#1921 census

[enbycrip]

[ww2yaoi]

here's all the real Web lore I learned from being nosy. some of this might be common knowledge but I never see anyone talk about it:

Web's maternal grandparents were both writers and journalists. his grandpa specifically, Josiah Kingsley Ohl, was a war correspondent, and his grandma, Maud Annulet Andrews Ohl, was a poet and the first female reporter for the Atlanta Constitution

Josiah attended Kenyon College, which might be where Web got his middle name

Web's dad, David Frank Webster, was married previously to a woman named Lillias (who was from California) but she died as far as I can tell. they had one daughter, also named Lillias, who was born in Japan. I believe this is the sister Web writes to in his book. she was much older than Web and I believe it's her son named Cam who Web wrote to in his book as well

Web's dad was a businessman and the vice president of the Pacific Commercial Company based in Manila, the Philippines. as far as I could find out the company dealt in selling produce to the US military. also explains why Web had been to the Philippines with his family as he mentions in his book

there were four children of Joan and David Webster. Frank, who was the oldest, was born in 1921 in Manila. David in 1922. John in 1926, and Joan in 1929

the Websters often had 1 or 2 servants living with them, according to their census data

Joan Jr. sadly died in a car accident in December 1940

all three Webster boys served in WW2. John fought in Manila with the 511th Paratroops and Frank was in the Signal Corps on the Western Front working as a cryptographer

Frank also went to Harvard and was on the swim team

out of the four children of Joan and David Sr., only Frank made it to old age, but even then he died at 66. John died in 1966 at 40 or 41, but I couldn't find out how

here's some pics of Web's family:

I believe that must be Web's mother, his half-sister Lillias, and then his father. he and his father definitely look alike (found in a passport application)

another picture of his dad and an article about the Webster boys:

anyways, just thought this was interesting

[morrieandlicky]

I realized something rather unsettling about E.M. Forster’s Maurice: it would’ve never happened at all—in fact it was so close to never having been written. 

Why? Because the novel is a direct result of Forster's visit to Edward Carpenter and George Merril in 1913—specifically, a direct result of a Merril’s touch on Forster’s backside, but broadly of Carpenter’s philosophy and the life he had with his lover, the lower-class Merrill. But here’s the thing: Edward Carpenter and George Merril were almost charged, arrested, and/or imprisoned because of their sexuality and relationship. 

Having published his controversial The Intermediate Sex which sought to justify homosexual love, Edward Carpenter came under fire and faced a large public reaction. Someone named D O’Brien, a member of a right-wing group instigated his own large-scale campaign against Carpenter. He printed out pamphlets and wrote letters accusing Carpenter, even sent them to the Home Office and the police who then started investigating Carpenter. The authorities evaluated Carpenter’s published books on homosexuality to determine merits of persecuting him.

However, the Director of Public Persecution at the time, Charles, decided not to open any legal proceeding. Because with the shadow of Oscar Wilde’s infamous trial still palpably felt in the society, he did not want to stir any public discussion about sex or homosexuality through Carpenter or his books. As such, no proceeding against Carpenter happened, and his books were not banned. This ended in 1909. 

But the investigation did not stop there. The Derbyshire police was concerned with—and anxious about—getting a case against Carpenter and Merrill as two homosexuals. I think that since Carpenter was upper-class and had a solid reputation, the police went after Merrill instead, especially because O’Brien’s letters mentioned names of several people who knew about Merrill’s "indecencies". But these people were of no avail. Hence, no incriminating evidence was found against Carpenter “beyond strong suspicion”, and before 1911, the whole thing was thus, finally, dropped. 

And Forster’s visit to the two men living together in Millthorpe happened in 1913. 

(Below: a 1911 census showing Edward Carpenter, the head of house, living together with George Merrill, the housekeeper)

Imagine: had Carpenter and Merril been caught—and imprisonment was most certain for Merril due to his lower station—they wouldn’t have been together at where they were in 1913. Forster probably wouldn’t have visited Carpenter at their cottage at all, and thus, Maurice and its happy ending would’ve never been formed. The lives of the real life Maurice Hall and Alec Scudder could’ve been destroyed before their fictional counterparts had been conceived—and Forster would’ve never seen the happy gay couple he knew to write a gay romance novel with a happy ending. 

(Forster could’ve written and even published another version of Maurice—albeit one with tragic ending and deaths of gay characters.)

I used to think Carpenter and Merrill evaded the laws and got through it all because they were smart and brave and discreet, but now I know they were also incredibly lucky, in the sense that it’s almost like Carpenter and Merrill were destined by some higher power to be together and live in an Edwardian gay fairy tale of happily ever after; they were meant to survive as outlaws and to welcome Forster into their home and inspire him to write a gay novel with a happy ending. “Fate has mated it perfectly,” might I quote from Forster himself. 

