I really did not think it would take quite so ,long for me to get back to writing another entry in this blog.  I thought that I would have more information about Bessie Nathan ready to be entered to keep everyone up to date with my search. Instead I have spent the last six months doing absolutely nothing about family history and not very much about anything except my quilting and stuff. Now the darker nights are coming I will be writing a bit more, I hope.

The second photograph I received from Monica Leat also showed Bessie NATHAN in costume as the character Topsy from the play Uncle Tom’s Cabin based on the novel by  Harriet Beecher Stowe.

 I showed these pictures to Cousin Pat who pointed at the Topsy picture and said “Mam had that picture, she carried it in her bag for years. I’ve still got it.” She then opened her handbag and produced an envelope, shook the contents of the envelope onto the table and sat back. I stared at the four pieces of card that lay there and then began turning them until they fitted together.

Now I could see that two pieces were just a backing that had once been stuck onto the photograph and the other two were pure family history gold!

The picture was indeed exactly the same as the Topsy picture sent to Mr and Mrs Davies but on the back of this one there was writing.

“Playing Topsy for 5 years without a break. This was taken by a little boy with a 2/6 camera, over my outdoor clothes I was out shopping.”

Somehow I don’t think she would have gone shopping with her stage makeup still on, although that possibility cannot be ruled out. We do know, from  the newspaper reviews, that she eventually played Topsy for seven years. The Company was the Charles Harmon Anglo American Theatre Company and from what I can see in the advertisements in The Era  There were at least three touring companies doing the same production.

This picture of Elizabeth “Bessie” Nathan was sent to Mr and Mrs Davies who were landlords of  The New Inn, St James’ Square,  Monmouth between 1880 and 1882.

Their great granddaughter, Monica Leat, inherited two photograph albums and had often wondered who some of the people were. I wrote an article for the Gwent Family History Society Journal and in it I said that I was lucky because I had one photograph of my great grandmother. I gave her name, Elizabeth Guilfoyle, and said that she was an actress and that her stage name was Bessie Nathan.

Within days I was contacted by Monica and she gave me permission to copy two of the pictures.

From newspaper reports and reviews I am sure that in the first picture Bessie is in the costume of a character called Madge from the play titled “Nobody’s Claim”.

Bessie’s husband, Charles Guilfoyle-Seymour, purchased the rights to the play together with printing, scenery and properties from Mr Calder in 1886. This we know because of an advertisement in The Era on 11th December 1886.

In February 1887 the Belfast Telegraph reviewed the play which was being performed at The Theatre Royal, Belfast.

“By special arrangement with mr Wm Calder, the American drama, entitled “Nobody’s Claim,” by Mr A. Locke, was produced last night at the Theatre Royal, and received an exceedingly hearty reception. The play represents border life in the far West, the plot for the most part depicting the search for, and annihilation of, a band of desperadoes known as the “Owls,” with their Chief, Mendoza, which is successfully carried out, albeit through many vicissitudes, by Ward Devereux (we presume Colonel), of the U.S. Army. Interpolated with this highly interesting story are many amusing scenes, foremost among which are those in which Calademus Phipps, a negro servant, and Major O’Finn McWaddington of the Ballingar Blazers, take part. The coloured individual is represented by Mr Fred Percy, who never ceases to be amusing throughout. Indeed, to take this gentleman either as an actor, singer or dancer it would be difficult to recall his superior in his particular line of business. Mr C. Guilfoyle Seymour, under whose management the play is produced, and who undertakes the part of the Major, fills the part of this military gentleman to perfection, and keeps the audience in roars of laughter while he is on the stage. Mr C.W. Spencer gives a vigorous rendering of Ward Devereux, as does Mr S. Shorey of the King of the Owls, Mendosa. Miss Bessie Nathan is vivacious as Madge, Miss Sophie Miles amusing as Medues and Miss Annie Travers sympathetic as Lilian Heywood. The other members of the company are all capable. In the mounting of the play Mr Warden has gone to considerable trouble and expense to good purpose.

When my father started researching his ancestry I was not really interested. I knew the names of my grandparents and I really couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. Why would anyone want to go traipsing around the country looking at old papers to find out the names of dead people?

Then my dad came back from one of his trips and said “Benjamin GIBBON is on the Muster Roll of the Pembrokeshire Militia in 1807″. This might not seem like the sort of phrase that would ignite any flames of passion but one of the subjects I have become more interested in since leaving school (way back in the last century) is history. I don’t mean the boring details of how many soldiers were in each army at a paticular battle, or even who won. I like to learn about the ordinary people who hid their livestock when the soldiers marched through; who picked up their children and ran for the hills, praying that they would have a home to come back to.

I had just read a book that mentioned the last invasion of Britain when some French troops under the command of an Irish/American landed in Pembrokeshire thinking that they could raise a rebel army and invade England by the back door. I was keen to know if Benjamin GIBBON had been in the militia when this had happened in 1797.

Dad couldn’t tell me because he hadn’t seen any militia lists for the years before 1807 but he did casually mention that Benjamin had married Elizabeth Cunnick. “How do you know?” I asked. “We looked at the parish registers,” he said, “They have microfilm of them.”

This was the hook that caught me. For some reason I really wanted to look at parish registers. I think it was because I wanted to see who else was on the page, were they connected? Did they live near? were they involved in the defeat of the French? I wanted to do research too!

Pretty soon after this I had an operation that prevented me from lifting things like rolls of fabric and sewing machines so this reduced the amount of work I could do - I had to wait for my husband to be there to lift and move and carry stuff. I needed something to occupy my time and I thought that family history might be interesting and I could do that for a while. Dad was still researching his ancestors my Mum was doing her lot so my husband said “do my family, I don’t have many relatives.” He did not know how wrong he was!

I hope this will be the first of many entries here. I intend to use this blog to pass on the results of my research to my many relatives who are spread across the world like peanut butter on toast.

This will be an addition to the quarterly newsletter that I produce for them and will also be a lot cheaper to do. Posting thirty copies of a letter is quite dear these days, especially as one third of them go overseas.