Here's an interesting household from the 1880 census:
This is no relation to me, but look at this...from the 1880 Census....in Flint, Michigan....notice the girl Jenny Abertheny who is listed as "no relation" to the head of the household. Her occupation? Prostitute.The census says that Jennie was single and George was married, but they may indeed have been
Jenny's husband's occupation? "Miserable loafer." [Link]
Seventy years after his death, the family of Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey, is still trying to clear his name. He was accused of misbehaving with the "fallen women" he tirelessly tried to rescue.
At the ensuing church trial, in 1932, only one of the 40 witnesses, Barbara Harris, a 17-year-old prostitute bribed with money and alcohol, testified against him. Nevertheless, the Rector was found guilty of "systematic misbehaviour" and "removed, deposed and degraded" by his nemesis, the Bishop of Norwich. [Link]His trial was a cause célèbre and spawned a media circus, but it was the story of his bizarre death that interested me most. Having been defrocked, he took a job at Skegness playing the part of "A modern Daniel in the lion's den." Standing in a lion's cage, he preached from the Bible and spoke about the injustice he had suffered. On July 28, 1937, his co-star Freddie grew tired of his act and knocked him to the floor.
The lion then grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and stalked around the small cage shaking the poor Harold back and forth. The audience thinking it was part of the act roared with laughter and therefore it was some time before help was called. Unfortunately it was too late for Harold Davidson and he died from wounds sustained a few days later. [Link]
Eunice Gray (aka Ermine McEntire) ran a "house of ill repute" in Fort Worth, Texas, in the early 1900s. Long after Gray's 1962 death, amateur genealogist Donna Donnell set out to investigate an intriguing rumor: Was Eunice the "Etta Place" who accompanied fugitives Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to South America?
Her investigation led Donnell to Mrs. D.S. O'Leary, Eunice Gray's niece.With a few keystrokes she found a surprising document that caused her heart to quicken. On the screen appeared a copy of an alphabetized passenger list of the S.S. Turrialba, which sailed from Colon, Panama, on May 11, 1911.
The 11th name on the manifest, penned in a delicate cursive, was a Eunice Gray. Age 30. Destination: Fort Worth, Texas.
Donnell found her answer the moment she spotted a framed photo on a wall in O'Leary's home. In the picture, taken during the 1920s, a young Ermine McEntire - Eunice Gray - is sporting a wide-brimmed hat. Another photo, circa 1896, pictures Gray wearing her high school graduation dress.
"Eunice isn't Etta Place," Donnell said with certainty. O'Leary compared photos of her aunt with one of Place and agreed. [Link]
The author of Black Roots: A Beginner's Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree knows how to leave 'em laughing.
As Tony Burroughs, an African-American genealogy expert from Chicago, ended his seminar at the Main Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library yesterday, he listed occupations he found on the 1850 U.S. Census.
"Prostitute" and "Pimp" drew chuckles from the audience of almost 70 people.
"Does nothing" elicited outright laughter.
And the audience howled when Mr. Burroughs flashed a Census form on the screen that listed under remarks: "Old hag refused to answer." [Link]
A recent post to the alt.genealogy Google Group asked a question that has never come up in my research:
Anyone have any data on the life expectancy of a professional prostitute in the 1910-1930 time period?Of course, there's always one designated smart-ass in every newsgroup:
What's the difference then between a professional, and an amateur? [Link]
From DyNAstyBlog, posted Dec. 14, 2005:
Prostitute, Aged 17 Dies - Brum’s First
by Benny @ 8:43 am.
Apparently, the first recorded death by the Birmingham (that is the original Birmingham in the UK, OK?) Registry office was a prostitute whose death was notified by the master of the workhouse.
[snip]
[Read the whole post]
From Guardian Unlimited (of London, U.K.):
Top brass feared worst as GIs and good-time girls enjoyed blackout
Owen Bowcott
Tuesday November 1, 2005
The Guardian
Swarms of prostitutes and "good-time girls" pestered American soldiers in Mayfair to the extent that they posed a menace to Anglo-US relations, according to wartime police files released today.
Two conferences were organised at the Home Office to forestall the spread of moral outrage in the US and combat venereal diseases on the streets of London's West End. The Metropolitan police papers, withheld for more than 50 years but now in the National Archives in Kew, show a police force under pressure from senior US officers to clamp down on the trade.
[snip]
A letter to the Home Office said a US-born lady complained the "neighbourhood swarms with women and girls, some in their early teens, who pester American soldiers, clinging to their arms, refusing to be shaken off, telling stories of poverty".
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
From Reuters:
New Jack the Ripper theories put sleuths in a spinIs it appropriate to include the occupation "serial killer" in a GEDCOM file? (By the way, an uncle, however "great", is not generally considered an ancestor.)
Sun Jun 26, 2005
By Elizabeth Fullerton
LONDON (Reuters) - A mental patient, a butcher, the artist Walter Sickert, a serial wife poisoner and even Queen Victoria's grandson have all been touted as Jack the Ripper suspects in one of the greatest whodunits in history.
[snip]
A . . . new book, "Uncle Jack" by Tony Williams, proposes the killer was the author's ancestor, Sir John Williams -- a gynaecologist to Queen Victoria's children and the founder of the National Library of Wales.
Williams had set out to explore his family history when he stumbled upon a box of Sir John's personal effects, including a knife, three medical slides and diaries with the 1888 entries ripped out.
He discovered that besides his posh Harley Street surgery, Sir John had a clinic in Whitechapel, giving him access to the prostitutes who thronged the area.
[snip]
Williams believes Sir John was enraged by the prostitutes he saw getting pregnant while his own wife was unable to have children and killed them either out of vengeance or to use their organs for researching a cure for infertility.
"These women were having children left, right and center and he wanted this cure," said Williams.
However, shortly after the killings stopped, Sir John had something akin to a nervous breakdown, gave up medicine and returned to Wales for good.
[snip]
[Read the whole story]
From the UK National Archives:
Census reveals the gossip columnist from 1861
19 May 2005
In vividly describing his neighbours as “bastards”, “prostitutes” and “syphilitic paupers” in the census, Isaac Norris Hunt could almost be depicted as the 1861 version of a gossip columnist.
A data collector for Stow-on-the-World in the 1861 national census, Mr Hunt took a rather overzealous approach into his task of collating information on his fellow Cheltenham residents.
Along with the vigorous observations of I.N Hunt, The National Archives has unveiled the complete name, birthplace and occupation of residents across all 52 counties of England and Wales in 1861. You can trace the lives of ancestors through the five consecutive censuses.
A railway manager by profession, Mr Hunt took the opportunity to add some highly personal remarks when entering the occupation of his neighbours:* Several are listed as prostitutes including Emma Cook aged 19 and the 64-year old Mary NewmanUnsurprisingly, Isaac Hunt does not appear to have undertaken the role of enumerator in any of the later censuses, which are now held at The National Archives.
* Eliza Williams is said to be ‘kept’ by her ‘paramour’ William Clapton
* The unfortunate Hannah Cokey is described as a ‘pauper, syphilitic’
* William Shall was an ‘absconding bankrupt’
* Elizabeth Wixey ‘cohabits with a man’
* and the two young sons of the ‘very doubtful’ Lavinia Collicott are described rather bluntly as ‘bastards’.