(Below: a 1921 census showing Carpenter and Merrill living together still)

Probably in an alternate universe, Carpenter and Merrill were indeed arrested. Merrill went to prison and suffered the same as Wilde did; Carpenter however was let off due to his status (just like Forster had imagined for Maurice and Alec in real life his terminal notes). I don't want to wonder or ponder too much on that because for now, I'm just glad that I live in this timeline where a homosexual happy ending indeed happened in real life as well as in fiction, in the most impossible times.

Source: https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/edward-carpenter-free-love-advocate-and-lgbtq-rights-pioneer/

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

This is dark but do you think Comics!MK have any surviving extended family or is he truly the last of his family?

I like to think he has cousins but their parents didn't flee to America like Elias did so he hardly sees them

MCU Marc doesn't talk to family for very different reasons obviously

I got an ask!

Now this is a truly difficult question to answer for a lot of reasons, but I will do my best!

Comics Moon Knight has a LOT of re-writes. Moench only included Randall in Marc's known family. He was killed off before Moon Knight even had his own official comic (See the Incredible Hulk appearance, which I will review someday in the hopefully not too distant future). We don't get a lot of references to Randall in Moench's run after that. Like at all. In fact, there is so little discussed about Marc's family in Moench's OG run that I'm pretty sure that people forgot about his brother all together unless Marvel decided they needed to do something and then we got a quick "Oh yeah and then this happened" moment.

Zelenetz gave us Elias Spector and more of a family backstory. We got the story of how their mother died when he was very young, which is going to be retconned later on in Lemire's run when we see his father dying much earlier in Marc's life and his mother still being alive. We get no mention of Randall in this. There are a lot of people at the Shiva/Funeral, but since Elias was a prominent figure in their community (Rabbi), it's hard saying who is family and who is community.

As far as I am currently aware (I haven't dived through ALL the comics in a VERY long time and my re-read is slow and steady), no other family has ever shown up or is mentioned.

HISTORY LESSON!!! (TW Holocaust)

Elias Spector, as noted by Zelenetz, is from Czechoslovakia. Those of you that got a bit more of a history lesson than what they bothered to toss at you in high school, may recognize that this country has been through A LOT. So much so that it has been split, reunited, renamed, taken over, given independence, divided, and renamed and split over and over and over again.

It is safe to assume that his family lived there for a few generations. It's hard to say when they arrived there, but Jewish history is…strife with certain parts of Europe inviting Jewish people in then going "Just kidding" and kicking them out (or killing them) immediately afterwards.

And with the history of Czechoslovakia's REPEATED wars and revolutions and divides…. Who knows the history of the Spectors of if they all settled there or if they had been divided over time.

But what we DO know…

According to a census. In 1921, the Jewish population was 354,342. In 1946 it was 55,000. This was not because they decided to move.

The numbers continued to drop. By 1990, it was 7,800.

The German occupation started in 1930 and was not a pretty picture from the start. In 1939, the Jewish population realized this was not going to go well and desperately started to get out, but 78,000 had already been killed. Many were sent to surrounding camps where Typhus epidemics along with brutal conditions started to wipe them out even before 'the final solution' was put into action. Getting dark here: of the 15,000 CHILDREN that were sent to Auschwitz, only 93 came back.

In 1948, Communist Russia took over. Russia does not have a good history with their Jewish population.

In fact, the 40 year period of this occupation is called "Communist Holocaust". Jewish people were forbidden from practicing their religion and Jewish leaders were forced to leave, convert, or die. Children were prohibited from learning their own culture or religious practices.

So do I think that Moon Knight has any cousins surviving in Europe that didn't flee to America like Elias did?

It is with a very heavy heart that I have to given an honest answer: No.

Is it possible that maybe some of the family left with Elias and came to America or went to England? Maybe. Possibly some made it to Denmark or one of the few places that tried to help get a few out. But if they stayed in any of the countries that were occupied, I don't think they made it. And this may have given another reason behind Marc's anger at his father's unwillingness to do anything about the anti-antisemitism that he witnessed.

Perhaps Marc saw the children with extended family and wondered why he didn't have any. Or why they had no pictures or why his mother and father wouldn't talk about those that were left behind.

If he DID happen to have ANY family that survived, Marc probably has no idea where they are or how to find them or who they are. After the Holocaust, the surviving Jewish population was so scattered and left without homes to return to. The countries that they had fled did not welcome them back. Many didn't want to go back. It has only really been recently with the modernization of the internet that efforts have been made for survivors to reach out and try to find out what happened to their families.

