My neighbour asked me to search for her biological father which from what we have read here. Is this person. Would you be interested in making contact?
Hello Heathory
I have just read your recent posts today and am definitely interested in making contact. I have found out more information about Charles's life during the past couple of years (2015-2016) and have even turned up an additional wife that no-one else in this branch of the family knew about - as well as two possible additional sons.
When Charles was sentenced in 1935 for his bigamous marriage in Napier in 1929, the judge said that as a result of the union, there were "five children now wards of the state". Charles married my great-grandmother Margery Grenfell MILFORD (MULFORD) in 1920 and they had three daughters between 1921 (my grandmother) and 1924. It was whilst celebrating the third daughter's birth in 1924 that Charles is reported to have become intoxicated and stabbed a barman through the hand.
Charles and Margery went their separate ways in the mid-to-late 1920s, both eventually bearing children to new partners, though they were not formally divorced from one another until 1936. However, the three daughters from their marriage to each other were placed in foster care and they unfortunately did not get to grow up in a conventional home. At the start of my search, I wondered a lot about who the additional children were who were described as wards of the state by the bigamy sentencing judge.
The family knows about a son born in 1947 to Charles's final wife, but there is confusion about whom Charles was with between Margery and the later wife. Some people are insisting that the lady he had the 1947 son with is the same lady he married bigamously in 1929.
I disagree with this, as the later wife was herself married to other men prior to Charles and the timelines clash. I believe that Charles married an Ellen Violet WATSON on 28 August 1929, with BDM Marriage code 1929/5381. The groom is named as Charles Richard HANKINS. I don't have access to this document yet, but my hunch is that either there was a clerical error or a bit of subterfuge by the already-married Charles.
There is a BDM Death record for a Charles Leonard HANKINS aged one year in 1937. (Death Code: 1938/23291) But because of the restrictions around searching for births from less than 100 years ago, I cannot look up this baby's birth to see the mother's name. This child was born after the bigamy trial, so was not one of the five wards of the state. I have found a 1973 death record for a Leonard Watson HANKINS, which gives his birth date as 13 February 1929. I am only going by a hunch here, but I suspect that this boy was one of Charles' and Ellen Violet's children and may possibly be one of the five. I definitely have more sleuthing to do in this regard, but the 1935 Hawke's Bay General Roll places Charles and "Violet Ellen" HANKINS at the same address in Hastings.
An article I found on the Papers Past website last year details a bit of drama in the lead-up to Charles's 1920 marriage to Margery. He was convicted of helping an inmate of an industrial school (Margery) escape, and it was stated that Charles had been "previously married". I have no information about the reported earlier marriage.
Thanks for posting here. I shall message you my email address, but wanted to comment with the above newer information so that any other extended family who might see this will know where things stand with my research into Charles.
Kind regards,
Imogen
