Percy Lathy's French Affair

[pottoka]

I didn't tell you I was doing this because I didn't want to get your hopes up too high, and, before I go any further, let me say that it hasn't turned up anything new on Percy. But there is a Lathy in the story.

With a bit of research on the Internet, I came up with the Société Entomologique de France in Paris which was already active when Percy was living there, so I emailed the secretary to ask if they had any trace of him in their archives and, if so, what his address was at the time. It turned out that he was admitted as a member at the meeting on 12th February 1919, sponsored by a Mr E. Le Moult, was interested in "Lepidoptera of the Globe" and he was then living at 70 boulevard Auguste Blanqui in Paris 13. He was in the list of members in 1930 and at the same address in 1936. Thereafter there was no further mention of him.

Armed with this information, I posted a new search request of the 1936 Census for him. The volunteer didn't find Percy himself, but he must have had a connection with that address as there is a May Lathy living there. She is 88, so presumably a generation older than Percy, English, divorced, a housewife, and the "friend" of the head of household (literally - in the column for relationship to head, it says 'A', which I am told stands for ami/amie). The head of the household is Charles Deloine, aged 83, from Ardèche, a commercial traveller, also divorced.

I hope that you know who May is and that I haven't set you a new problem! If you want to PM me your email address, I'll send you the photo of the page of the Census.

Sorry that there's no French dancer!

[Tinker]

Pottoka, you're a marvel! I'll PM you my email addy in a sec. The information about May opens up a whole new avenue of possibilities. I'll have to ferrret around in my notes and see if I have her, and if not, where she comes into the picture. Even if there's no dancer, there's definitely an interesting story there. I can feel my detective mode kicking in !

[pottoka]

You probably noticed the stupid mistake I made about May and Charles on the 1936 Census ... They weren't 88 and 83 years old, but born in (18)88 and (18)83.

Céline has found them living at the same address in 1931, although May is now Mary. There is a place of birth given for her but the enumerator has written over the beginning of it, and the end seems to be "zeng" - not very English! In fact, it looks like "Quzang" or "Quzeng". Given the Lathy propensity for travelling, maybe she was born somewhere exotic in the British Empire!

She is still the "amie", written in full this time, of Charles from Ardèche, whose name looks more like Delome than the Deloine of 1936. Oh, and they're still 88 and 83 respectively

In 1926, at that address, there is an Elise Lathy, born in England in 1888, who is the Head of the household, living with her son John Lathy, born in England in 1911. No occupation is given for either of them. (For a moment there, I thought: Elise! French name! French dancer! it's true [and Percy was travelling] but unless they lied about their birth place and nationality, it doesn't appear so - curses!)

I will send you the photos of the Censuses asap. This is as far as we will be able to get as we have now exhausted the Censuses available in Paris. Percy seems to have been a little bit like his beloved butterflies, never settling for long in one place!

[Tinker]

I did a bit of ferreting after I got your info yesterday, Pottoka, and did manage to find a May Lathey born Jun Q 1889 in the Bristol area, and then a marriage for a May Lathey and a Walter W. Cornish, Jun Q 1912, St. Olave district. There was only one birth (Mar Q 1915): a Leslie V. Cornish, registered in Greenwich district(!!) and if this is May's son by Walter, he would have been about 21 in 1936. The couple could well have divorced between Leslie's birth and 1936. I still don't know how this May is linked to Percy, though!

As far as Elise and John go, there are no signs of either of them on FreeBMD, so I'm well and truly stumped. Could Elise have actually been English-born but of French parents, or performing on stage in France, and simply taken Percy's surname for the look of things, do you think? John might then have been registered under her maiden name in the UK.

At any rate I'll pass on the details to my fellow Lathy researcher to look over when he's able. His mum has just recently died and he's executor of her estate, so is rather tied up at the moment, but I'm pretty sure he'll be keen to follow up the new info, too. He might even suss out the connection between May and Percy's families.

[notanotherminer]

I have been contacted via the Forum by a very helpful person who has seen this thread and has informed me that there is a Wikipedia article on Percy Lathy complete with a photo of him:

http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Ireland_Lathy

Many thanks Robert

[Tinker]

My thanks also, Robert! There have been new developments since this thread was started. Percy did indeed have a relationship with a woman, but she wasn't French and we haven't been able to discover (yet) whether she was a dancer in her youth! I have been contacted by the husband of a descendant of hers and it turns out the lady is the mysterious May/Elise Lathy Pottoka unearthed in the French census returns, after all. Her full name is Elizabeth May Ellis, born 1888, Nazeing, Essex. 'John Lathy' was May's firstborn, registered as John LAMBERT at his birth, in Ropley, Hampshire. His father was described as being as one John Lambert, (occupation: naturalist) on his birth certificate and May was going by the name of May Roberts!!

There were two other brothers, Walter and Maurice Lambert, also born in Ropley. However, they were looked after by a nurse, then later fostered out to a family in England, while Percy, May (posing as Percy's wife) and John took up residence in France. Walter and his brother never knew that they had an older sibling, and knew nothing about their real parents, either. John's daughter and her husband managed to trace Walter in the early 1990s but have, since his death, lost contact with Walter's family, so we are hoping to track them down again at some point.