Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour

We recently discovered that Charles John Guilfoyle and Bessie Nathan had five children not four. I found the birth of Harriet Sarah Guilfoyle Seymour in Dublin in 1881 and then realised that Harriet had been a witness at the wedding of Frederic Gibbon and Margaret Annie Guilfoyle.

Recently I was able to take part in the ‘beta’ testing of the website for the British Library Newspaper Library. This will be going live very soon and we will be able to search thousands of local newspapers at the click of a mouse.

When I was asked to help in the trials I immediately put in  Bessie’s name and got loads of ‘hits’ that were reviews of performances or advertisements for shows. I put the surname Guilfoyle Seymour in and two of the hits were reports of Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour being missing from home at the age of 14. I  transcribed the reports and they are below. Yet another mystery to unravel if possible.

Manchester Evening News Saturday 8th December 1894.

Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour, aged 14, whose parents reside in Halley St, Greenheys, left home on Thursday afternoon. The girl is of stout build, has short hair and large dark eyes. She was wearing a tam-o-shanter, black & white check coat, old grey working dress and low lace-up shoes. The matter was mentioned by the mother to Mr R.A. Armitage at the City Police Court this morning and the applicant referred to the press representatives.

Manchester Evening News Fri 14 Dec 1894.

Mysterious Disappearance of a Girl

A Girl age 14, named Harriet Guilfoyle Seymour is missing from her home in Craven Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock. She is 4’ 6” in height and has a round face, brown eyes and dark hair cut short. At the time of her disappearance she was wearing a grey dress, check Ulster and Tam-o-shanter hat. Her parents would be glad to receive notice of her whereabouts.

I find it quite odd that there should be different addresses although the Halley street address is where the children were living with a housekeeper for the 1891 census. This family just gets more and more exciting!