With their father and mother gone, I wonder how much about his family Marc actually knew. The REAL question is: Would Marc, Jake, or Steven make an effort to try to reach out? Would they want to find survivors? Would they feel guilty? Would they be able to even talk with the surviving family? Would they want to?

I don't think Marc would. I think this is one more burden on his shoulders and he doesn't want to be a dark shadow on the surviving family tree. I think Steven would be curious and attempt to dig up records to find out what happened to his father's town or people, but I don't think he'd reach out. Jake doesn't travel. Jake's home and people are New York. I think his soft heart would feel the loss too much to want to know. But I do think that if he found any family living in New York, he'd wander by to say hello.

That being said: What about their daughter? Is she being raised Jewish? Marlene certainly is not Jewish. Or at least she was never given that designation in any of the comics that I can recall or in Moench's run. Even if she is not being raised Jewish, perhaps she would be the one to reach out. A generation reaching out to another to find answers and connection. And maybe through her, it would bring the Moon Knight system back to their own connections.

I can see Jake curiously looking at pictures of grandparents and aunts and uncles and saying "Look I have my Great Uncle's mustache!" only to be reminded that his mustache is very much a fake mustache and him quipping back that he has the same taste at least. I can also see Steven being delighted to trace his roots back and saying "The Spectors are survivors." I think even Marc might be able to sit down with his daughter and recall stories he had heard growing up about the town his family comes from and the people there.

And that does bring me a bit of optimism and hope. That they can share good things about a past that they used to look at and find only pain in. That maybe it would finally let them talk about it when it was something they couldn't talk about growing up. A way for him to say "I have generational trauma, but at least I can start to let it heal through my daughter."

SO.... That's a really long answer to your question, and maybe not the one you were looking for... But it's honest and probably more than Marvel will ever give us (I fear what Marvel might do to the history if they tried).

Thanks for asking!

[chicago-geniza]

Top-tier fin-de-siecle cusp-of-assimilation name from the 1921 census: Maria Rachela, born 1905. She has a brother named Zygmunt Israel. Their parents really said "we will assign our children double consciousness at birth"

[petermorwood]

Hello!

Sorry, I found this post, and was wondering. Do you know how to get the baby's name? Or was the annotation different?

https://www.tumblr.com/petermorwood/676099233232945152/salparadisewasright-irisharchaeology-love

The easy way would be to check the 1921 census and see what name the now ten-year-old daughter of that family was given.

At least it would be easy if the 1921 census was on-line, but it isn't. :-P

[mirrorofliterature]

when a historical mishap suits your fanfic

yes mexico delay your census from 1920 to 1921.

[deeisace]

LOVE your tags on Harry Wilson true 1890s fandom naming your weans

Oh 100%

I couldn't find my post of him, so here's the real world Sherlock Holmes

His birth and baptism record - 1897, to Martha and Richard Holmes, a miner.

1901, we find his father is more specifically a coal hewer. He has an elder sister Annie, who has poor eyesight, a younger sister Alice, and a younger brother who is 3 months old and rather pleasingly called Mycroft. Either or both of Martha and Richard must have been great fans of the series!

1911, his mother has split from his father, presumably, but not legally - given he is not on this census, tho she still listed herself married - but she has named her youngest son after her current employer (she is housekeeper to labourer Joseph Roebuck, and Joseph Roebuck Holmes is 2 years old), which is. Somewhat obvious, Mar, what were you doing?

Annie is now employed as a taker-in in a glass bottleworks, and is no longer listed as having "imperfect sight" - I wonder she got herself glasses?

Next, 1914, he's called up for war - we see that he's a miner himself, like his dad, and he lasts for five months before he's discharged for "defective vision" - possibly due to working underground as he did, but given his sister, might also have been inherited. What is certainly inherited, one way or another, is his description - at age 19, he is 5 foot 6 3/4, fresh complexion, brown eyes and dark hair. He gives his father as next of kin, who is living at the same address as Martha was in 1911, so I should imagine they made up since then - one way or another. I checked out Richard in 1911, and it looks like he went back to live with his parents in Castleford, see below -

Then, back to Sherlock -

Here he is in 1939. There is no useful address given, and I'm not sure where his wife is living (Elizabeth Bratton, a former servant, married in 1919). He is a lance corporal, now - perhaps the Royal Engineers Fortress Section (whatever that might be) have less stringent requirements for vision than did the Yorkshire Reg in 1914, I've no idea.

There are six listings for Holmes's born to Bratton's between 1919 and 1939 - in order, Charles, Arthur, Irene, Annie, Stella and Joseph.

And, finally, his death in 1962.

If you're interested, Mycroft was born on boxing day 1900, a labourer who married a Janet White in 1929, and possibly had seven children - Martha and Joseph, certainly, and tho I have no real way to confirm Gordon, Joan, Brian, Harold and Beryl, there are spaces for them here - the 1939 register.

