We like giving unnamed infants their names back – “also five infants” is a challenge, and we LOVE challenges – but sometimes giving them their names back is a slow process. The register and Sexton’s book for this plot both read “Olga Smith”, who were we to argue? Except they were wrong.
Trust Researcher Sally to sort this one out. She writes:
This has been one of those graves where there’s very little information to begin with (including him being given the wrong name and sex on the death register) and then a really good story unfolds.
Alga Smith was born on the 16th May 1901 “in a caravan standing on waste land off Accrington Road, Blackburn”. He was one of the nine children of Albert Smith, a traveller and his wife, Madeline (nee Gray).
His short life ended on the 30th October 1902 “in a caravan Market Ground, Todmorden”. The person who registered his death was his father, Albert, who described himself as a hawker. (The original death register entry gave his name as Olga and his sex as female, I informed the General Register Office about this and they’ve now amended their records).
I looked for Albert and Madeline’s marriage and found they’d married in Great Yarmouth in 1890, Albert gave his father’s name as Walter Smith a dealer and Madeline gave her father’s name as Fred Gray, a dealer.
There doesn’t seem to be a census entry for the family in 1901, but I found them on the 1911 census, living in Suffolk. Alga appears to have been the only one of Albert and Madeline’s children to have been born in the North of England, all the others were born in either Suffolk or Norfolk.
That may have been where the story ended – but when you first asked me to see if I could find anything on Alga I contacted the Romany and Travellers Family History Society to see if they had any information – they didn’t, they’d never heard of him before, but they were interested, added his name to their records and asked me to get in touch if I could find more information.
So, thinking I’d help them a little I thought I’d look into the family. I found little information on Albert, he was the son of Walter Smith, a horse dealer and his wife Matilda (nee Gosking – or Gaskin). Madeline’s background was much more interesting!
Madeline Gray’s mother was called Keomi Gray. Keomi was the daughter of a travelling musician called Orsary Gray and his wife Eliza and was the model for some pre-Raphaelite painters, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Frederick Sandys. Madeline’s birth doesn’t appear to have been registered, but according to information I’ve found online her father wasn’t “Fred Gray” as she put on her marriage documents, but was the painter, Frederick Sandys. He painted Keomi in a few of his paintings. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but if you want to learn more and see a picture or two of Keomi you can see more here.
Alga’s parents are buried in Gorleston cemetery, Great Yarmouth. The grave is on Find A Grave. Her grandmother, Keomi, is in the same graveyard.
I’ve sent the Romany and Travellers Family History Society all this information. They already have some information for his family but Alga’s now going to be recognized and remembered.