Who did Moira Veresmith of Saffron Hill Doneraile marry post 1921?

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi, Everyone,
I am presently attending a U3A (University of the Third Age - for people of a certain age, i.e 60+ !) Course about eminent diarists.  However, this week our excellent tutor brought in a diary he had found many years ago on a market stall in Dartmouth, England, written by a young Irish woman called Moira Veresmith of Saffron Hill, Doneraile, Co. Cork.  The entries are only for the year 1921, and contain interesting references to the exciting political events at that time in Ireland.
She's living in an obviously well-to-do family, and writes about a man called Ewart, whom she is intending to marry imminently.
So, the group have asked me to find out whether she did indeed marry a man with this forename; one small clue is that she was knitting him some white socks, so it's entirely possible that he might have been in the Navy - Dartmouth might also be a clue that points that way. (Someone else in the group suggested he might have been a tennis player!)
So, is there anyone out there who might be able to enlighten us as to what happened to Moira, and possibly Ewart beyond Christmas day 1921 (her last entry).
Very best wishes,
keith

[shanew147]

theres a possible marriage on the Irish BMD data on family search -
Name: Marie L C Veresmith
Registration district: Mallow
Record type: MARRIAGES  Oct - Dec 1923

Mallow is a large town about 12km south of Doneraile

 may have found some info about her father.

see :  http://www.rootschat.com/links/05ei/

the link is to an item on an Art Auction website - which is painting by a certain 'Daniel Albert Veresmith' who lived in Doneraile in Co. Cork

Dnaiel apparently was born in Ohio, USA and was originally named 'Daniel Wehrschmidt'

I dont imagine that Versmith is a common name around Cork - so I'd say that there's a good chance he's connected to your diarist.

there's a list of his paintings at : http://www.rootschat.com/links/05ej/



Shane

[Keith Sherwood]

Shane,
This is brilliant!  I too had been madly googling in the meantime, and had found reference to the artist Daniel Albert WEHRSCHMIDT who was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1861, changed his name to VERESMITH, married Marie Louise Isabel NORIE on 22-07-1890 at St Mary's Cathedral Midlothian.  They had the following children: Evelyn 1891; Noel 1892; Daniel 1894; Marie Louise Cecilia 1896; and William 1902, all born in Bushey Herts according to the IGI.
No Moira, but perhaps she was born when the family moved to Doneraile Co. Cork.  She certainly seems a fairly young girl or woman judging by the diary entries which mention "Celia" often and a "Billy".
Have also discovered on ancestry a 1938 telephone directory that gives a Mrs M.L.I. VERESMITH (presumably his wife), and a Commander N.L. VERESMITH R.N. who must be the son baptised Noel Louis in 1892.  Also by googling I've found a reference to this last named gentleman being in charge of the H.M.S. Destroyer "Thracian" in Hong Kong in 1931.
As for the detail of a 1921 painting Daniel Albert did, "The Liberator", there's more exciting things to say about that too...
Very excited! keith

[Keith Sherwood]

At first, when I saw the baptism entry for Marie Louise Cecilia, I jumped to the immediate conclusion that that was the Moira who had written the diary.  But as a "Celia" is mentioned many times in it, I'm now thinking that she was another daughter - certainly the one whose marriage entry you have discovered for me.  Is the husband's name given...?
keith

[shanew147]

At first, when I saw the baptism entry for Marie Louise Cecilia, I jumped to the immediate conclusion that that was the Moira who had written the diary.  But as a "Celia" is mentioned many times in it, I'm now thinking that she was another daughter - certainly the one whose marriage entry you have discovered for me.  Is the husband's name given...?
keith

sorry the index is not cross referened - so there's no direct link to her Grooms name. I did search for marriages with the name Ewart - both as a surname and forename but did not find anything promising. Of course it could be a pet name!

The full details are :

Name: Marie L C Veresmith
Reg. district: Mallow
type: Marriage
year: Oct - Dec 1923
Volume: 5 / page: 231

using the district, year, quarter, volume & page it should be possible to order a Marriage cert from the registration office. See the website at www.groireland.ie

The familysearch website is at : http://www.rootschat.com/links/05ee/



Shane

[Keith Sherwood]

Shane,
Thanks so much for looking all that up for me...
I think I'm leaning towards the opinion that this Marie L. C. Veresmith was Moira's elder sister - though I might have got it all wrong and "Celia" in the diary was a close friend or relative, and Marie became referred to as Moira as she grew older.
What is also exciting about the painting by the father Daniel Albert is that it's a reference to a  "Liberator" figure, if not necessarily Daniel O'Connell. Daniel O'Connell's grand-daughter Mary ("Molly") married my gt-grandfather in London in 1900.  This, however, was a marriage after my grandmother was born to a previous relationship that my gt-grandfather had before that, so the "Liberator's" blood does not flow in my veins, unfortunately, so to speak.
Adds a little bit of extra zest to this whole question posed by this thread, though...!
keith

[shanew147]

in some later entries the surname is written as a double barrell 'Vere-Smith'

and another possibly connected variation is 'De Vere Smith'



Shane

[Keith Sherwood]

Shane,
Thanks for that pointer...I had noticed those variations when I first googled for VERESMITH, and had studiously ignored them.  But I'll look into possible leads there too now.
As it turns out that the brother Noel went into the Navy and had a successful career, perhaps Moira was knitting the white socks for him, and not her fiance Ewart, whoever he was or became...
keith
p.s. In the cold light of another day (and having chewed this over when awake quite early this morning), I'm beginning to wonder now whether "Marie" could have evolved into "Moira" in an Irish kind of way, and am tempted to send away for that marriage certificate.  My gt-grandmother was baptised Laura, but over the course of her life became known as "Leila".
Also, there seems to be no baptism for a "Moira" on the I.G.I. (though I suppose she could have been born when the family moved to Ireland).  The strange thing is, the language and sentiment of the diary is of quite a young girl/woman, whereas it is written in rather a mature pencilled script...
p.p.s. I forgot to mention that the National Maritime Museum has in its card library manuscripts section a log book kept by "Midshipman" N. Veresmith on board the HMS "Defence" and HMS "Vanguard" between 1910 and 1912. (X2002.021).
This generation of the VERESMITH family obviously liked keeping a day to day record of things!

[pat k]

I don't know if this is of any interest to you but the name Veresmith appears twice on our local War Memorial ( Mottingham, London, SE9) as follows:

Veresmith DJC Lieutenant Royal Field Artillery
Veresmith EH Lieutenant Royal Fusiliers

CWGC gives the details that these are Daniel James Christopher died 14th April 1917 and Evelyn Henry died 9th July 1916.

The entry for Evelyn gives additional information that he was son of Daniel A and Marie L Veresmith of Abbotsbury, Mottingham, Kent