They close the record, usually, of those "under school age" or uh too young to not definitely be dead yet? That's the reason why they keep census records closed for 100 years after the fact, too, to be absolutely sure they're not giving out the records of people still alive - the 1921 census records only became available last year, but you still have to pay to read them last I checked.

Anyway, there you go, Sherlock Holmes.

At the time he was born, 13th March 1897, most recently The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes had been published altogether, in 1894 - and that includes The Final Problem, where (fictional) Sherlock Holmes "died", which was in the Strand Magazine December 1893 - he wasn't revived until 1903, in "The Adventure of The Empty House"

I wonder what Martha and Richard thought of that fiasco?

Wonder if either of them wrote to ACD!

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1921 – Francis Xavier Flood (one of the six and youngest IRA Volunteers charged for crimes of high treason and murder) is executed by hanging in Mountjoy Gaol.

Francis Xavier Flood, known as Frank, was a 1st Lieutenant in the Dublin Active Service Brigade during the Irish War of Independence. He was executed by the British authorities in Mountjoy Gaol and was one of the men commonly referred to as ‘The Forgotten Ten’. Flood was the son of a policeman and the 1911 census lists the family living at 15 Emmet Street. He was one of eight brothers, most of…

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 4.2

1513 – Having spotted land on March 27, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León comes ashore on what is now the U.S. state of Florida, landing somewhere between the modern city of St. Augustine and the mouth of the St. Johns River. 1755 – Commodore William James captures the Maratha fortress of Suvarnadurg on the west coast of India. 1792 – The Coinage Act is passed by Congress, establishing the United States Mint. 1800 – Ludwig van Beethoven leads the premiere of his First Symphony in Vienna. 1801 – French Revolutionary Wars: In the Battle of Copenhagen a British Royal Navy squadron defeats a hastily assembled, smaller, mostly-volunteer Dano-Norwegian Navy at high cost, forcing Denmark out of the Second League of Armed Neutrality. 1863 – American Civil War: The largest in a series of Southern bread riots occurs in Richmond, Virginia. 1865 – American Civil War: Defeat at the Third Battle of Petersburg forces the Army of Northern Virginia and the Confederate government to abandon Richmond, Virginia. 1885 – Canadian Cree warriors attack the village of Frog Lake, killing nine. 1902 – Dmitry Sipyagin, Minister of Interior of the Russian Empire, is assassinated in the Mariinsky Palace, Saint Petersburg. 1902 – "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles. 1911 – The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts the country's first national census. 1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials. 1917 – American entry into World War I: President Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany. 1921 – The Autonomous Government of Khorasan, a military government encompassing the modern state of Iran, is established. 1930 – After the mysterious death of Empress Zewditu, Haile Selassie is proclaimed emperor of Ethiopia. 1954 – A 19-month-old infant is swept up in the ocean tides at Hermosa Beach, California. Local photographer John L. Gaunt photographs the incident; 1955 Pulitzer winner "Tragedy by the Sea". 1956 – As the World Turns and The Edge of Night premiere on CBS. The two soaps become the first daytime dramas to debut in the 30-minute format. 1964 – The Soviet Union launches Zond 1. 1972 – Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since being labeled a communist during the Red Scare in the early 1950s. 1973 – Launch of the LexisNexis computerized legal research service. 1975 – Vietnam War: Thousands of civilian refugees flee from Quảng Ngãi Province in front of advancing North Vietnamese troops. 1976 – Prince Norodom Sihanouk resigns as leader of Cambodia and is placed under house arrest. 1979 – A Soviet bio-warfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock. 1980 – United States President Jimmy Carter signs the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act. 1982 – Falklands War: Argentina invades the Falkland Islands. 1986 – Alabama governor George Wallace, a former segregationist, best known for the "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door", announces that he will not seek a fifth four-year term and will retire from public life upon the end of his term in January 1987. 1989 – Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana, Cuba, to meet with Fidel Castro in an attempt to mend strained relations. 1991 – Rita Johnston becomes the first female Premier of a Canadian province when she succeeds William Vander Zalm (who had resigned) as Premier of British Columbia. 1992 – In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti is convicted of murder and racketeering and is later sentenced to life in prison. 1992 – Forty-two civilians are massacred in the town of Bijeljina in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 2002 – Israeli forces surround the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, into which armed Palestinians had retreated. 2004 – Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempt to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid; the attack is thwarted. 2006 – Over 60 tornadoes break out in the United States; Tennessee is hardest hit with 29 people killed. 2012 – A mass shooting at Oikos University in California leaves seven people dead and three injured. 2014 – A spree shooting occurs at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, with four dead, including the gunman, and 16 others injured. 2015 – Gunmen attack Garissa University College in Kenya, killing at least 148 people and wounding 79 others. 2015 – Four men steal items worth up to £200 million from an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden area in what has been called the "largest burglary in English legal history." 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of confirmed cases reach one million. 2021 – At least 49 people are killed in a train derailment in Taiwan after a truck accidentally rolls onto the track. 2021 – A Capitol Police officer is killed and another injured when an attacker rams his car into a barricade outside the United States Capitol.

