Posts by Hebe
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The house where Amelia Coleman died, The Ganges, 78 Bristol Street, right by the T intersection with Webb St, is still there: a large, run-down single-story villa with the original bosky and beautiful wrought-iron gates and a wild garden. See google maps.
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I suppose there could be a whole lot of reasons why the Alington files at the Turnbull were locked. High among the likely ones would be the existence of secret illegitimate children and the financial arrangements for them and their mothers.
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to Alan Perrott,
can I just say this is top telly…
Sure is. Does anyone else have a mystery for the Miss Marples corner?
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This is great! I wonder if the original letter was written from a standard "how to give away a child" template and the twenty-pound rider was added at the last minute to help Eliza support her family.
If she had already hd five with the bad bolter William, she could well have found the last illegitimate child too much to cope with, so Alington helped sort it all out before he married?
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Sorry not Coleman in Methven-- shd have said Alington in Methven! Coleman in Wellington!
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Some links for investigation http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/name-431805.html
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to David Haywood,
I would ring up the Methven paper or equivalent and ask about for a Coleman who’s been living around there for a long time. Or the phone book….bugger you’ve got me started.
Nah... I'm still going with Holland as the JP: would be standard for the local parson to be a JP for signing births, deaths and marriage certs. And the ink is different to GC's.
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All Saints Church in Methven is on Alington Street.
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Southerly: Who was George Hildebrand…, in reply to David Haywood,
What a fascinating discovery! Looks like the signature is Geo. Coleman – the C is separated from the “oleman” which could be sign of being in hurry or stressed – the writing is heavy and the full-stop looks like it could have been done as an afterthought.
The JP is the same handwriting and light ink as the Holland signature, so he could well have spread out too far and GC chucked in his signature in a hurry. Note also that the JP on the left bottom has been crossed out so it can be closer to Holland's name.
The bottom looks like the writer of the document left space on the right for the parties to fill in their names in each line.
But why would Mrs Coleman sign her name as Geo.Coleman? Would her husband have had to sign the document for her?
If John Holland was part of the church, would he have christened/baptised the child as part of the adoption? Would there be parish records?
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I'm startled by not being able to remember the last time I ate alone. And that's quite wonderful when I think how shit my life was when I was in my mid-30s. I'm thankful that I'm now off to make dinner in our tiny kitchen to feed two teenagers and a partner. (Before reading this piece I was grumpy that dinner had to be done; again.)