Postscripts

POSTSCRIPT to "MABEL VICTORIA DAY"

Since writing this account, the elusive Daisy has emerged. The first child of Charles John DAY and Emily Rebecca MORRIS, she was born as Emily Daisy DAY on the 8th of March 1890 at 16 Latimer Street, Mile End Old Town, London. On the 12th of June 1916 she married Alfred Stuart St. Clair SULLIVAN at St. Andrew Holborn Circus; she was a spinster of Holborn Circus, he, born in 1884, a bachelor porter of 138 Shirland Road, Paddington, London. They had one child, Daisy Vera SULLIVAN, born on the 16th of January 1918 at Queen Charlotte Hospital St Mary, Marylebone, London; at the time Emily Daisy and Alfred were living at 108 Chippenham Road, Paddington, he being a Trooper of the 21st County of London Yeomanry. Alfred died on the 12th of July 1962, aged 78, at Edgware General Hospital; Emily Daisy died as Emily Daisy SULLIVAN on the 20th of January 1974 at Kincraig, Cranford Avenue, Exmouth, Devon. Their daughter, Daisy Vera, married on the 12th of July 1942 at Kingsbury Parish Church, Middlesex, Edward HAGGETT, born in 1913, the son of wheelwright Edward HAGGETT. She was a 24-year old spinster, a GPO counter clerk of 28 Roe Lane, he a 29-year old bachelor fireman in the NFS, also of Roe Lane. Interestingly, the marriage certificate describes Daisy Vera’s father as ‘deceased’. Daisy Vera and Edward had two children. Daisy Vera died on the 24th of November 1991 as Vera Daisy HAGGETT, widow of Edward HAGGETT, a hospital porter, at Porth Gwara Coverack, St. Keverne, Helston, Cornwall.

POSTSCRIPT to "MARY ANN ALDIS"

When this account became available at my website, it was soon discovered that Mary Ann Aldis’s daughter Mary Ann had in fact survived the crossing to Canada. Not only that, she settled in Chatham, married there and raised her own family. Many North Americans descend from Mary Ann (Aldis) Eberts, including two Canadian doctors who first alerted me to this happy situation. I owe them enormous thanks. The story of young Mary Ann is told in the next chapter of this volume.

George Aldis
October 2013

POSTSCRIPT to "HOW HORATIO BECAME HORACE"

From time to time during many years of Aldis research, I have been asked for help with the identity of Joseph Aldis who married Mary Horth in Norwich in 1821. I have not been able to help, and still cannot; nor can anyone else.
While working on this Horatio/Horace story, however, I was contacted by yet another Australian lady who descends from Joseph and Mary. Her enquiry led me to ponder this mystery for the umpteenth time and to discuss it with other researchers. Our agreed opinion is that Joseph is very likely to be a member of the family featured in this narrative. There is no conclusive evidence, since the documentation simply does not exist; but a great deal of circumstantial evidence amounts to an overwhelming probability that Joseph belongs to this family.
Shortly I intend writing up the case for this identification and communicating it to the hundreds of descendants, many of them in Australia, of Joseph Aldis and Mary Horth.

October 2013

AFTERTHOUGHT

Recently I visited New Zealand, and encountered Maori culture for the first time. My wife and I were both especially affected by certain of the Maori Meeting Houses which had strong energy lines and profound spiritual feeling. Our Maori guides informed us that a fundamental part of Maori belief is that their ancestors remain alive by being remembered; only if forgotten do they die. This struck me at the time, and still strikes me, as very similar to what I have been trying to do, however imperfectly, for some 40 years. My ancestors gave me existence, and by remembering them, by reconstructing their lives, in some small way I perpetuate their existence. So my inadequate narratives are both a tribute to my ancestors and a record of their existence. I live in them, and through me their identities are preserved. I am grateful to our Maori guides for this insight into what might be regarded as the true purpose of genealogy.

January 2014

POSTSCRIPT to "THE QUAKER CONNECTION"

Shortly after the publication of ‘The Quaker Connection’, I was contacted by a descendant of the BERRIDGE family.

The first wife of Charles Aldis (1776-1863) was Mary Frances BERRIDGE who died in 1822; of the four children from the marriage only Charles James Berridge Aldis, a doctor like his father, survived.

My correspondent informs me that Mary Frances’s father, Richard BERRIDGE of Chatteris, Linton and London, had a second daughter Ann. Her son, known as Richard BERRIDGE, became a partner in the brewing firm of Meux, and was an otherwise very substantial business man. His mother Ann suffered poor health with the result that Richard was raised largely, it is believed, by his aun t and Sir Charles. In his Will, Richard left £200, 000 for the furtherance of the sanitary sciences and much else. One can see the strong influence of his Aldis uncle and first cousin in the specific direction of this bequest. Berridge House was built with these funds, becoming a domestic science college before being replaced by the West Hampstead Police Station. For further information visit: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.ppp?t=583039.

Richard BERRIDGE bought Ballinahinch Castle in Ireland in 1871 and died in 1887.

I am indebted to Dominic Berridge of the Republic of Ireland for this information.