I am following up this thread that ran from December 2010 to March 2011. The main person of interest is Florence/Florrie/Florie Payne, who was born in Cardiff on 3 December 1894, moved with her family to West Dean around 1899, was a kitchen maid in a boarding house of Cheltenham College in the 1911 Census, and gave birth to my father in law Arthur James Payne (adopted with surname Lewis) in Cardiff in 1915. We now know that she and a Brazilian ‘husband’ Jose Symbolo Cardozo had a further child Jose Payne Cardozo born in London on 29 February 1920, emigrated to New York in November 1920 as Jose and Floria Cardozo, and had another child Carlos Thomas Cardozo (later Cardoza) born in Brooklyn, New York on 1 March 1921.
In 1925 both boys were put into St Dominic’s Orphanage in Blauvelt, NY. Ostensibly this is because their father Jose/Joseph had deserted the family for another wife and Florence was about to go into hospital.
We would dearly like to know what Florence was doing between 1911 and 1920, and what happened to her after 1925. So far all searches have proved fruitless, but the Cardozas continue to look in the USA.
Although I have researched Florence’s relations and now have contact with descendants of one of Florence’s sisters, Annie Mary Payne later Downham, and of her aunt Eliza Skinner of 64 Hewell Street Cardiff, some puzzles remain.
I know what happened to Florence’s youngest siblings John, Peter, Annie Mary and William, but what happened to Florence’s oldest brothers James Payne born on 26 March 1896 in Cardiff and Thomas Henry Payne born on 19 April 1897 in Cardiff? Both grew up in West Dean and I believe that Thomas then lived in FoD. In 1911 he was an apprentice to the boot trade living at Milkwall. He married Edith Handcock on 17 April 1920 [QJune 1920 Monmouth 11a, 108], when his occupation is given as collier, of Tufthorn Road, Milkwall. She was aged 33 and living at Whitemead Park, Parkend, and her father was William Handcock, a drayman. As far as I could determine they had no children. There is a death of Thomas H Payne aged 65, QJune 1963, Forest of Dean 7b, 404. Can anyone add to this history for Thomas Henry Payne?
James Payne seems to have returned to live in Pengam, South Wales, judging by his address when he was the informant of his father’s death in 1925. He was a witness at the marriage of his youngest brother William in 1937. He therefore cannot have died before 1937. Does anyone know anything about this James Payne?
When Florence’s father, also James Payne, died in July 1925 aged 54 he had been a widower for a year and was living at Highfield, Tufthorn Road, Milkwall. He left £661 1s, quite a tidy sum for the time, administered by his son James Payne, collier. He was a crane diver at a stone company and how he came to leave this money is unknown. Did he own his house Highfield in Tufthorn Road, Milkwall?