[mybookof-you]

"There were many accidents in laundries – burns, crushing of fingers, hands, arms, many left permanently maimed.  New machines were bought in with no health and safety requirements, often no adequate guards on them.  Girls and women often wore loose clothing, loose hair that caught up in the machinery.  From about 1909 accident rates in laundries started to decline.  The industry was becoming more mechanized, and guards and protection around machinery was better.  The hours were still very long – high incidence of leg ulcers, rheumatic joints, consumption, ill health of workers, hours standing etc. "

[lboogie1906]

Christopher James Perry, Sr. (September 11, 1854 – May 15, 1921) was a businessman, politician, civil rights activist, newspaper founder, newspaper editor, and journalist. He was the founder of The Tribune, the longest-running African American newspaper.

He was born in Baltimore to parents who were free people of color. He moved to Philadelphia, to continue his education. He started writing for local newspapers.

He was writing for the Sunday Mercury and he became the editor of the “colored department”. In 1884, he lost his job due to the newspaper’s bankruptcy; so Perry established his newspaper on November 27, 1884, The Tribune (The first issue of the newspaper was written by hand).

According to a US census report, in 1880 the Black population in Philadelphia was 847,170 and by 1920 the Black population in Philadelphia rose to 1,823,779. Within the Black community, the city became overcrowded and the job market became highly competitive. He used his newspaper to uplift and educate Black Philadelphians about social and political issues at both the local and national levels; and to support the middle-class Black community’s ability to gain higher education and local, decent-paying jobs. Throughout his career with The Tribune, he promoted the advancement of African Americans in society, and covered issues affecting their daily lives.

For 10 years, he was a member of the Philadelphia City Council from the seventh ward. He was a member of the Lombard Street Central Presbyterian.

He worked on the Tribune until his death. Ten years after his death, The Tribune had a circulation of over 20,000 and became a vehicle of community change. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[isenstar777]

Reconstructing my grandad's family tree is a nightmare because he was fostered out when he was very young, his parents were never married and we only have his dad's name and no other details, and his maternal grandparents were also never married. He was also Scottish and those records are a pain to search through because you have to pay to look at every record. His mum also married and never found grandad and never told her new family about him either.

But mum did research and found the maternal line and I now work for a probate genealogist so i get access to more records for free. Still not the scottish records though. The 1921 census has become available since mum did her research.

Not only does grandad, who spent most of his life with no relatives bar his wife and children, have a whole bunch of half-siblings, he also has a full-blood uncle! Who I just found out about!

[twistingtreeancestry]

The Tragedies of Levi Oscar Smith and His Wives

TRIGGER WARNING TRIGGER WARNING TRIGGER WARNING This work discusses severe injury, burns, different types of death, manners of death, symptoms of death, causes of death, and possibly other unpleasant topics that may be triggering or upsetting. Please carefully consider whether you're in a good space and/or mature enough to read further. TRIGGER WARNING TRIGGER WARNING TRIGGER WARNING

Who is Levi O. Smith?

Levi is one of my spouse's great-grandfathers. He was born in Indian Territory (McAlester, Pittsburg County), Oklahoma, USA in 1898. At 20 years old, he married his first wife, Opal Alsus Jackson, 17 years old, on 1 Jun 1918 in Holtville, Imperial County, California, USA. They had their first child, a son named Eugene Ellis Smith, in October of 1919. Eugene was followed by the birth of Louis M. Smith in 1921, then Raymond Leroy Smith in February of 1924. Sometime around the beginning of 1925, Opal became pregnant with Vivian Louise Smith.

Opal Alsus Jackson

Opal was born in 1901 in Oklahoma, USA. In 1910, she and her birth family were listed on two census records—one under General Population and one under Indian Population. On the General Population record, she, her mother, and her siblings were listed as white while her father was listed as Indian. On the Indian Population record, her father was listed as Indian, her mother was listed as white, and she and her siblings were listed as half-Indian, half-white.

According to events detailed by The Bulletin (Pomona, Los Angeles County, California, USA) and Riverside Daily Press (Riverside, Riverside County, California, USA) newspapers, respectively, indicate that the tragedy of Opal Alsus Jackson began on 17 Oct 1925.

