Alice Sarah Wyllie

[Forfarian]

Hmmmm. Something fishy here. There is no Charles Heanon or Heanan in the FreeBMD indexes in 1892 or any other year. The only Charles Hean*n in the entire index is one who married in London in 1884, which is two years before Alice Sarah Wyllie was described as 'Miss Alice Wyllie' in a newspaper report of a court case.

The only Charles Dominic in Islington between 1890 and 1894 is Charles Dominic Addison in the September quarter of 1891 (not 1892). The GRO web site is down so I can't check to see what his mother's maiden surname is.

[ShaunJ]

A snippet from Google ... the Commercial Gazette of May 18, 1892:

Heanan Charles Oris (& Sylvia Alice Heanan, his wife), Ditch- mining engineer and retired ling-villa, ...

[ShaunJ]

There are a few mentions of Charles Oris Heanan:

Gordon G. Guiberson's father, S. A. Guiberson, Jr., was born on his father's ranch in 1872. The senior Guiberson, who had crossed the plains to California in 1859, went first to Placerville, then moved to the Napa Valley, and finally settled permanently on a ranch in Ventura County. Mr. Gordon
G. Guiberson's mother was Ethel Lavinia Heanan, daughter of Charles Oris Heanan, a mining engineer. The mother of Heanan's wife was an Englishwoman, Mary Ellen (Simpton) Owner, whose father, Capt. John Simpton, brought his family, in his own ship, to California in 185 1, after a preliminary visit here in 1849. On his return voyage, he brought with him a two-story prefabricated wooden house, which he erected, with the use of wooden pegs, near McNears Point in Marin County. It is still standing, but now has a corrugated steel roof.

https://archive.org/stream/californiahistor30cali/californiahistor30cali_djvu.txt

[Forfarian]

Thanks, ShaunJ. Yes, I have come across a similar article.

I looked at the 1920 census for Gordon Guiberson, and his mother Ethel L Guiberson was aged 43 and born in Nevada, so she was born about 1876/1877. Ethel Lavinia Heanan married Samuel Guiberson in 1906.

In the 1900 census Ethel's mother Mary was described as a widow, aged 47, so born 1852/3. The 1900 also says that Ethel's father was born in Scotland.

In 1880 Charles O Heenan, labourer, aged 32, born Scotland, wife Mary, son A M Heenan, 6 and daughter Ethel Heenan, 4, were in Austin City, Lander County, Nevada.

So he must have been born about 1847/1848. There are no Charles Heanans in the available Scottish records, not even using 'name variants' in the search, and no Charles Heenan (or variants) in the Scottish census in 1861.

So if Charles Dominic and John Rupert were born in the 1890s, they cannot have been legitimate half-siblings of Ethel Lavinia Heanan or Guiberson, because her mother was still living in 1900.

Did Charles Oris Heanan abandon his wife Mary, cross the Atlantic and bigamously marry Alice Sarah Wyllie? Or was the Charles Oris Heanan who married Alice Sarah Wyllie a completely different person with the same name?

[ShaunJ]

Have you seen this 1891 census at 23 Springfield Road, Hampstead?

Carlos Oris Heanan 38 Mining Engineer, Scotland
Alice Sarah - wife, 19, London
Infant - daughter 4 mo (?) South African Republic
Edith Buckman, 20 nurse

[Forfarian]

No, I hadn't. How on earth did I manage to miss it? Thank you very much indeed.

[ShaunJ]

See https://www.kwtdominicans.org/wp-content/uploads/Allforgodspeople/afgp-chapter-12.pdf:

Sister M Ludwiga Heanan was one of these orphans. He parents died of ‘fever’ on their trek to Rhodesia. The four children were then sent to Mother Mauritia at Izeli. Violet Heanan joined the Sisterhood and was trained as a teacher. Her last appointment was a Principal of St Joseph’s School for Coloured Children at King William’s Town. Two Sisters who visited her a Grey Hospital about two hours before her death testified that her countenance seemed to be invested, through a special grace, with supernatural radiance and beauty. Sister Ludwiga had acquired the reputation of being “the most charitable Sister in the Congregation.” Those nuns who knew her well revere her as a woman of rare holiness

[Forfarian]

Wow! Thanks again. I am now trying to find anything about this trek to Rhodesia and lists of people who were involved.

[Forfarian]

Got that census now - it's indexed as Hernan, and his middle name as Cris. Thank you.