We tend to think about family relationships in very 'biological' ways: mother, father, child, sister brother etc. Henry's story is slightly strange - at least it is to us looking back.
Henry was the third child born to Jane (nee van der Vliet) and Samuel Joyce. He was born in London 10th January
1846, 8½ months after the birth of his older sister Amelia and 18 months before
the birth of his younger brother. Jane and Samuel had another son born in 1850. We know these "facts" because all of the relevant birth certificates have been sighted.
At some point between Henry's birth in 1846 and the Census in 1851, Henry Joyce became Henry Joyce van Der Vliet. He was permanently adopted by Jane's younger brother Henry Jacob van der Vliet and his wife Elizabeth. In 1850 Henry Jacob van der Vliet married Elizabeth and their son, William, was born later in the year. Sadly Henry Jacob died early in 1851 at the age of 25. So Elizabeth was the sole parent of Henry and William.
Another Joyce family researcher believes this act confirms family folklore that
Jane was an extremely loving and compassionate person. I tend to agree. Perhaps Jane felt that she was extremely
fortunate to have a large family. The only thing I think is slightly odd is that there was only a small gap between Amelia and Henry. Possibly Jane felt she could not cope with three children so close in age and always intended to 'give away' the child to Elizabeth. Elizabeth may have been part of the family life for some time and the gift may have been in response to her earlier assistance. There obviously were no official records around this gift, so any reasons are conjecture. Another possibility is that Henry Joyce was actually the son of Elizabeth and Henry Jacob: and because Elizabeth and Henry were not married, Jane and Samuel agreed to register the birth. This is
possible but slightly far fetched given the number of children that were born
out of marriage!
In 1854 Jane and Samuel made the decision to
(again) migrate to Australia. They did
not return to England and never saw family members again.
Henry
remained with his mother, Elizabeth, and later became a boot maker: both Henry
Jacob and Elizabeth had worked in this trade. In 1869 Henry married Christina Young in
the Stepney Parish Church, London. Very soon after their wedding Henry and Christina moved to Hackney where they lived for the rest of their lives. Their children - whose births were registered using the name 'Vandervliet' - were:
- Christina – born about 1871
- Henry born and died in 1873
- Henry – 1874
- Emily – 1876
- William - 1880
- Rosina - 1881.
It is possible they had a daughter Elizabeth in 1878, certainly a birth is registered, but cannot be confirmed.
In time Christina, Henry, Emily and William married - each having a number of children. Sadly Rosina died in 1901 just before her 20th birthday. Then in mid 1907 William died when he was 27 leaving his wife a widow with young children (reminiscent of Henry's own mother).
In early 1921 Christina, Henry's wife of 52 years died.
By the mid 1920s Henry's grandchildren were getting married. In early 1927 Joyce Vandervliet was born. She was the great-grandchild of Henry (Henry - Henry - Henry - Joyce). It was an interesting choice of name. Presumably young Henry knew it was his grandfather's middle name; I like to think that Henry was pleased his great-grandchild shared his middle name! Perhaps by this time, Henry was not well. In mid 1927 Henry Joyce Vandervleit died at the age of 81.
It is also not known if Henry knew the circumstances of his birth. Certainly the children of Jane and Samuel Joyce did not seem to know anything.
Relationship to SNR = Brother / cousin of great, great grandfather
No comments:
Post a Comment