A family history puzzle

Emily Kirby NEWMAN a.k.a. Emily KIRBY

We thought KIRBY was our surname

It turns out that it should have been SCHULZ. This was a secret hidden from the family for over 80 years.

We know almost nothing about Frederick William SCHULZ (probably Friedrich Wilhelm SCHULZ) reported to be a Prussian soldier, who married Emily Kirby NEWMAN (1861-1944)  in the late 1880s. There is no record of this happening in England - so perhaps the marriage took place in what is now Germany. Emily Kirby SCHULZ (nee NEWMAN) is shown right about 1935 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Käthe M. SCHULZ a.k.a. Kate Margaret KIRBY

The first child of Friedrich W Schulz and Emily NEWMAN, Käthe Margarethe SCHULZ, was born in Germany in December 1889. Something must have happened - for Emily K SCHULZ left Germany with her young daughter, returning to England where in April 1892 her second child, Cyril Karl SCHULZ, was born in Hornsey, London, not far from where her parents lived.

In the 1901 census the SCHULZ family was recorded in two places - Emily K SCHULZ and her son Cyril Karl SCHULZ (aged 9 years) were living at Bracknell College, Winkfield, Berkshire. But her 11 year old daughter, Käthe M. SCHULZ, was with her maternal aunt Effie NEWMAN (1865-1938), visiting Effie's work colleague Katherine JENKINS in Fulham, London. Both Effie and her friend were in their mid 30s, unmarried and working as typists for the civil service. Perhaps Effie was helping in the upbringing of her niece Käthe SCHULZ in an ongoing way. Käthe SCHULZ is shown here about 1910.

In 1911 Effie NEWMAN and Catherine JENKINS were boarding at the LAWRIN household in Ealing, Middlesex, both principals of a typewriting office. They appear in London post office directories between 1904 and 1906 as Jenkins & Newman, Typewriters, in Hammersmith.

When registering the premature death of her sister Nina Ambrose HOLMES (nee NEWMAN) in 1904. Emily Kirby SCHULZ (nee NEWMAN) dropped her married surname SCHULZ. From then on she and her son used the surname KIRBY, her middle name and her mother's maiden surname. Her daughter continued to use her German birth name.

Seven years later in the English census Emily KIRBY and her son were living in Chiswick, boarding with the LEVERMORE family. As she had in 1901, Emily KIRBY was working as a nurse, employed by the Nursing Institute (the Queen's Nursing Institute which later became the district nursing service).

Her 18 year old son, now known as Cyril KIRBY, worked as an estate clerk in an estate office. In 1911 Cyril's sister was 50 miles away, still using her German birth name, Käthe Margarethe SCHULZ. She is shown as a ladies' help, residing at the vicarage in Toot Baldon, Berkshire with three WALKER sisters all in their 40s and unmarried.  The record shows Käthe as born in Germany but naturalised in 1901.

Käthe Margarethe SCHULZ (1889-1985) later became known as Kathleen Margaret KIRBY.  Family and friends knew her as Kate or "Auntie Dink". She never married but joined in the family events of her brother and his children and grandchildren (including this blogger). It was said that she had been engaged to a member of the British or Canadian armed forces who was killed during WW1. The photo shown here may well have been an engagement picture.

Cyril Karl SCHULZ a.k.a  CYRIL Terence Charles KIRBY

During World War 1 Cyril Karl SCHULZ (alias Cyril KIRBY, 1892-1968 ) served  in the British Army as T C KIRBY in France and there met his wife-to-be, an Australian nurse serving with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service. On emigrating to Australia to marry her he took up the name Cyril Terence Charles KIRBY and concocted a fictitious family history, making it hard for his descendants to discover the real story. He joined the Australian Army in WW2 (by lowering his age) and is seen here in uniform about 1942.

In 1919 Cyril T C KIRBY married the Australian nurse, Priscilla Isabel WARDLE  (1884-1967) in her home town, Ballarat, Victoria, famous for the 1850s gold rushes and the Eureka protest. Cyril's mother Emily KIRBY and his sister Kathleen Margaret KIRBY followed him to Australia soon after, just in time to join in celebrations for the birth of Cyril and Priscilla's first child, Terence Patrick KIRBY in July 1921. By now, the Kirby surname had become re-established in the family. And SCHULTZ was no where to be seen.

Where did KIRBY come from?

The names Newman and Schulz were connected by a presumed marriage between Emily K NEWMAN and Friedrich W SCHULZ. But where did Kirby come from?

Emily and Effie NEWMAN's mother was Alicia NEWMAN (nee KIRBY) the daughter of Irish parents (William KIRBY and Euphemia TALBOT) who had moved from Dublin to Liverpool, England, in the early 1830s with three sons, John, Edward, and Thomas. In Liverpool they had two daughters, Alicia and Charlotte.

As Kirby was Alicia NEWMAN's maiden name, Emily, her first-born child, was given the middle name of Kirby.

