I bought these three lovely CDVs at the Shoreham Postcard Fair just before Christmas. I spent quite a while looking through one seller’s large collection of Victorian-era photos, CDVs and Cabinet Cards. I chose as many as possible with names or writing on the back. These first two looked like brothers to me and obviously had the same person write the names on the backs.

I’ve only just been able to start sorting through all the photos I bought that day and scanning them. I wasn’t entirely sure what the surname was although I thought ‘per’ was the last three letters.

So I put Oscar B in the search box on Ancestry, living in Harrogate, Yorkshire, with a sibling called Hubert Joseph. I was amazed to get the 1891 census pop-up with what looked like a matching family with the surname Trumper! So, of course, I started a small family tree for them. I also added the 1881 census and a few more family details from the records.

The brothers look so alike, don’t they? Hubert was born on 19 March 1871 and Oscar was born on 5 December 1872 and died on 26 December 1932.

Oscar had married Annie Smith 1872-1941 in 1897 and the couple had two children, a boy and a girl, Alice Joan and Hubert Bagster. Oscar went into the medical profession and became a general practitioner, as did his son Hubert who it looks like went into working in the Chemical Industry, even writing a book entitled Health of Chromium Plating Workers. Alice Joan married a Doctor.

In 1894 Hubert emigrated to Canada, on the 1911 census for Canada he had a wife Sophia and a son Cornelius, ten years old. His wife had been born in Canada. .

Cornelius married Blanche Norma Hale in 1925. He was a Salesman and then a Stockbroker. He died in 1930 of Septicemia at the age of just 30. The couple had no children, and Blanche never remarried. She died in Canada in 1991 at the age of 93. Hubert died in 1953, and his wife Sophia died in 1950.

When I came to check out their parents and find out what their mother’s maiden name was, I stopped because I was really surprised.

Oscar and Hubert’s parents were Joseph Trumper who was born in July 1847 in Eton, Buckinghamshire, and Alice Bonner Bagster 1847-1892 and they had four sons.

Now Bagster was a name that I recognised, I was sure I’d written about before but couldn’t remember what photo or when. So I checked out my blog and there it was, Eunice Bagster the Illustrator, and I had written about her and her family back in March 2023 after a find at Shepton Fleamarket.

The ‘Trumper Boys’ Mother, Alice Bonner Bagster, turned out to be Eunice Bagster’s niece. How absolutely fabulous is that and an amazing coincidence!

Here’s the link to my Bagster Blog: Eunice Bagster the Illustrator

I looked up Alice’s death record, a digital copy from the GRO below as she wasn’t that old when she died.

I also looked to see what notices were in the newspapers reporting her death, I’m sharing three here as although they are for the same death, it’s always worth reading them all, as in these examples for Alice, you often find different information on them. Excellent for family historians.

After Alice died Joseph then married Ella Jones, a widow in January 1906 in Hendon, Middlesex. Joseph died on 2 February 1920 in Croydon, Surrey, at the age of 72.

After this revelation about the Bagster family I thought that I had better look more carefully at the rest of the CDVs I had found that day and I realised that this one below also has Trumper written on it but on the front, ‘Gertrude Trumper’, I had initially missed that.

The writing on the back of it is unusual and very exact ’Taken when 1 year & 8 months old less three day. Viz 12 July 1869’

The front I think refers to the lady and the back refers to the child.

The only Gertrude Trumper that I had on the tree so far was born in 1843, she was an Aunt to Oscar and Hubert being their father’s sister, so if this refers to the lady is this her child?

The writing on this CDV has had me totally puzzled, I knew the answer to the identity of this lady and the child born in November 1867 was there to be found somewhere in the family tree. So I spent an afternoon adding various spouses to the people that I had already, with their birth, marriage and death dates. Then when I started to add children to the couples and go through each person carefully I found some pieces of this puzzle fitted together.

I first researched Gertrude Trumper who was born in October 1843 in Eton, Buckinghamshire, her parents were Joseph and Elizabeth. She had two brothers, one William and the other Joseph, the father of the two brothers, Hubert and Oscar, above. Gertrude’s two sisters were Josephine and Minna.

