By chance I came across the following item in the 10 December 1910 issue of the Hastings and St Leonards Observer, and I wanted to know more about the happy couple.
WEDDING IN AMERICA. – The marriage took place, on November 11th, of Mr A.W. Ede, son of Mr and Mrs Ede, of St Leonards, to Miss Florence E. Willard, daughter of Mr and Mrs Henry Willard, of St Leonards, at 116, Helen-avenue, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A. Mr Ede sailed from England by the s.s. “Campania,” from Liverpool, on 16th April this year. In the coming spring he and his wife hope to go further west.
I like challenges, and finding more about these emigrants sounded easy, as we knew the groom’s departure date. Using the priced databases Find My Past and Ancestry I was soon able to get more details, including a couple of surprises. Those familiar with English genealogical sources will find that the American records often offer much more, including census details up to 1950.
In the 1901 census for St Leonards Alfred W. Ede was an 11-year-old, born St Leonards, in the household of Alfred, gardener, in South Lodge West. This is the lodge that leads to St Leonards Gardens in the heart of James Burton’s town. Until recently it was also used by this Society for meetings. An archway is flanked by a western and an eastern lodge. The eastern lodge was inhabited by young Alfred’s grandfather, William, also a gardener. They would have looked after St Leonards Gardens. Alfred had been baptised in 1889 at Christ Church when the family was at 30 Gensing Road. Below is an illustration of South Lodge, with Alfred’s dwelling being on the left. It doesn’t look very different today.
In the same census Florence was at 4 St Mary’s Cottages, Gensing Road, age 11, born St Leonards, her father Henry Willard a bath chair-man on his own account. She had also been baptised at Christ Church, her father a cab driver.
Despite the mention of Alfred being on the Campania, they were in fact both passengers on the same voyage. Having left Liverpool on the 16 April, the liner arrived at New York on the 23 April. Here are the details for them as alien passengers, as recorded for the American authorities:
Ede, Alfred W., 21, M[ale], S[ingle], porter, literate, nationality England, race English, of St Leonards on Sea, [nearest relative at home country] mother Mrs Ede 1 Mount Pleasant St Leonards on Sea, to live Mich Battle Creek. Fare paid for by brother. To stay with brother W.G.A. Ede, 113 Harvard Street, Battle Creek.
Willard, Florence E., 20, F[emale], S, chambermaid, literate, nationality England, race English, of St Leonards on Sea, father & mother Mr & Mrs Willard Victoria Dwellings St Leonards on Sea, to live Mich Battle Creek. Fare paid for by self. To stay with friend W.G.A. Ede, 113 Harvard Street, Battle Creek.
I have omitted details such as height, colour of eyes etc. Also, both denied being a polygamist or an anarchist !
Battle Creek at the time only had a population of about 25,000, and was the headquarters for Kellogg’s, the cereal company. It is probable that the couple were already engaged or at least had an understanding. At the time it was illegal to immigrate to the United States if you already had a job offer. The idea was that this would take jobs away from the local population, so you had to fend for yourself.
Alfred did so very rapidly with his brother’s help. In the 1910 census, carried out on the 26th and 27th April – having arrived on the 23rd — he was already in Battle Creek. He was lodging in the same house as his brother William, both working in a greenhouse, William as a florist, Alfred as a labourer. It sounds as if William’s employer had had advance notice. William stated in the census that he had immigrated in 1907. I traced this also.
William George Ede had sailed from Liverpool on the SS Majestic on the 6 February 1907, arriving at New York on the 14 February. He was 20, a gardener, intending to go to G.P.O. [General Post Office], Lebanon, Indiana, where he was going to stay with a friend, Mr Peenberger. His passage was paid for by his uncle. When he registered for the draft in 1917 (male alien residents were required to do so) he was a mail carrier in Detroit, married [to Michigan-born Mildred], with one child. He died in 1967 near Detroit.
Despite a careful search I could not trace Florence Willard in the 1910 census.
Florence and her daughter took a journey back to England in 1913. American records list them on the SS Oceanic from Southampton, arriving at New York on the 15 October.
In 1917 Alfred had to register for the draft. He was a storage battery electrician in Detroit. He claimed to have been a bugler for the Royal Engineers in England for four years.
In the 1920 census for Battle Creek he was a repairman at a garage. They had a daughter, Florence, age 8.
Alfred Walter Ede was naturalised as an American citizen on the 22 September 1927 at Detroit. He was an auto electrician, born 19 September 1889, St Leonards, who had arrived 23 April 1910. His wife Florence Elizabeth was born 7 January 1890, St Leonards. Daughter Florence Violet was born 27 March 1911, Detroit, several months after the wedding. Again he had to swear that he was not a polygamist or an anarchist. The purpose of such questions, I have heard, was not to expect a ‘yes’ reply but to later be able to charge the person with lying, if necessary.
In the 1930 census at Detroit he was a department store salesman.
They divorced on the 28 November 1939 on the grounds of cruelty, which was uncontested. That is all the Michigan divorce document says. About five weeks later, on the 3rd January 1940, Alfred, age 50, married again, at Detroit, Alta Susan Evans, 36, a secretary, also divorced.
In the 1940 census that couple were living in Detroit with the Canadian-born mother in law. He was a uniform manufacturer’s representative for a uniform factory, while his bride was a secretary-stenographer in ‘stoker sales promotion.’ They were asked in the census about their education, and his reply was that he had gone up to 8th Grade, about the age of 13.
In 1942 Alfred had again to register for the draft. He was five feet 10 inches tall and weighed 158 pounds. His height is recorded as five feet 6 inches in other American records. I was startled to learn that, under ‘other obvious physical characteristics that will aid in identification’ was given:
Missing 3 finger Right Hand
2 finger Left Hand missing
He had claimed not to be disabled in the 1917 draft documents. Perhaps the injuries resulted from his work in the motor trade.
Meanwhile, in the 1940 census, also in Detroit, his ex-wife Florence, 50, was a storekeeper for a confectioner’s, while their daughter was a stenographer in automobile insurance. In the 1950 census the two were again living together in Detroit, the mother a teller in a hotel, while the daughter was a secretary in an insurance company.
Alfred Ede in the 1950 census was living with his second wife in Detroit as a maintenance repair man (I think, unclear) to a manufacturer.
Social Security records show that Florence the mother began claiming her benefits on the 3 January 1955, just before her 65th birthday, and she died 11 Jan 1988. This was at Royal Oak, Michigan.
Her daughter died in 2003. She had married, in 1940, in Ohio, Charles George, a post office clerk who was a mail supervisor by 1958. He died in 1963. Mysteriously, his wife was Ede again in the 1950 census, when she was living with her mother, so presumably their marriage had already broken up.
As for Alfred, he began claiming Social Security in 1954 and was apparently still alive in 2007 – which would make him about 118 years old !
I found this a very interesting study. More research could have been done on the addresses given in these documents to trace the houses on Google Maps.