I 'got into' all this genealogy and picture-identifying through my books. Trying to track down stories and pictures about the actors, actresses, singers and other theatre folk about/of whom I was writing. And that is still my main focus. My first morning dip into ebay is always a search for the latest theatrical photos and folk. And it doesn't always lead me where expected!
Today this fellow responded to my call for 'cdv actor'
Well, he was thus labelled by his French vendor. Fortunately, he or other had labelled the photo, front and back, will his full, flowing name, and my suspicions were quickly confirmed. No actor he.
Reginald Pearson THACKER (b Liverpool 1852; d Leamington Spa 23 December 1901) was the second child of Robert Pearson Thacker, newspaper proprietor in Exeter and later Liverpool (Liverpool Standard) and his wife Betsey or Elizabeth Catherine née Wilde. The vendor has hopefully suggested that mama was of the Oscar Wilde family. Robert (d Birkenhead 4 July 1895) gave up newspapering and became and oil and tallow merchant and chemical manufacturer in Litherland and Toxteth Park. There were three children of the marriage: Florence Katherine (b St Sidwell, Exeter 1848; d Bournemouth 2 October 1919) who stayed at home with mother, Reginald, who seems to have started out clerking but faded into being a 'gentleman' and fancy dress, and Ernest Robert (b 26 February 1860) who fades away as a child in France.
Lets put the full stop to Reginald first. He actually married (1885, Emily Kate Morecroft) but things were evidently in some way not what they should have been ...
And here is the man himself ... WGW! With wife Elizabeth Miller née PROSSER .... who is labelled on the back 'my mother' ...
My mother. Choice of four. The Colonel, unmarried Adelaide, married Helen or the fourth (surviving) child, Eugenie Annie Catherine (b Bloomsbury 16 April 1856, d Brondesbury 26 November 1940, Mrs Hutchinson Stewart).
So, who was William Gilley Wilde? The Nantesian vendor calls him a 'theorist'. Oh dear. I'm not sure what that is, but it sounds mumbo-jumboish! My first sighting of him is in 1839 where he is seemingly chucking in farming in Herefordshire
From 1828 to 1841, he is a tanner 'of Ross'. And bankrupt in 1843. And again in 1851? Then suddenly he is 'gentleman', 'proprietor of houses'. And living in St John's Wood ...
Oh well.
I wonder why the family album found its way to Nantes . Eugenie and her bank manager husband spent some time in Melbourne, Australia (three sons) .. but Nantes?
Just one more peep to see if there are any more leaves from the dismembered album ...
Yes! Just one.
This is Annie née Ferguson, wife to John Thomas Wilde, younger brother of WGW.
Widow, eh. So the inscription in post 1877 ...
I shall watch for more ...
Addendum one. Thank you Gina Ambridge ...!
1 comment:
Hello Kurt,
Sorry for commenting on an unrelated blog post, I tried to find your email but couldn't find it.
I'm reaching out because I've written my college thesis about the life and career of Lydia Thompson, and your biography of her was instrumental to my research. Right now it's only the script to a musical about Lydia and the history burlesque, but as gratitude for your work, I wanted to send you a copy of the script. My email is cdm14@albion.edu. If you could get in contact with me soon, I'd appreciate it.
Thank you, and I hope to hear from you soon.
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