Please could some kind Herne Bay local/expert help me to identify this family photo? I’m researching my Scottish great-grandmother, Christina Espie Fothergill (about 1868-1928) who used to run some sort of cake shop or cafe there. I know it’s a tall order but somebody might be able to recognise the shop front and know its name or address?
She was only 58 when she died but she looks older in this photo, bless her! She and her husband (Frederick Fothergill) also used to run the Savoy Hotel in Tower Parade.
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Thread: Herne Bay photo query
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08-02-2016, 1:22 PM #1
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Herne Bay photo query
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08-02-2016, 1:46 PM #2
I assume that you've seen their entry in the 1911 census?
Have you tried looking for a Directory for Herne Bay - the entry will probably be in Frederick's name
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08-02-2016, 1:52 PM #3
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Yes, Lesley, I think so ... if you mean the one when they were living at 153 Devonshire Road, Forest Hill, Lewisham? So I figured they must have moved to Herne Bay after that but they wouldn't be alive by the time of the 1939 Register so it's a bit of a mystery gap.
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08-02-2016, 2:03 PM #4
Can't help with the photo, I'm afraid, but presume it was taken after 1911 as Frederick and Espie are in Forest Hill, Sydenham on the 1911 census and all their children were born in London. Indeed I have just seen that they appear on the electoral rolls for Gaynesford Road, Forest Hill in 1924, which gives you a 4 year window!
The original marriage certificate of Frederick Pelham FOTHERGILL (widower) and Christina Espie JOHNSTONE, 12 March 1898 in St.John, Hackney, is in the London Metropolitan Archives collection on Ancestry and seems to indicate she was born a couple of years before 1868?
I saw a Public Tree for Frederick on Ancestry which had Christina dying in 1928 in Blaenau Gwent, South Wales, which surprised me a bit, but when I clicked on the original image of the BMD register quoted it clearly said Blean, which is near Herne Bay. Maybe that is where the photo was taken?Sue Mackay
Insanity is hereditary - you get it from your kids
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08-02-2016, 2:10 PM #5
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it clearly said Blean, which is near Herne Bay.
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08-02-2016, 2:14 PM #6
Scrub that. A birth search on Scotlandspeople brings up 1868. You give her dates as "about 1868-1928". I presume you have already downloaded her birth certificate from Scotlandspeople? It might also help to get her death certificate, as this will doubtless give you an address. She might have lived above the shop?
Sue Mackay
Insanity is hereditary - you get it from your kids
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08-02-2016, 2:16 PM #7
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Many thanks for your suggestions. I have the original marriage certificate and she stated in that that she was a spinster of 27 ... which would have given her a date of birth in 1871. I think she may have been fibbing because I can only find a fitting birth in 1868, but in the 1891 census she appears to be 'married' with a young child. I couldn't find any evidence of an earlier marriage but the little girl (Ivy Pearl Gerald) was in a private girls school in the next census ... so I've been rash and ordered her birth certificate just in case. The Gaynesford Road address at that time is interesting because that's where her daughter (my grandmother was living).
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08-02-2016, 2:17 PM #8
Have you checked Electoral Registers? There's one on Ancestry showing Frederick Pelham Fothergill and Espie Christina Fothergill on the register for Lewisham in 1924.... I assume it's the same couple...
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08-02-2016, 2:19 PM #9
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08-02-2016, 2:24 PM #10
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Yes, thank you, Lesley. Sue mentioned that one as well. So I'm now looking at a window of four years between 1924-1928 but maybe the photo of the shop wasn't in Herne Bay! I think I assumed it was because she looked so old and I knew she'd died there. Ah, the dangers of leaping into false conclusions. I've just found (on Google Earth) the hotel where they were living in Herne Bay ... very exciting as it still has so many of the original features!
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