Charles Kirby NEWMAN (1867-1900)
Emily's brother Charles, born in West Derby, Liverpool, 5 years later, was also given Kirby as a middle name. Charles Kirby NEWMAN (1867-1900) was the elder of the two boys in the Newman family of seven children. Sadly, Charles K NEWMAN died at the age of 33 - of syphilis - having followed his father's vocation and gone to sea.

Only a year before he died Charles K NEWMAN gave evidence against his former captain of the barque Mary A Troop on which Charles was 1st Mate. Captain Baker and his steward were charged with grievous bodily harm over the injury and disappearance of a Chinese cabin boy. From the evidence given in the Liverpool Police Court by former crew members it would appear that Charles K NEWMAN had visited Australia at least once, for the Mary A Troop called in to Newcastle NSW in 1897.

Frank NEWMAN (1872-1939)
The other son, Frank NEWMAN, born in 1872 Liverpool, England was educated at Margate College, Kent, received training  at the Eastern Cable Company and then joined the Marconi company a radio engineer, working as an assistant to Guglielmo Marconi during the early radio experiments. He spent a couple of years in his early 30s working for the Marconi company in New York, United States and then returned to work for Marconi in England until he retired in 1927 at the age of 55.

(UPDATED Oct 2015) Frank NEWMAN  married on 7 Sep 1909 at the age of 39. His wife was 42, Kate Talbot Henderson (nee McLewee) a widow and former actress. In 1911 census he shown as a 39 year old electrical engineer visiting the PETIT household in Ealing, Middlesex. His wife was a resident/ patient of Miss Houghton's Hospital for Gentlewomen at 19 Sisson Grove St Marylebone W. He died in Shoreham by Sea, Sussex in  April 1939, shortly before the outbreak of WWII.

It seems unlikely that he and his wife had children, but if they did, they would have been the only grandchildren of Charles Phillips NEWMAN to carry the NEWMAN name. We're very keen to hear from anyone who knows more about the life of Frank NEWMAN and Kate (Kitty) McLewee.

NEWMAN Descendants Today

Although Charles and Alicia NEWMAN brought up seven children, it seems that only Emily, Kate and Nina had children of their own (as far as we know). Today there are living descendants of Emily NEWMAN in Australia and Malaysia and of Nina NEWMAN in New Zealand. Kate NEWMAN had no grandchildren.

Of the other children of Charles and Alicia NEWMAN, Effie (1865, Mauritius - 1938 Surrey, England) and Alicia May (1877 London - 1913 London) never married. Charles Kirby NEWMAN (1866 West Derby, England - 1900 Liverpool, England) also died single, at 33 without having had any acknowledged children.

Of  Kate NEWMAN's (1863, Java Sea - 1946 New South Wales, Australia) five children only two survived adulthood and World War I.  Both married a little later in life and neither had children.

Nina Ambrose NEWMAN (1869, Liverpool, England - 1904 Chiswick, London) married her first cousin William Richard HOLMES (1862, Cornwall, England - 1940 Auckland, New Zealand), yet another master mariner, in 1889. His parents were William Henry HOLMES and Kate NEWMAN (1835, Scilly Isles, England - 1920 Southampton, England) -  not Nina's sister, but her aunt of the same name.

Nina NEWMAN and William Richard HOLMES had two children, Doris HOLMES (1898 La Spezia, Italy - 1968 New Zealand) and William Roy HOLMES (1902 Chiswick, London - 1993 New Zealand).  After Nina died at just 35, the two children aged 6 and 2 were placed in institutional care in England and later migrated to New Zealand where both married. There are a number of living descendants in New Zealand (2013).

Their widowed father William R HOLMES never remarried, but later also settled in New Zealand, where he died, after a distinguished career captaining cable-laying ships firstly for Guglielmo Marconi in Italy, and later in the Pacific Ocean captaining the Cable ship Iris. He was instrumental in the recapture of Count Felix Von Luckner and his party, who escaped from a POW camp on Motuihi Island off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand.

Charles P NEWMAN's aunt Eliza NEWMAN (1829 Isles of Scilly -1893, Coalville, Victoria ) and his mariner uncle Richard NEWMAN 3rd (1823 Isles of Scilly -1917 Sydney, New South Wales) had earlier settled in Australia and there are many living descendants today (2013).

In addition, Charles' master mariner brother William NEWMAN (1838 Isles of Scilly -1915 Yorkshire) had two sons who settled in Australia - Albert Leonard NEWMAN (1870, at sea-1960 Melbourne, Australia) and Stanley Beckett NEWMAN (1885 Hull, Yorkshire -1963 Melbourne, Victoria).   They were first cousins of Emily and Kate NEWMAN and their siblings.

Stanley B NEWMAN's son, a distinguished ship's captain as well, Stanley Franklin NEWMAN (Frank) died in 2009 in Melbourne after sharing much of his Newman research with this blogger.