While starting a fire at her mother's home in Corona, Riverside County, California, USA, Opal sent her 3 or 4-year-old son Louis to fetch her kerosene. Instead, Louis mistakenly brought back a jar of gasoline. This resulted in an explosion that set the house, and her clothes, aflame.

Despite her condition, the pregnant and burning Opal managed to get all three of her children out of the house before she "fell into the flames". Eugene and Raymond's conditions were never noted and Levi wasn't mentioned at all, but devastatingly, Louis succumbed to his injuries a few hours later. "At almost the hour of his death", Opal gave birth to Vivian, who seemed healthy and suffered no ill effects from the traumatic situation that resulted in her birth. Louis was laid to rest four days later.

Opal was admitted to Cothe Rona Hospital (which I cannot locate) where her chances of recovery were described optimistically due to her having "such remarkable recuperative power". It was stated that 80% (or, alternatively, 4/5ths) of the surface of her body was severely burned. She stayed in the gray zone between life and death for just over a month before "unfavorable symptoms developed". She succumbed to her injuries on the morning of 21 Nov 1925 at just 24 years old. She was laid to rest with Louis the next day, and they now share a gravemarker.

Her baby daughter, Vivian, lived to be 89 years old with a husband, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. According to her obituary, she served as a civilian staff car driver at an Ontario, CA military base during WWII, and she worked for 40+ years "for General Electric, both the Iron Plant downtown Ontario and the Aircraft at the Ontario Airport". It appears she lived a full, healthy, and happy life. She was preceded in death by Eugene, Raymond, and her half-brother, Jay, as well as her husband and her son.

Raymonde Victorine Louise Aubry

Raymonde was born in 1912 in France, Europe. She immigrated in late 1986 from Paris, Île-de-France, France, Europe at 13 years old aboard the S.S. Niagara with her parents and little sister. Their destination was Ontario, CA, but they made port in Galveston, Galveston County, Texas, USA on 4 Oct 1926, and must have navigated northwest to California afterward.

Next, she appears as "Ramon" in a 1930 census in Ontario, CA as the 17-year-old new bride of 31-year-old Levi Smith, with Eugene, Raymond, and Vivian in their household and listed their children. It was recorded that she could read and write, spoke English, and also spoke French at home before she immigrated. Over the following years, she and Levi birthed their children: a daughter, Lela Faye Smith, and two sons, Jay Loren and Jimmy Dale Smith.

I've gathered from articles in The Los Angeles Times, The Pomona Progress Bulletin, and The San Bernardino County Sun that Raymonde's tragedy started when Levi picked her up from Sunday church on the evening of 30 Jul 1939.

He told Deputy Coroner W. J. Weller that shortly after the service, Raymonde allegedly began to accuse Levi of adultery while she was attending church. He insisted that after he dropped her off at 7:15 p.m. he visited a beer parlor until it was time to retrieve her at 9:15 p.m.

Later that night, Raymonde joined Levi in the bedroom and he heard her whisper "goodbye" to her 3-year-old son (and youngest child), Jimmy. He then asked her where she was going, to which she replied, "I've done it. I've taken poison."

Levi immediately took her to the hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at just 26 years old. It was later reported by Coroner R. E. Williams that she'd ingested strychnine—the poison, which Deputy Coroner Weller alleged she'd taken in three previous death attempts, was referred to by one article as a "fatal potion". Levi claimed the poison was used to exterminate gophers and that Raymonde knew where it was kept. He also admitted that she'd threatened to ingest the poison when they were arguing, but he hadn't believed her until she told Jimmy goodbye.

Williams stated an inquest into her death would likely be unnecessary, and her death was ruled as death by suicide via poisoning. She was laid to rest five days later.

What happened to Levi?

After being a farmer since 1918, Levi became an irrigator at a tree nursery by 1940 before becoming a truck driver of farm produce by 1941.

On 21 Feb 1941, 42-year-old Levi was fatally injured in an accident while falling from a truck. His death certificate states he died of shock due to a brain aneurysm created by a brain hemorrhage three miles east of Perryville, Maricopa County, Arizona, USA. A newspaper article named Buckeye, Maricopa County, Arizona, USA as his place of death, which is approximately 3 miles east of Perryville.

Levi was buried in the same cemetery as his second wife, Raymonde. While they didn't end up in the same section, their sections butt up against each other.

34 years later, his 40-year-old son Jay, a truck driver for Midwest Growers Association, would die in a trucking accident "25 miles east of Lordsburg" in Grant County, New Mexico, USA. I believe he died on I-70 in Wilna, Grant County, New Mexico, USA.

That's all, for now!

