In search of Elsie Louisa Whittlesay
From Cape to Carshalton - a story that needs your help please
By Cindy Smith
Lucy May Robert, sister of Elsie Whittlesay, pictured in South Africa with her husband, probably around 1930. Lucy visited Carshalton in the Summer of 1938 with her 7 year old daughter Olive.
Cindy Smith
Dear St Helier's - I need your help please.
I'm in search of information/photos or if possible, tracing family of Elsie Louisa Whittlesay (nee Robert, born in 1901) - she was my Great Aunt. She was married to Ernest Whittlesay, and they had a son, Robert Ernest Whittlesay (born 1929). The family lived in Carshalton (373 Middleton Road) and after Mr Whittlesay died, Elsie continued living there with her son Robert and also later, his wife, Joyce M.E Whittlesay (nee Tucker). Joyce's parents lived at 206 Peterborough Road. Joyce and Robert lived with Elsie for many years. Elsie was recorded on census data at 373 Middleton Road until the year of her death, 1982.
Elsie was my grandmother's sister. My grandmother had immigrated to South Africa as a young woman of 22. Tragically she died there, 11 years later in 1940, five weeks after giving birth to my father. My father was then adopted by the Midwife who delivered him and all traces of my Robert ancestry disappeared. My father never knew his mother's name and I have only one photo of my Grandmother (see attached and pictured with her husband in South Africa in the late 1920s or early 1930s). My Grandmother visited Carshalton in 1938 with her 7 year old daughter, Olive. They stayed at 373 Middleton Road with Elsie, Ernest and Robert.
I'm now a student at the University of Cambridge and writing an essay on this interesting, if not tragic, piece of my family history.
If anyone knows these families - or has information about their living descendants who might have letters/photos passed on, I would be incredibly grateful to hear from you. Any information on them would be immensely helpful and gratefully received.
Thank you for reading this and I look forward to hearing from anyone who may be able to shed light on my family history.