family narratives
The census form in the picture above is from 1891. Antony, Julia and two children are living in 126 Carlisle Street, in Splott, Cardiff, a stone's throw from where I was brought up in Wilson Street.
It records that he was born in "Sweeden", Julia was from East Brent, Charles Victor emerged in Nailsea, and Elizabeth was born in Cardiff. There seems to have been a move from England to Wales somewhere around 1885, and of course they spoke English, not Welsh or 'both', as some of their neighbours did.
The older children were elsewhere:
Ellen Maria had in fact left home only the previous year - she married Albert Morgan, a shoemaker from Hay in Breconshire, in 1890. By 1891 they had a daughter, Ethel M. Morgan, and were living just along the coast from Cardiff, with Albert's brother, Thomas E. Morgan, a boot maker, and his wife and daughter Mabel, at 3 Wood Street, Penarth. Sadly Ellen died in 1897, in Torquay, though not before giving birth to two sons, Albert (Junior) and Sidney.
Update November 2016: There was a third child for Ellen Maria - in fact, her first, Gwendoline... I have sense tracked down more about Ellen Maria, and it's in the Diary on the Torquay visit page. But this means a bit more research about how come Albert & Ellen wandered round the country?
Francis had won a Diocesan Scholars Prize at school in September 1884, as reported in the Bristol Daily Press, and this 1891 census sees him aged 18 still in England, working in Clevedon, Bristol, as an assistant baker and lodging at the Dublin House with another baker, brother to the Innkeeper. (The variation on his surname spelling, of course, led us to despair at finding him, but the detail of his birthplace is useful.)
It records that he was born in "Sweeden", Julia was from East Brent, Charles Victor emerged in Nailsea, and Elizabeth was born in Cardiff. There seems to have been a move from England to Wales somewhere around 1885, and of course they spoke English, not Welsh or 'both', as some of their neighbours did.
The older children were elsewhere:
Ellen Maria had in fact left home only the previous year - she married Albert Morgan, a shoemaker from Hay in Breconshire, in 1890. By 1891 they had a daughter, Ethel M. Morgan, and were living just along the coast from Cardiff, with Albert's brother, Thomas E. Morgan, a boot maker, and his wife and daughter Mabel, at 3 Wood Street, Penarth. Sadly Ellen died in 1897, in Torquay, though not before giving birth to two sons, Albert (Junior) and Sidney.
Update November 2016: There was a third child for Ellen Maria - in fact, her first, Gwendoline... I have sense tracked down more about Ellen Maria, and it's in the Diary on the Torquay visit page. But this means a bit more research about how come Albert & Ellen wandered round the country?
Francis had won a Diocesan Scholars Prize at school in September 1884, as reported in the Bristol Daily Press, and this 1891 census sees him aged 18 still in England, working in Clevedon, Bristol, as an assistant baker and lodging at the Dublin House with another baker, brother to the Innkeeper. (The variation on his surname spelling, of course, led us to despair at finding him, but the detail of his birthplace is useful.)
Bertha "Siderman" was still single and had taken a job as a domestic servant to a Master Mariner, John Fleming and his family, who lived in Liverpool Road, Formby. We have yet to see of the head of house was someone that her father might have worked with, as Liverpool must have seemed so far away from Nailsea in those days.
Bertha returned to live in Cardiff, and the next census (1901) sees her working in the biscuit factory at the end of the road. She married in 1906, to Robert Skentlebury. It seems odd now to recall that as a child I knew them, though obviously I had no notion of their relationship to our family, though clearly our father will have known him as his uncle!
A photo of Bertha has turned up on a Geni Skentlebery family tree site, along with one of her husband, Robert. I guess she might have that long upper lip that is said to be Scandinavian, but her face looks rounder rather than longer. Maybe she looks more like her mother. I am awaiting contact from the Contact!
Florence was also a servant in 1891, at the age of 14, having also stayed in the area of her birth. She was a "lesser attic servant" at one of the council's Board schools at Greenway Bush Lane, Bedminster, Bristol.
She also came to Wales eventually, marrying Fred Burt in 1897, and possibly following her sister into working at the Spillers biscuit factory, and dying in 1946. At the time most of the family were living within a square mile of each other, and their son and his wife, Fred II and Phyllis Burt, were neighbours of ours in Wilson Street in the 1950s.
what's in a name?
Antony's adoption of the name Charles appears to have been used in connection with his work in some way, in Wales though somewhat sporadically. Used first on his marriage certificate in 1869, and then in newspaper accounts of the Clytha accident in 1894 that saw him one a few survivors, he is named as C.A.Sederman, although for his application for the renewal of his Mate's certificate he is just 'Antony' and signs as such. In 1872 when he was charged and fined for assault in Bristol, he is 'Charles Anthony'. The Wright's Directory for Cardiff in 1893 and 1897 he is "Chas"...
But as he has no birth certificate from Sweden or Finland, it would have been difficult for the authorities to check. We understand it is often the case that people in Finland and Sweden changed their name, to suit the situation.
No one knows why.... it certainly would have been easier to chase him up in the swedish/finnish records if he had been more than 'just' Anton, like his father and grandfather, and several other scandinavian relatives!
But as he has no birth certificate from Sweden or Finland, it would have been difficult for the authorities to check. We understand it is often the case that people in Finland and Sweden changed their name, to suit the situation.
No one knows why.... it certainly would have been easier to chase him up in the swedish/finnish records if he had been more than 'just' Anton, like his father and grandfather, and several other scandinavian relatives!
A sad and sudden end
With all the family married by 1908 Antony now 74, and Julia ‘retired’ to a smaller house at 40, Spring Gardens Terrace at the Roath end of Splott. Sadly he died on a trip to Torquay, in July 1910, having collapsed in his wife's sister's house. And there is buried...
We went to Torquay in July 2016, and found the place where he died, and the location of his grave - it's described in the Diary http://tillostersjon.weebly.com/the-diary-continuing-the-search/a-trip-to-torquay
With all the family married by 1908 Antony now 74, and Julia ‘retired’ to a smaller house at 40, Spring Gardens Terrace at the Roath end of Splott. Sadly he died on a trip to Torquay, in July 1910, having collapsed in his wife's sister's house. And there is buried...
We went to Torquay in July 2016, and found the place where he died, and the location of his grave - it's described in the Diary http://tillostersjon.weebly.com/the-diary-continuing-the-search/a-trip-to-torquay