CLAUDE HENRY UHTHOFF, 133 FINBOROUGH ROAD

[KatherineL]

Good afternoon all

This is a story of mystery and intrigue - another one!
Please help find Claude Henry Uhthoff born 1897 in the 1901 census or could have been sent abroad to live on the continent or to America

Horace Thrasher (later known as Horace Courtenay) was baptised with his cousin Violet Jezard in 1896 while living at 133 Finborough Road with their grandmother Priscilla Thrasher (maiden name Pope) but now known as Priscilla Jezard.

Both Horace and Violet have false parents on their birth certificates and baptisms and are baptised outside of their parish.

Priscilla bought 133 Finborough Road in 1895 at auction and is renting apartments as Mrs May Jezard.

I wanted to try and find further Thrasher/Jezard/Courtenay children living in Finborough Road where Violet had been born or Archel Road where Horace had been born.

Instead I found another baby Claude Henry Uhthoff who had been born at 150 Finborough Road and baptised at the same church as Horace and Violet when living at 133 Finborough Road.

Violet is born in 1890 but not found in the 1891 census, she is at a boarding school with Horace in the 1901 census and then disappears.

Horace's father according to family rumour was an 'illustrious member of the aristocracy, a person of considerable note' and he is found age 7 in the 1901 census with Violet at the girls boarding school - he hated it there!

Claude Henry Uhthoff is born in 1897
Father Enrique Anthony Uhthoff is born in 1875
Mother Annie Louisa Brookes is born abt 1880
Step-father Arthur Henry Parnell is born in 1876

Great-grandfather Henry Roman Uhthoff dies in 1884 leaving a fortune of £166,665 to his son Ludolfe Enrique Uhthoff
http://www.in2013dollars.com/1884-GB...?amount=116665
That is £13 million pounds in today's money

1891 census Ludolfe Enrique is a wealthy foreign merchant from Mexico, a Spanish subject and his son Enrique Anthony Uhthoff is living with the family

1891 census Annie is living at home with her parents Edwin and Jane

1891 Arthur is at home with his parents, his father Henry is a corn merchant and miller

1897 Claude Henry Uhthoff is born to Enrique Anthony Uhthoff a merchants clerk and to Annie Louisa Uhthoff formerly Brookes
THERE IS NO MARRIAGE
BORN AT 150 FINBOROUGH ROAD

1897 baptism Claude Henry Uhthoff to unmarried parents Enrique Uhthoff and Annie Uhthoff, Henry is a family name
LIVING AT 133 FINBOROUGH ROAD, APARTMENTS OF MRS MAY JEZARD AND HER MANY OTHER NAMES BESIDES

1901 census Enrique is nowhere to be found but travels to and from the US frequently, could also be on the continent or America with Claude

1901 census Annie is living in residential chambers with other servants before her marriage to Arthur

1901 census Arthur is nowhere to be found but travels to and from the US frequently

1901 census Claude is not living with Annie's parents Edwin and Jane or living with the grandfather Ludolfe or father Enrique or other Uhthoff family in ENGLAND

1901 Annie Louisa Brookes marries Arthur Henry Parnell

1903 grandfather Ludolfe dies and leaves his estate of £14,841 to son Enrique, Ludolfe died in Switzerland
DID THE FAMILY TAKE CLAUDE ABROAD TO THE CONTINENT
http://www.in2013dollars.com/1903-GB...7?amount=14841
That is £1.7 million pounds in today's money

1905 US census Claude is found in St Joseph's School, New Jersey

Annie Louisa Parnell and Claude Henry Parnell regularly travel between England and the US to meet Mr Parnell

1906 Enrique marries Kathleen Collinson

1910 US census Arthur, Annie and Claude are together and Arthur declares that he and Annie have been married for 14 years when they have actually been married for 9 years to protect his wife and step-son from any shame, they have a Japanese servant

Enrique regularly travels from England to the US as he is a foreign merchant but could also be seeing his son

1914 Annie sadly dies and Arthur does not remarry

1923 Claude marries Hilda Mary Chare and Claude states his father is Arthur, the kind man who married his mother and not Enrique, does he know who his birth father is

1939 census Enrique is a retired bank manager living in Surrey, his wife has a lady's companion

1939 census Claude is a press photographer and living in Surrey, did he know about his birth father Enrique, did they meet in Surrey

1948 Enrique dies leaving his estate of £3,275 to his widow Kathleen
http://www.in2013dollars.com/1903-GB...48?amount=3275
That's almost £11,000 in today's money

So 133 Finborough Road is a hot bed of intrigue! Tbere are brothels, prostitutes, immoral homes, murders, fraud

Violet born 1890 does not appear in the 1891 census
Horace born 1893 changes his name by 1901 census
Claude born 1897 does not appear in the 1901 census
All live at 133 Finborough Road
All were baptised at the same church
Violet's father we have absolutely no idea, an aristocrat, met through the theatre?
Horace's father is rumoured to be of the aristocracy, met through the theatre, we'll just never know
Claude's father Enrique came from a wealthy family

I seem to remember reading an article about children being baptised to parents who were pretending to be married and being paid to keep quiet in the Kensington area in late Victorian times but alas can't find again, read a long, long time ago, just as starting this research and didn't realise the significance then.

