Edwin Brooks born 1890

[Leoni]

Hi :-)
Thank you, nope not discarding her, I want to know who she is but I'm just playing out the different scenarios of what if's in my head :-) I kind of feel lost because there's so many directions this can go into. I do think she has some sort of link (my gutt tells me shes my grandfathers sister because of the brooks-benning surname similarity and them being born 5 years apart - but one born in England and the other in S.A. - bit weird, unless the immigration happened within that period of time) one would think it's easy to find an ancestor... hehe 

Here's what I could see what doesnt quite make sense.
It seems like Raoul Harter was her 3rd husband if I look at the amount of surnames and what I can make out on the death notice.
The death notice reads"No children by the surviving spouse, subsequent to the diseased HS Armstrong, Fernhead whom she was divorced no children of that marriage"

There's no information about the first husband except the surname Fernhead, second was Harold Staveley Armstrong, they had a daughter Jean, Harold passed away 7 August 1936, and then she married Raoul Harter born 14 September 1900. She nominated Raoul Harter as her executor and left most of her valuables to her daughter, the balance was to be divided as per executor's discretion.

What seems odd is that the death notice says Armstrong was the 2nd Husband but the Antenuptial Contract mentions her as Winifred May Langford Fernhead, born Brooks-Benning.... what happened to Armstrong?
Mrs. Harter's will says her daughter's name is Jean Staveley Fern (born Armstrong), also weird because the Death Notice says it's Jean Stevely Epstein, born Armstrong. (She perhaps got married to Epstein but why the Fern on the Will then?)
Perhaps the order of the husbands was incorrect on the death notice Mr. Harter wrote, maybe Armstrong was the first husband, which will explain the Antenuptial surname referral.

Then there's the age issue. The Antenuptial Contract says she was born 2nd day of April 1895 of Johannesburg which is located in a different state (Gauteng) than Cape Province. The Death Notice says she died 20 January 1951 at age 58, and 9 months (supposed to be 56), birth place and nationality says Cape Province. I can't make out the town name, it looks like Mount Frere, there is a mount Frere in our Eastern Cape state.

I still can't get the age thing though... I'm sure a husband won't get his wife's age wrong? But why the birth date on the antenuptial contract? Can that be a typo then?

It seemed like she died while on holiday because her place of death is Badplaas Hotel near Carolina in our Mpumalanga state, it's a holiday resort.

Only additional information on the death notice is that her occupation is a Consulting Engineer, makes sense why she had so many valuables.

I could e-mail these for private viewing if required, let me know.

[avm228]

I wouldn't read anything into the age thing on Winifred's death. She was 55 yrs 9 months which is only a slip of a pen away from 58 yrs 9 months. It's perfectly possible that a mistake was made and this happens very commonly in family history - death certificates often contain errors as to the age and birthdate of the deceased, who obviously is not in a position to correct them!

The documents created during Winifred's life, into which she will have had input, are likely to be more reliable about her biographical information.

There is a Harold Staveley Armstrong who was born in Leeds, his birth registered in the first quarter of 1885. There are various possible travel records to and from South Africa but at least some of them relate to a different man of the same age, a Harold Simon Armstrong (wine merchant) whose wife was Sutu Alfreda, so beware of that.

[Leoni]

thank you for the information about Harold Staveley Armstrong. I will follow up on this. :-)

I agree with you about the age thing on the death notice, and that's what makes me wonder if her surviving spouse Raoul Harter perhaps didn't record her birth place incorrectly too. It would be interesting to know if there's a family that has a Edwin 1890 and Winifred 1895 Brooks listed as children anywhere on the 1901 census

I will see if I can get more information on Winnifred as well as her daughter perhaps.

[Eyesee]

There is a public tree on A******y that has an Edwin Barnard BROOKS, born 1889 England, died 3 Jan 1943 Pretoria. Has his father as John BROOKS, but no other info or names mentioned.

Ian C

[Leoni]

Hi Ian,
Thank you so much for the info - funny you should mention these particular details, my initial post in 2010 / 2011 was for birth year 1889, death 3 Jan 1943... my mother also mentioned back then that she sort off remembers a brother John, but because she was so young when he died, the brother John might have been his father, this info she gave me matches your information below.

