1881 census ??? (General)

by Shari , Linden, MI, USA, Monday, December 05, 2005, 08:54 (6939 days ago) @ slowhands

According to Uncle Tom's story, the family moved back to London when he was only six weeks old (Late July or early August 1874). He mentions living at 40 Bryant Street, near Kender Primary School and having adventures at Wandsworth Common. His father, Deodatus, was an inspector for the London Tramway Company.

Later, after the birth of sister Bessie and brother Dick, they moved to a "more fashionable neighborhood" and a larger home at 35 Old Kent Road and he includes a picture.

At the point where they were making plans to cross the Atlantic, he mentions his father's sister "Aunt Payne." It is the only time he speaks of her and I have no idea who she is. Is it possible that Payne is her married name?

The time lines that Uncle Tom uses in his memoirs (he says they came in the summer of 1880) don't always match the facts that we have been finding in census records and the Persian Monarch records. But I keep telling myself that he was 80 years old when he wrote this book.

Add the fact that after they arrived in the states they became virtual vagabonds. After the death of their father in Judsonia, Arkansa, USA about a year or so after they arrived, their mother fostered most of her children out to neighbors, friends and "family."

In his teen age years he worked odd jobs, here and there. He speaks of working as a cook in Chicago, Illinois at the time of the Exposition.

Uncle Tom tells that after attending one year of school in London, he was not able to get back to his education until he was in his twenties. Eventually he became a doctor.