By Cynthia Sanderson (nee Harvey)
Originally written for a distant relative.
school holidays with my Auntie Bella in Chiswick. She would occasionally refer to
letters received from “Agnes” in America but at that time it meant little to me.
As I have grown older I have become interested in Family History and when
Auntie Bella died in the early 1990’s I found Agnes’ address and wrote to tell
her and also to ask if she knew how she was related to our family. She replied
that she did not know but gave me various bits of information about her family
and from this and further research I was able to unfold this
fascinating story.
The
first child born to Stephen and Jane in London was ALICE (1860) followed by John
in 1861. In 1871 at the age of 17
Alice married a local Irish
bricklayer WILLIAM HOGAN and they set up home next door to Stephen and Jane in
Margravine Road. Alice and William
had a large family, among whom were MABEL, AGNES AND RITA.
Alice’s brother John also married and he too had a large family
including Charles (my father) and Bella.
By the turn of the Century the area had become truly cosmopolitan and in
1906 Mabel Hogan married CASPER JUSTUS WILHELM MOMBERG.
Life could not have been easy for this Anglo-Irish/German combination and
soon after the birth of their second child they emigrated to America and settled
on the West Coast where they had three more children.
Sadly just before the third birthday of their youngest (named Agnes after
her aunt back in England) Mabel became ill and died.
It must have been a very difficult time for Casper left to look after a
family of five children alone in a strange country. Back at home in Fulham, Mabel’s sister Agnes gave birth to a daughter
Alyce (presumably illegitimately) and three years after Mabel’s death Agnes,
baby Alyce and sister Rita all
sailed for America to take care of Caspar and his children.
As time went by, Caspar and Agnes fell in love and married.
Casper adopted Alyce and together they had another child. The family obviously took to their new “mother” and Agnes told me she
really only remembered her as her mother and always greatly loved and admired
her for coming to a strange country and taking on such a large brood!
Obviously Agnes and Rita corresponded with their family back home and about the time of the Great War it was suggested that Bella and young Agnes (Caspar’s daughter) should write to each other, and so they continued up to Bella’s death.
becoming very frail and unfortunately I have not had replies to recent letters so must fear
the worst.She was the last survivor of her generation and had no children and I have no
other addresses for any of her family. I am just pleased I was able to send her some
information about her family in England to fill in some of the gaps before she died.
Whilst this family are not direct ancestors of yours – Alice was first cousin to your Frederick Harry (born 1873) so thought you might be interested in their story.