Here's quotes of 2 posts I submitted in February 2010:
"Can anyone please help me with information about Edwin Bernard Brooks, born 4 July 1889 in Reigate, Surrey, England.
I need family history of him. Schools he might have attended, brother, mother and father names etc. where he lived, anything will be helpful.
He passed away 3 January 1943 in South Africa"

and then also:
"Full name: Edwin Bernard Brooks-Benning
Born 4 July 1889 in Reigate, Surrey, England
Had one brother we know of named: Johnny (maybe a nickname for John)
He was a member of the High Church of England"

But these were of course information I had before I received the death certificate from our department of home affairs and saw that his actual death was 14 January 1943, not the 3rd of Jan, they have no birth date on his death certificate or any other document, only his age, but if I subtracted his age on his marriage certificate, my mothers birth certificate and his death certificate, it seemed like he was rather born 1890 and not 1889 - but, I've noticed on most of our ancestry records that there's inconsistencies with dates, human error etc.

Thank you again, I really appreciate this and will follow up on this.

Are there any census information for a Edwin Brooks born 1889 with a father John in the 1891 and 1901 census perhaps?

[avm228]

Leoni, I've now had a chance to look at the Winifred documents you sent by PM.

From these you can extract the following timeline:

1895 (02 Apr): Born as Winifred May Langford Brooks-Benning at Mount Frere, Cape Province, South Africa.*

1st marriage: to Harold Staveley Armstrong. Daughter J born to that marriage (may be alive so can't be named here - you have her birth name and 2 possible subsequent married names for her).

1936 (07 Aug): Death of Harold Staveley Armstrong.

2nd marriage: to Wilfred Fearnhead (ended in divorce, no children with him).

1950 (14 Apr): Antenuptial agreement drawn up in contemplation of 3rd marriage.

3rd marriage: to Raoul Raymond Harter, probably a consulting engineer**.  She was married to him when she died, no children with him.

1951 (25 Jan): Date of Winifred's death notice; informant was her husband Raoul.


From the list of jewellery and artwork left to her daughter J I think it can safely be inferred that Winifred was comfortably-off.  Incidentally, here is what appears to be a copy of the "Dagga Smoker" bronze figure she refers to in the will (I say a copy because Bonhams have said it is "after" Anton van Wouw rather than attributing it to him).

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17848/lot/3/

*NB the antenuptial agreement of 14 April 1950 does not contradict the Cape Province birthplace.  It simply tells you that as at that date of that document (14 April 1950) she was "of Johannesburg", not that she had been born in Johannesburg.

** the occupation on the death notice of "consulting engineer" is probably Raoul's.  The question asks for "occupation in life of the deceased or, if a woman, of her husband".

[Leoni]

Thank you for laying it out in such a logical way, it makes a lot more sense now and I'm sure I must find something relating to this information somewhere.

Just a general update:
I'm currently investigating the life of Winifred, but I think best would be to request an unabridged birth certificate from our department of home affairs based on the information we have. (if they'll allow me to request it without proof that she's family) It can take anything from 8 weeks up until 6 months. Our home affairs department don't classify ancestral document requests as 1st priority. So I'll only have this available at a much later stage. I'll however keep on searching online in the mean time.

I also phoned a few places today, local immigration offices - they could not assist, by the time I was referred to the 6th department I decided to give it up for today - Mondays are perhaps not such a good day for ancestral research, hehe, will continue another day. Online I'm getting nowhere yet with passenger lists / immigration info, mostly due to a lack of information, but I'll keep on looking. I'm hopefully seeing someone within the next two weeks who can guide me as to how to go about getting our ancestral local immigration records.

A little humor, sorry I have to share this, I found it quite amusing (yet frustrating) :-) I tried to find out whether there's maybe any records of an Edwin Bernard Brooks that might have been adopted which might explain the surname change from Brooks to Brooks-Benning, I'm not saying he was adopted, I don't know, but I have to keep an open mind because anything is possible.
They however refused to do a search, they insisted on getting my grandfathers permission, even when trying to explain to them that he's dead, and suggesting that my mother can maybe give her consent to allow a general search just to get an indication - they still refused and insisted on having his permission, hehehe (I do respect their privacy policy and rules)

I'm also trying to retrieve our local census information, not finding anything yet.

If I do manage to find anything else of use, I'll post an update.

I want to thank everyone that helped me thus far. Every bit of information is truly appreciated.

[avm228]

A little bit more on Winifred Brooks-Benning's first husband Harold Staveley Armstrong:

He was a chemist & druggist, admitted to the relevant professional body in the UK in 1906.

He was then registered as a chemist & druggist in South Africa on 10 November 1927.  At that time his address was c/o Messrs Lennon, Ltd., Bloemfontein.


See: www.rootschat.com/links/0xl7/ 

[Leoni]

Thank you for the additional info about Winifred :-) I will continue to look for any info about her and Harold. These are solid leads I can try and trace this side.
I really appreciate your dedicated help :-)