It's been a fascinating journey, thanks Violet, Horace and Claude.

Thanks Genealogy Forum UK too for all your help and interest!

[grangers14]

On the GRO index it says mothers maiden name is Brookes?
UHTHOFF, CLAUDE HENRY BROOKES
GRO Reference: 1897 S Quarter in KENSINGTON Volume 01A Page 167

[KatherineL]

Yes that's right Annie Louisa Brookes

[KatherineL]

This is how Henry Roman Uhthoff made his £116,655 fortune / £13 million today that he left to his son Ludolfe Enrique Uhthoff

Morning Advertiser Saturday 27 April 1872
Director of The Brazilian Coffee Estates Company Limited, Henry Roman Uhthoff, 12 Leadenhall Street
This company is setup for the purpose of purchasing and working coffee and cotton estates in Brazil and for the introduction of 10,000 European emigrants into that Empire, in view of the abolition of slave labour throughout the Empire.

So would these 10,000 European emigrants be from the poor lower classses desperate for a new life and being used by their middle class/upper class masters to make their fortunes off the backs of poorly paid employees.

Morning Post Monday 22 December 1879
Director of The International Bank Of London Limited, Henry Roman Uhthoff, 147 Leadenhall Street
This company is established to carry on the business of the International Bank Of Hamburg & London (Limited) which was incorporated in March 1872 with the object of taking over the business of the London agency of the International Bank Of Hamburg.

[KatherineL]

Did step-father Arthur Henry Parnall die in 1911 in Manhattan, New York?

When Claude Henry Parnall/Uhthoff marries in 1923 he says his father Arthur Henry Parnall is deceased.

[sparnall]

Here's what I know....

The address on Claude's birth certificate (which I have) is 150 Finborough Road, Kensington - with parents Enrique Antonio Uhthoff (Merchant's Clerk) and Annie Louisa Uhthoff (formerly Brookes). He was born on 19/6/1987 and baptised on 1/8/1897 at St Philips, Kensington.

They subsequently lived at 133 Finborough Road, Earls Court.

Claude changed his surname, using Parnall instead of Uhthoff, presumably when Annie married Arthur Parnall. Subsequently, on 29/7/1940 John Babbington Parnall signed a Statutory Declaration (which I also have). This says that Claude used the name Parnall from the time of his mother's remarriage. The declaration also shows that John Babbington Parnall honestly believed that Enrique Uhthoff had died in the South African War and that Annie Louise was a widow at the time of her remarriage, however he says he cannot explain why she had reverted to her maiden name of Brookes and declared herself to be a spinster on her wedding to Arthur Henry Parnall. The facts do appear to be rather different, don't they.

Claude arrived in USA 28/6/1903 from Liverpool on the Umbria, 29/11/1904 from Southampton on the Mesaba and possibly on 10/5/1909 on the Minnewaska.

He travelled from Southampton to New York 19/11/1903 to 29/11/1903 on SS Mesaba with his mother. Ellis Island records show Annie Louise (Lawson) Parnall as 25 years old and Claude as 6 years old, visiting Husband (Arthur) at 21 West 69th Street.

According to Claude's account in an article (Giants of Fleet Street) in the British Journal of Photography (29/2/1980), Arthur was a stockbroker who went to live in New York and there became a journalist on the New York World. Arthur lived there with Annie, whilst Claude remained in the UK, being educated at a boarding school in Worthing and travelling to New York by himself for the summer holidays. The article says that he then went to a boarding school in the USA - St. George's College and studied with Cornelius Vanderbilt with whom he became friendly. He must mean St. George's School, Newport - where William Henry Vanderbilt III (Cornelius' great grandson!, 24/11/01 - 14/4/1981) studied.

Claude recalls being present with his parents and witnessing the murder of Stanford White at Madison Square Garden. This event can be dated as 25/6/1906.

After Arthur's death in the USA (6/4/1911 - recorded in Manhattan, Certificate Number 11849, Soundex P654), Claude and his mother returned to England where they were befriended by Mr Pullitzer's private secretary on the New York World, a friend of Arthur's who was in England at the time. Claude's article suggests, and other sources confirm, that this man was Col Norman Graham Thwaites. Lodgings were secured for them in Pimlico until, when Claude was 15 and a half, his mother died and he was left on his own. Col Thwaites (his 'guardian') continued to help him and was instrumental in getting him a job on the Daily Mail.

Other characters in his life were his 'uncle and aunt', Frank Wilton, who owned Heath Barton at Goring on Thames. There is a record on the back of a photograph we have of the house at Goring on Thames, titled 'Holidays at Goring-on-Thames Aug 19th to Sep 3rd 1919', with a record of his address as 18 Denbigh Street Pimlico SW1.

Claude was an official navy photographer in the second world war, and many of his wartime photographs are online: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cate ... ry_Parnall

Claude and my grandmother retired to Bexhill-on-Sea and later both came to live with us with in Norbury, London SW16. He died in hospital nearby in Croydon on 21/4/1986. His half sister, Ida Uhthoff (daughter of Enrique and May) must have lived quite near to us - the London Gazette records Ida's death as 10/3/2000 at Coombe Hill Nursing Home, Adelaide Road, Surbiton. It seems sad to me that Claude and Ida were physically so near and yet, almost certainly, neither ever knew about the other.