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David Stone’s third part of his triple challenge was for me to find the real identity of ‘Geraldine St Maur’. I mean why not call yourself ‘Elizabeth Windsor’ or ‘Victoria Regina’. Oh, dear, they were aristostruck! …
Well, this morning, I started. I think I just may have found the answer, but I lack positive proof … so I pause before the big reveal on this one ..
However, on the way to ‘Geraldine’, I met her friends and colleagues, and went off on a few side trips …
Many of the photos of ‘Geraldine’ show her as Peep-Bo in The Mikado. And in most of them, the Pitti-Sing is the lady known as Kate Forster. No, that’s not her real name either. But we’ll get to that.
Kate played for twenty years with the D’Oyly Carte companies, and the details of her career can be found on David’s website. But I take issue with him on one statement. That Kate was born ‘Kate Hardwick[e]’. She wasn’t. Hardwick was her mother’s maiden name, and, no, she wasn’t illegitimate: her parents had been fifteen years and several children wed, before Kate was born. Not in 1860, but in 1857. So…
William Jancowitz/Jancowski arrived in England, from Poland, around 1840, and he set himself up in Sheffield as a bunion specialist. A podiatrist of sorts, I suppose. He married Elizabeth Hardwick, daughter of a Chesterfield maltster, and they bred … and in the course of time, William gave up feet for merchandising in Berlin wool, and the family moved to The Cliff in Scarborough. And there, in 1857, was born (amongst others) a daughter, Kate Jancowitz. Yes, that’s our Kate. Jancowitz. Her baptism is recorded, but not her birthdate. But we have managed to discover that it was 4 September 1857.
There. So visit David’s site for the details of her long career … mostly with the Carte organisation … I just wanted (as usual) to put the ‘who WAS she’ in place …
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| Kate and Fred Billington in Ruddigore |
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| Kate and Edward Clowes in Yeomen |
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| Kate as Don Juan |
Bed. And another in the morning! With luck …
12 comments:
Hello Kurt.
I found your blog via a search for the sisters of my great great grandmother who left Barth in Northern Germany/Prussia around 1850 and found two of her sisters, Wilehlminna (Minna) and Mathilda Wolff were living in at least 1851 and working as assistants in the Berlin Wool and Fancy company that the Jankowskis had set up in York the 1851 census lists Elizabeth and 2 young sons plus Anna and Mathilda as assistants living at 7 Stonegate. William was not listed..maybe he was away when census was conducted?
Anyway thanks for some background information. I need to put more clues together. The four Wolff sisters including Maria and Caroline were naturalised as British subjects from their native Kingdom of Prussia in 1861 and moved to Belgravia in London, where I presume thy set up a similar shop &/or wholesale business supplying demand for bErlin wool needle craft supplies.
Kind regards from Sydney Australia
Gregor Stone
mon 22 Feb 2021
Minna not Anna..sorry for iPad autocorrect typo
Grand! And did you know you had a relation in the D'Oyly Carte! :-) Best wishes from Rangiora, New Zealand
Kurt
I do now. Thanks...always good to have reflected glory. Kates Dad sadly died when he was 50. Kate was one of 7 children with an entrepreneurial Polish immigrant Dad and a hardworking Mother. William Jancowksi arrived in UK around 1840, married ..became a chi posits, then owned Berlin Wool and Fancy Depot in downtown York, then bought a hotel at Scarborough, the oldest beach resort in UK.
Thanks for your clues in this mysterious branch of my family tree. I will read more of your posts .. I saw Gilbert and Sullivan performance at Sydney Opera House in the late 1970s which was fun and exciting to watch.
Jancowski...but like Cracow or Krakow....Jankowski (from the place of John (‘s farmland)) is the 15th most common Polish surname, but William’s surname was always with a c not a k. fFun fact. KIa ora,
No ..despite being an unusual name, there was also a famous Mathilde Wolff suffragette. I think it is just a coincidence of name, place and time, but I need to dig more.. the four Wolff sisters ran their own Berlin Wool (needlepoint) importing business in they git naturalised in Britain in 1861 after 12 years living in York and learning the ropes from William and Elizabeth .
I see them in 1871 Maria, Mathilda, Minna and Caroline at 63 Claverton Street, with a Jancowski niece and 2 servants, one from Australia!
And in 1891 Minna and Mathilde at 12 Allenby Rd, Sydenham.
Servant from Australia was only 14 years old. Hopefully the four sisters were nice to her. Only one of the four sisters married.Caroline (Carolina) Louis Johanna Wolff married Johann Friedrich (Fritz) Seifert in St George Church in Hanover Square London in 1878. Her eldest sister Maria Catharina Wolff sadly died like William Jancowski died aged 50...for her in 1881 [William died in 1869 travelling in Berlin]. The other two sisters Minna and Mathilde lived together then when Minna died in 1893, Mathilde moved in with Caroline and her husband and ran a small boarding house, after his Cripplegate Printing Company went into receivership in the early 1900s. Good that the sisters were entrepreneurial (Prussian work ethic) and up ported each other. They were born in Barth Prussia (North coast of Germany above Berlin) which was once part of Pomerania which Golln, Posen was also I think, which is is William Jancowksi was from..about 500km away so possibly The Wolff family moved from Posen to Barth or we just cousins from a distance,
Golon not Golin.
12 Allenby Rd is actually now part of Forest Hill suburb, which is directly around the corner to where Caroline (Carolina/Lina) lived in 1891 at 23 Garlies Rd, Forest Hill in London.,another sign that they stuck together.as the four sisters came to UK as late teens/young adults I imagine they would have had German accents and may have spoke German amongst each other as their native tongue.
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