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking with me and learning about some of my spouse's departed family. Make sure to follow me so you don't miss my future posts about genealogy and family history, or random historical finds I think are interesting!

[chicago-geniza]

They finally digitized the 1921 Kraków census and fully 80% of adult women were named Maria. The other 20% were named Anna, maybe Stanisława if you're nasty

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Mark Leier recounts the story of Robert Gosden, a radical activist in the BC Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) who later turned labour spy and whose life illustrates some of this flexibility [between socialism and religion]. Although Leier does not say so, Gosden very probably disavowed Christianity during his IWW period, as most radical IWW leaders did. Leier is certainly clear that Gosden was a materialist at this time, and in 1911 he dismissed spiritualism as “metaphysical dope [that] especially appeals to some emasculated persons.” Like many socialists, Gosden denounced any association with spirituality as effeminate weakness. However, a few years later, after a stint as a labour spy, when Gosden was “nearly forty years old, with no career, stable job, or home life,” he turned to spiritualism and “became particularly interested in Theosophy.”

Theosophy had emerged from spiritualism during the 1870s but was quite different in many ways. Even so, the two movements did maintain some relationship with each other, and in the United States, Britain, and Canada a number of people, especially social activists, feminists, intellectuals, and artists, appear to have moved from spiritualism to Theosophy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Theosophy espoused the Western occult tradition but was also influenced by many ideas from Eastern religions – Buddhism and most particularly Hinduism. As a result, karma and reincarnation were integral to its beliefs, and cremation, a Hindu practice, was common among Theosophists at a time when it was beyond the pale for most Euro-Canadians. As Gillian McCann reveals in her study of the Toronto Theosophical Society, the adoption of many major tenets of Hinduism led Theosophists to respect and appreciate Eastern religions. They were very critical of the Christian missionaries who attempted to convert the followers of these religions. They were not immune to the “Orientalism” that pervaded Euro-Canadian society, however, and they sometimes viewed Eastern religions and cultures as exotic “others,” but they were much more positive than other Canadians about these religions and were generally respectful of the South Asians who occasionally provided lectures on links between Hindu teachings and Theosophical beliefs.

The intent of Theosophy was to reach a deeper understanding of the divine. As Michele Lacombe points out, Theosophists believed in “a divinity indistinguishable from a Universe which is living, conscious, and endlessly evolving.” This evolution moved toward a positive endpoint, which included the brotherhood of mankind. Not all Theosophists subscribed to the same views, but a belief in the interconnectedness of the world and in universal brotherhood was central for all. During the early twentieth century, Canada had few Theosophists (at least as listed on the census), but between 1901 and 1921 more than 30 percent lived in British Columbia, and the province claimed over 35 percent in 1911 and 1921, although even by 1921 British Columbians composed only 6 percent of the Canadian population.

Theosophy made its first official appearance in British Columbia in 1892, with the establishment of a “headquarters” in downtown Victoria. By 1894, this headquarters was also equipped with a free library of Theosophical books. The Victoria chapter seems to have been one of Canada’s first three Theosophical Societies. The Theosophists offered regular public lectures, provided by their own members or visiting speakers, and though their numbers were small, the new religion appears to have aroused considerable public interest. Sometimes the local paper noted that their talks attracted large audiences, as in the case of visiting speakers Dr. Griffith and Sidney Coryn, whose 1896 and 1898 lectures were titled “Theosophy in Ancient Egypt” and “Adepts and the Mysteries of Antiquity. In the spring of 1911, Mr. C. Jinarajadasa, a protégé of international Theosophical leader Annie Besant and a member of the executive of the International Theosophical Society, gave a series of three lectures in Victoria titled “The Growth and Evolution of the Soul,” “Theosophy in the Christian Church,” and “The Laws of Reincarnation.” After his lectures, a letter appeared in the Victoria Colonist from a local Sikh leader, protesting the fact that even Hindus “of good social standing” like Jinarajadasa had difficulty entering the country because of its racist immigration laws. Jinarajadasa was not the only Theosophist lecturer to discuss the relationship between Christianity and Theosophy, as this was an occasional topic at the Victoria Theosophical Society’s public lectures in the decades preceding the First World War. Titles such as “What Is True Christianity?” and “Some Forgotten Teachings of Jesus” imply that Theosophists hoped to interest Christians in shared Theosophical and Christian beliefs such as universal brotherhood – beliefs that they felt many Christians failed to practise.

