Alice Elizabeth Holmes

Alice was born in October quarter 1851 in Birmingham to William Holmes and Caroline (née Whateley).  She was christened at St John, Deritend and Bordesley, Warwick.

Alice Emigrated from Liverpool on the City of London, arriving in New York on 2nd of August 1870.

 She married John Dagwell, who was English, though his name was given as Cornelius at the time of the marriage. The marriage has now been found between Cornelius Dagwell and Alice Holmes on 13th June 1877 in Kings County. It seems he was born in Portsea, Hampshire, on 5th June 1853, son of James Dagwell, and Julia Dryer. (Marriage transcription on fmp gives her name as Doyer). John became a naturalised American on 17th October 1881. John was an expressman, a kind of delivery man in 1881.

They had at least one child, Ella, born in 1879. In 1880, they were living in Brooklyn with younger brother Samuel H Holmes. John is still in New York in 1883, where he witnessed Samuel’s naturalisation. John was later seen in directories from 1886-1888 living at 93 Cranberry Street. He or Alice was not seen after that

The family effectively disappears after this. My grandmother’s notes only say New York, and there is no surviving correspondence. If they did not emigrate further, perhaps John died and Alice remarried. I have not been able to locate Alice and John/Cornelius.

One possibility is that there is a article in the Brooklyn Eagle, on October 5th 1890, describing how John Dagwell, an iceman, ran off with another man's wife (and money), in this case Johanna Krone nee Hohlmeyer. She apparently took her children, and he left two children behind. I have never traced another child for John/Cornelius and Alice.  The Dagwells were living in "a little red farmhouse on East Broadway" in Flatbush.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle can be searched here.   

Ella still appears in 1895 in Newark, and in 1900 in Glen Ridge Borough, Essex County, New Jersey. She then appears in Gilford, Belknap, New Hampshire when on 24th May 1903 she married George Wilbur Wallace. They have the following children :-

Florence Lillian Wallace was born on 26th January 1906 in Laconia, New Hampshire, she married William G Rodd (born on Canada) on 5th May 1928,and they had at least one son William H Rodd born about 1930. Florence died on 8th June 1993 at Caledonia, Vermont, and William died in March 1985 in Caledonia, Vermont.

George R Wallace was born on 7th February 1908 in New Hampshire, and in October 1979. No marriage has been found for George.

Martha C Wallace was born on 12th July 1911 at Laconia, New Hampshire. She married John Robert Selig on 27th April 1933 at Milford, New Hampshire. In 1940 they are living in Concord with one daughter Joan.

Marion Stella Wallace was born on 6th October 1915 in New Hampshire, and married Louis Andre Chartier (born France in 1913) on 17th March 1934 at Plymouth, New Hampshire. In 1940 they are living with his parents in Laconia with one daughter, Barbara.

Ethel May Wallace was born on 10th May 1917 at Lakeport, New Hampshire, and she married Albert George Casey on 31st December 1937. In 1940 they are living with George and Ella and have two sons, Robert and James.

Georgette Roselle Wallace was born on about 1921 at Lakeport, New Hampshire, and she married first an unknown man who she divorced, then married Arthur Delphis Casey on 26th January 1947 (brother of Ethel's husband) at Belmont, Belknap, New Hampshire. In 1940 they are living with George and Ella with no children.

Ella possibly died on 21st July 1954 - as yet unconfirmed, and George's unconfirmed death was on 12th May 1950, both in Laconia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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