Arthur Albert Meek (General)

by Trudy Johnson , Ontario, Canada, Thursday, July 29, 2010, 23:19 (5236 days ago)

Arthur Albert Meek, b 15 June 1886, Meopham Kent, d 16 Sept 1963 Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
~ 1906 arrived Montreal
~ 15 June 1912 married Lily Watson in Montreal
~ 1915 joins the Canadian Expeditionary Forces… is listed as “not married”
Mystery #1... I cannot find what happened to Lily Watson Meek
~ shipped overseas, wounded
~ 10 Mar 1917 marries Ada Kathleen Reilly in Lewisham, London, England… is listed as “widower”
~ 26 May 1917 death of Ada
~ 24 Dec 1917 marries Evelyn Frances Terry in Lambeth, London, England
~ 1918 they arrive in Canada on separate ships and settle in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario
~ 12 Jan 1922, Evelyn June Meek is born (this is 0268’s mother)
~ some time in the next few years, Evelyn Frances, “Cissy”, leaves
~ 1927 he renews his passport… but never uses it
~ my grandfather followed her to Montreal but no further… and based on what 0268 has told me.. I believe it is because she went to Australia.. I have found records for her brother and parents in Australia
Mystery #2... Where did she go.. And when
~ Ethel Lilian Miller (b 14 Aug 1898, Southfleet, Kent, emigrated 1926, d 13 April 1988 Sault Ste Marie) is hired as a housekeeper
~ 19 Sept 1933, Hazel Rosalie Meek is born (this is my mother)
~ 1935 he writes to Somerset house requesting copies of his marriages to Ada and Evelyn, as well as Ada’s death certificate
~ July 1951.. He writes an affidavit to the court, requesting to declare his spouse, Cissy Meek nee Brown, legally dead, and it is granted
Mystery #3... Where did the name Brown come from? Was it a deliberate red herring.. Or bad memory.. But he had the marriage record from the 1935 Somerset copies.. Mind you.. They did live on Brown Street!
~ Aug 1951, Hazel marries Robert Armstrong
Mystery #4 .. Where is the marriage record for my grandparents? I assume the 1935 requests were pressure from my grandmother as they now had a child… but… he seemed to have forgotten about Lily way back in 1912! So we come to 1951 when my mother wants to be married, and there is no record of her parents marriage.. So.. He has to declare Cissy dead.. But again.. The issue of Lily is in the background.. And so I assume no marriage happened in the month before my parents marriage.. Because if we found copies of the marriages to the other 3.. I would think my grandmother would have kept her own!

So there it all is. You can’t make this stuff up!
I do envy you folks over in England.. Who have access to the actual records.
Some day in the not too distant future, I hope to park my Canadian backside in the Forest of Dean, and look for myself.

Now.. I am also looking for what happened to 2 of his sisters… Rosalie Bickerton Meek, and Frances Elizabeth Bennet Meek… I do know one of them married a Swiss man, she died and he remarried. So any help on this would be appreciated.