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Theosophy’s focus on the brotherhood of man and the amalgamation of Eastern and Western religious beliefs led at least some Canadian Theosophists to follow the example of their international leaders, such as Annie Besant, in attacking racism and British imperialism. Not surprisingly, this critique tended to concentrate on the behaviour of the British government and Christian missionaries in India, although in the Canadian context considerable focus was also placed on Canada’s racist immigration and citizenship laws. Hugh Johnston points out that both this critique and the adoption of Hindu beliefs forged links between BC Theosophists and at least a few South Asian immigrants, who were themselves highly critical of both Canada’s immigration laws and British rule in India. Johnston discusses Teja Singh, a well-educated and pious Sikh immigrant who was planning to undertake graduate work at Harvard and who spent some time in Vancouver during the pre-war years. Local Theosophists lionized him, “treating him as a guru and inviting him to their homes for intimate philosophical talks.” Canadian security officials considered Singh a subversive at least in part for his efforts to assist his compatriots in dealing with Canada’s racist immigration laws. Gillian McCann identifies another South Asian man, Kartar Singh, who immigrated to Vancouver during the pre-war years, moved to Toronto during the war, and became involved with the Toronto Theosophists. He returned to Vancouver in the late 1920s to assist the BC Sikhs in their struggle to become Canadian citizens.

Johnston also mentions another Sikh immigrant, Kapoor Singh, who was associated with the Theosophists. Singh came to British Columbia in 1912 as a labourer and became a businessman and community leader, developing increasingly close links with Theosophists in both Toronto and Vancouver. He was initially attracted to them because of their respect for Indian religious traditions and beliefs. Some Euro-Canadian Theosophists assisted South Asians in dealing with a racist society wherever they could, and by the interwar period were actively involved with them in challenging Canada’s immigration laws. Some Theosophists studied and practised their religion with the despised “Hindus” while also working to address their oppression in Canada, but the new religion was not socially transformative for everyone. Some Toronto Theosophists, who could not escape the values of Euro-Canadian society, treated visiting South Asian speakers in a highly racist manner.

Whereas some Theosophists challenged racial oppression or fought for women’s rights, others were strong socialists. Robert Gosden, although a complex figure by the time he embraced spiritualism and then Theosophy in the mid- to late 1910s, retained at least some of his socialist ideals. Perhaps the most famous BC activist to incorporate both socialist and Theosophist ideals in the years before the First World War was Matti Kurikka, the leader of Sointula, a Finnish socialist utopian community on Malcolm Island, just off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. The extent to which the Sointula community accepted Kurikka’s Theosophical beliefs is not clear. Certainly, his embrace of the free-love currents of Theosophical thought helped to break up the community fairly soon after its founding. Those who remained, however, stayed true to socialist, cooperative beliefs but seemed more irreligious than Theosophist. As a longtime resident told Imbert Orchard in the 1960s, long-time inhabitants of Sointula “were all pretty against” the church and Christianity.

Most scholars have focused on the relationship between socialism and Theosophy in Ontario, whereas Samuel Wagar provides an in-depth exploration of the subject in the BC context. He concentrates largely on the 1920s, when active socialist and Theosophist Jack Logie ran a number of summer camps in the Okanagan that promoted both Theosophist and socialist beliefs. However, Wagar also identifies earlier links between socialism and Theosophy, arguing that materialism was not the only model available to BC socialists, since a number of prominent socialists espoused Theosophy. Wagar discusses a major front-page article titled “Socialism and Theosophy,” which appeared in the April 1903 issue of the Western Socialist, an organ of the Socialist Party of British Columbia. It was written by Phillips Thompson, an Ontario Theosophist and well-known leftist, whose career reflects an ongoing spiritual journey. In the 1880s, Thompson had promoted a radical Christian social gospel critique of capitalism, and later in the century he became involved in spiritualism. He was also an active member of Toronto’s freethought community for a time but had embraced Theosophy by the early 1890s, which he saw as the best way of integrating spirituality with socialism. As he told Western Socialist readers,

I am a class-conscious Socialist from the ground up, and I claim that my Socialism is reinforced by [Theosophy]; in fact, I might go further and say based upon the truths of Theosophy.

Thompson was clear that he did not accept Christianity, but at the same time, his article was rather different from the general hostility to religion that characterized Marxist journals in British Columbia. Wagar notes that in 1907, Jack Logie ran as a candidate for office in the Socialist Party of Canada, although he does not provide evidence that Logie was a Theosophist at the time. He has clear evidence that by 1920 some individuals combined Theosophy and socialism: for example, socialist James Taylor was also president of the Vancouver Theosophical Society in 1920, and A.M. Stephen, president of the Julian Theosophical Society in Vancouver during the early 1920s, was also a committed Marxist and a well-known author and poet. Those who integrated Theosophy and socialism were able to abandon a capitalist-tainted Christianity but retain a spiritual belief system that focused on human betterment and the brotherhood of man."

- Lynne Marks, Infidels and the Damn Churches: Irreligion and Religion in Settler British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2017. p. 197-199, 203-205