-grandmother emigrated from Wales to the US, tagging along with her older sister and her husband. At least, that's how they were listed on the ship's passenger list. ("Mr & Mrs C.C. Phillips and Mary Beynon, sister to Mrs. Phillips"). I was searching for years, and could not find the sister's marriage, but I did find a GRO entry for C.C. Phillips, marrying a different woman about 2 years before the voyage to the US, and I found them in the 1901 Census. Then I found his probate record (he died in the US just 2 years after immigrating, in a workplace accident), and his wife in Wales sought administration of his estate. Apparently "Mrs Phillips" never disclosed the deceit; I had contact a few years ago with a descendant from her "second" marriage who confirmed for me details of C.C.'s death but had no idea he left a wife and child behind in Wales.