Saturday 27 August 2016

How did Charles GS and Bessie Nathan Meet?

This was something Pamela and I discussed during our weekend of discovery. Ever since I found out that Bessie had been to South Africa with the Company run by Captain Disney Roebuck I have been convinced that this is where they met. I had already found Charles GS on a passenger list going to South Africa and I have an image of his advertisement sending good wishes to his friends in the diamond fields, so it was a strong possibility that they had met there as the dates seemed to fit together.

Today, 27th August 2016, I have received some cuttings from the Natal Witness. There are three separate items for three dates Friday 1st June 1877, Saturday April 8 1878, and Nov 27th 1878.

This gives us a lot of information.
The first thing it does is date this picture. On Monday 28th May 1877 Charles Guilfoyle Seymour gave a performance as Hamlet. The review tells us this. So this picture, taken by Kitsch Brothers, Durban, Natal Must have been taken around that time.

The review spends several column inches displaying the reviewers knowledge of the play and discussing whether Hamlet was mad or not, before telling us about the performance.

"We should judge that Mr Guilfoyle Seymour, to whose care the part of the Prince of Denmark was entrusted on Monday, inclines to the sane theory which has the advantage, so far as simplicity is concerned. Hamlet, As Mr Seymour reads the part, is oppressed enough by the death of his father and the hasty re-marriage of his mother; but he is free from those darker mental clouds with regard to himself and everything else in the world, to which some well known actors have accustomed us. Viewing the part in this light, Mr Seymour's effort was decidedly praiseworthy, and if he failed to rise into any very high region of tragic acting, he at least suceeded in keeping up an equable tone throughout, and avoiding those pitfalls (and there are not a few of them scattered up and down through the play) into which unwary young actors are so liable to fall..."

Bessie was in the same production:

"Miss Bessie Nathan made up well into a pert and somewhat juvenile Rosencrantz..."

On Tuesday 29th May The company performed W.S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea and the same reviewer had this to say.

"Mr George Yates made a good Leucippe - the honest soldier whose love for Pygmalion's sister Myrine (Miss Bessie Nathan) forms a sort of sub-plot...."

The review continues

"The after piece was the Irish Comic Drama entitled "Handy Andy" - a piece in which the plot, if it can be called a plot at all, is merely used as a peg upon which to hang the extraordinary mistakes and vagaries of an untutored Irish peasant lad in his attempts to discharge the duties of a gentleman's servant. Of course these are laughable enough, but we must confess the utter dulness and stupidity of the whole piece in every other respect seemed to go very far towards neutralizing the amusement caused by Mr Guilfoyle Seymour's delineation of Hibernian characteristics.

The Natal Witness of Nov 27th 1877 tells us that "The Roebuck Company have been performing in Capetown to poor houses. From Cape Papers we see that Miss Bessie Nathan has sued Capt. Roebuck for £15. 8s for part salary, stopped by him. The defendant alleged that the plaintiff was entitled to only half salary while travelling or ill. Judgement was given for the plaintiff, less five shillings fine. A portion of the company, including Miss Nathan, Miss Young, Messrs Yates and Thorne with Mr Wilson as manager for Captain Roebuck, proceed to the Diamond fields to join the company there. They play various towns by the way."

Natal Witness Saturday April 8 1878

"...... Mr Seymour and Mrs Seymour (Bessie Nathan), have seceded from the Roebuck Company at the Diamond Fields. Captain Roebuck is with the other portion of the company at Capetown. Miss Hilda Temple is performing with them. It is expected they will come on to Natal in a few weeks."

Now I have to try and find out if the apparent marriage actually happened in South Africa or whether Mr and Mrs Seymour were simply telling people this because they had been ... getting to know one another.
I believe that the journey from South Africa to England took at least two months in those days so we know that Bessie was "with child" on her journey home. 

Goodness me I love this woman!

Thursday 25 August 2016

The trip up North


 The top picture is our Cousin Pat, daughter of Muriel, granddaughter of Margaret Annie Guilfoyle at her 80th birthday meal, with her brother Leonard and his daughter Debra. It is Debra I want you to look at because............... well look at the next picture. I am sitting at the computer with Patricia daughter of John Benjamin, son of John Daniel Guilfoyle. Debra and Patricia have inherited the same genes - yes?

Colin took this picture after watching us for half an hour and he said we had been usinh our hands and moving our heads in the same way for all that time.

I have to say right now that from the moment we met face to face it was as though there had never been a time before we met. even though I have a south Wales accent and their's is Liverpool and surrounding area. Even though we use different words in different places  we were finishing each others sentences and taking thoughts out of each other's heads.
There was one moment when we recognised together what we were both going to say so we laughed and carried on ... without actually saying it

Next to Patricia is her daughter Pamela, the one who saw the picture I put onto the British-Genealogy forum and realized that the Daniel Seymour that was her great grandfather is the John Daniel Seymour I had been tracking through the register offices.

Colin says it was spooky watching us three together. I think he should be used to it by now. He's seen it working at every family gathering.

On Sunday Pamela and her husband Paul ( oh gosh he is just lovely and fits into this family like a hand in a glove) and Colin and I met up with cousin Richie, son of Dennis Gibbon, and his gorgeous wife Dolores for Sunday lunch. Once again you simply could not imagine us never knowing one another. The time flew by and we eventually remembered to order food. Then we had to move because the free car parking would be ending - it was only three hours!

Lots of hugs shared and a great reluctance to part. It was amazing to be in the presence of a punk rock star - at least Richie told us we should be amazed so we were.
Paul and Pamela WILL be coming down here to visit and as soon as we have sorted out dates I will be telling everyone.
Did we have a good time? oh you betcha! So much so that I didn't want to come home. This is me! The one that gets homesick after two days and I wanted to stay longer.
We sorted out a bit more information for the family tree and these adjustments will be made and put into the gazette. I will also be sending out an edition soon.

Now I have some stuff to move into the fornow room so that Pamela and Paul will have somewhere to sleep!


Friday 19 August 2016

We're off to meet the cousins!

Tomorrow we climb into our shiny car and head north to put the word on the street............ sorry, just a quote from my most all-time favourite film, The Blues Brothers.

We leave YS behind to take care of the house and water the tomatoes. He usually does things while we are away. In February he stripped and redecorated the downstairs loo and shower room so heaven knows what he will do in the four days we are up north.

We go to Southport to meet the newly discovered cousins and to meet up with Cousin Richie and his lovely lady Dolores. So that's Saturday ( showing Ela and Patricia the family tree and digging further into the roots of this family) and Sunday sorted. I suspect there will be hugging - or cwtching as we say round yer, lots of cwtching I will make sure there are pictures taken and a report filed both on here and in the special edition of the email Gazette.

Monday we travel to Colwyn Bay to see Eldest Son and family. There will also be pictures from this as I am sure that sweet baby has grown and his youngest son is now a year older.

Now I am going to sort out the bags and pack enough underwear and T-shirts to see me through to next Wednesday............... OH, oh that is very nearly one of the things in every John Landis film.