Author Topic: Edgar Thorndike of Ilderton Ontario  (Read 1390 times)

Offline Worlygigger

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Re: Edgar Thorndike of Ilderton Ontario
« Reply #9 on: Thursday 28 January 16 11:07 GMT (UK) »
Here is the sum total of my knowledge of their circumstances.

Edgar and Ellen Thorndike had three children in Worlingworth, all baptised on Sep 21st 1873. They were Eliza (born 1867), Arthur (b 1869) and Mary (b 1873?). Susan, the fourth child, was born in Ilderton, Ontario in October 1874. The family left England for Canada on Oct 4th 1874. So Ellen must have been heavily pregnant for the journey. Edgar might have been unemployed due to the Agricultural Labourers Strike and Lock Out by the Suffolk farmers in that year.

By 1881(census), Ellen and her daughters Eliza and Susan are back in Suffolk. They returned between 1876 and 1879 - I have no record of this. Ellen is recorded as a widow and lives with her father George Bridges and daughter Susan in Worlingworth. She re-marries to Charles Bloomfield in 1887. Eliza has an illegitimate child Ernest and lives with Albert Sparrow (living in Rotherhithe 1891) - no record of the marriage.

After the 1881 census, Susan 'disappears' from view. I've tried to find her through various searches on Ancestry but to no avail. No marriage or death - is it possible that she went back to Ontario?

It seems to me that something bad happened to Edgar, Arthur and Mary in Canada - perhaps it was disease that killed them. But I have no records from Canada to support this theory.

Offline loo

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Re: Edgar Thorndike of Ilderton Ontario
« Reply #10 on: Monday 08 February 16 19:25 GMT (UK) »
I find it remarkable that Ellen and Susan made it back to England at all.  Where, one wonders, did she get the money for the fares?  Very few people returned, compared to the number who came. 
I presume her father must have paid for the ticket as it doesn't seem that Edgar would have.  To me, this suggests she was destitute and/or desperate to leave.  The absence of the 2 children suggests death was more likely than desertion, although desertion was certainly not all that unusual.  A deserter husband might show up in another province, further west, or in the US, as those were the usual directions in which they would move.  (One of mine, from Ontario, went to Manitoba and married there and became a "respectable citizen" with a glowing obit while his wife was living in Ontario with her parents, not divorced.  His first wife outlived him. )
Children likely in unmarked grave, possibly not recorded, but could be in burial records for the cemetery in question.  Try local funeral homes for names of cemetery contacts if you can't find them elsewhere.  Often, for the rural cemeteries, the burial records are held by local individuals and may go back a long way.   

Littlewood cemetery seems the most likely.  You could ask the library for a look-up, but may not find anyone listed if no marker.  I would then try the Harris Funeral Home in London, Ontario for a contact person who would have the burial records, as they are in the north end of the city, closest to Ilderton. info@harrisfuneralhome.ca
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