ROSETTA SHERIDAN, Manchester Music Hall Artiste; ANY info on this ancestor pleas

[saturnia]

I'm looking for any pictures or any information at all about my ancestor ROSETTA SHERIDAN, daughter of JOHN SHERIDAN and ELIZABETH SHERIDAN (NEE PARRY) and the mother of GEOFFREY and ELIZABETH.

ROSETTA was born in Manchester in 1875 and married FREDERICK GARNANT THOMAS in the same city in 1924. On their marriage certificate, they are both listed as music hall artistes.

It looks like ROSETTA first started singing in the music halls around 1911ish or just before and continued in this role well into the 1920s.

I don't know whether she had a stage name and, if so, what this was. 

We have no idea when or where she died and have spent many fruitless hours searching for this.

If anyone knows anything at all about ROSETTA, I'd love for you to get in touch please. 

Thank you
 

[rosie99]

Hi

Welcome to rootschat

We have no idea when or where she died and have spent many fruitless hours searching for this.

Just trying to get a possible location for the death 

You mention two children, when/where were they born. We have to be careful as we are not allowed to mention anyone who is possibly living.

[Mabel Bagshawe]

When Fred marries again (in cert posted in Ancestry by a member) in 1943 he says he's a widower - which may help reduce the window of time we're looking in

Added: he's also knocked about 6 years off his age (says he's 51, when he as b 1886), so not sure how much to trust this info!

[Mabel Bagshawe]

have found him in 1939 - with the woman he later marries using his surname

[jaywit]

So she was in her late 40's when she married, I guess her children were born before the marriage?

[jaywit]

A look at a family tree on Ancestry appears to show she cohabited with Arthur Ball another performer who had numerous children with other wives/women and he was the father of the children.

[heatherjulie]

There is a death for a Rosetta Ball in 1936 Farnworth, Bolton aged 64

[jaywit]

Her daughter Elizabeth appears to marry in Manchester in 1935, I wonder if she was with Rosetta?

[saturnia]

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all your replies - it is really appreciated .To summarise a response in one post:

Rosie99 and Jaywit - yes, Rosetta had the two children with Arthur Ball during a previous relationship and so Fred became their stepfather.  I found that the children were born in Warrington and Salford in the mid 1910s but spent their early years in Manchester.  Looking at the 1939 register, I can locate both of them for this year (who are, by this time, each married) but it doesn't appear Rosetta was living with either of them, unfortunately. 

Mabel Bagshawe - yes, Fred appears in London by 1939 with the woman he went on to marry a few years later; sadly, we don't know whether Rosetta had died by this time (and he's therefore telling the truth about being a widower) or they had simply separated by 1939 and gone their separate ways.  I found out that Fred had a history of bigamy and had only recently come out of being in Swansea prison for this, before coming up to Manchester and "marrying" Rosetta. So you're right about it being difficult to know whether he's telling the truth or not.

heatherjulie - thanks for this; I did wonder whether she went back to using the surname Ball and had noticed that record for the lady in Farnworth before.  When I started to explore it more, I found it wasn't her because the matching burial record shows a differently (first) named husband who is interred with her, unfortunately.


We're fairly certain she didn't go abroad and so must have died somewhere in this country.  My worry (because it would be impossible to ever find her if this is what had happened) is that she either died under her stage name and the death certificate was made out in that name OR she may possibly have separated from Fred and then met a new partner, thereby adopting - and dying under - his surname.  We've been unable to find a further marriage record for her.