BUT I found that Gertrude never married until she was in her 40s or had any children as far as I know. She married a medical Doctor Theodore Rainy Brotchie who I believe she met in Scotland where he was working and she and her sister Minna were living. He died in 1900 and Gertrude died on 18 April 1912 in Devon at the age of 68.

This is his medical working record. “Brotchie, Theodore Rainy, M.B. CM. 1871 M.D. 1877. Son. of John B. b. Kintore, 22nd Mar. 1847. Liverpool, Manitoba, Canada, Belfast, Died at Richmond, Surrey, 22nd Apr. 1900“. His parents were John Brotchie and Ann (Rainy).

Gertrude’s husband certainly travelled and worked in many places and I would think that Gertrude would have accompanied him after they were married.

Next, I researched William the youngest sibling, he married Bertha Leake in 1873, and they had two children, a boy and a girl. William Arthur and Grace Sylvia. He was a Farmer of many acres in Buckinghamshire, then retired to Devon, living on his own means and preaching the gospel in his later years.

Minna just as her sister Gertrude, remained single and never married or had any children.

Lastly, the eldest of the five was Josephine Elizabeth and she has a very different story to tell, she married Simon Crawshaw in April 1865 in Cookham, Berkshire. They had one daughter also named Josephine Elizabeth born on the 15 November 1867. Josephine died 4 days later as a young mother on 19 November 1867 in Buckinghamshire at the age of 25 and was buried in Leeds, Yorkshire. Her cause of death was ‘Puerperal Convulsion’ Puerperal convulsions, or convulsions that occur after giving birth, are usually treated as eclampsia until proven otherwise. As you can see her sister Minna was with her when she died.

There are no other Gertrude Trumper’s in the family that I can find that would fit.

The parents of the five children were Joseph Trumper who was born in 1801 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, the son of Joseph and Sarah. He married Elizabeth Adam on 28 April 1841 in Enfield, Middlesex. Joseph died on 28 February 1876 in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, aged 75 years. Elizabeth Adam was born in 1805 in Whitechapel, Middlesex, the daughter of Katherine and Benjamin. She died in September 1866 in Buckinghamshire at the age of 61 and was buried in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

After all of this, I believe that Gertrude Trumper is the lady and the young child is Josephine the daughter of her elder sister Josephine Elizabeth. If you work out from young Josephine Elizabeth’s birth 15 November 1867 to 12 July 1869 when the photo was taken it is exactly 1 year 8 months less 3 days. It has to be young Josephine Elizabeth Crawshaw with her Auntie Gertrude.

This is not the end of the story though because when I saw that the name Crawshaw came up I also realised that I had six other CDVs with that surname!

The first three are young Josephine Elizabeth, and all are written on the back, how fabulous! Josephine remained single all her life and was 63 when she died in 1930.

Josephine’s father Simon Crawshaw was born on 12 September 1830 in Earlsheaton, Yorkshire, the son of Sussanah and Simon. Ten years before being married to Josephine Elizabeth Trumper he was first married in August 1855 to Jane Arthington and they had one daughter born on 20 April 1856, also called Jane. Sadly Jane, his wife died on 24 April 1856 just four days after giving birth. Their daughter Jane survived for 18 days after being born prematurely at about six and a half months gestation. Here’s the mother and child’s death certificates:

How awful to then lose his second wife Josephine.

Now here we have a strange twist to this story and it takes us right back to the Bagster Family.

Alice Bonner Bagster married Joseph Trumper.

Joseph Trumper’s sister was Josephine Elizabeth Trumper.

She married Simon Crawshaw and 3 years after Josephine’s death Simon Crawshaw married thirdly to Ada Eunice Bagster.

Ada Eunice Bagster was Alice Bonner Bagster’s sister.

Simon and Ada had eleven children. Three of whom I have the CDVs of below.

What a complex tangled web our ancestors sometimes weave.

Muriel Ada Crawshaw 1885-1970

Ernest John Crawshaw 1874-1961. Also his mother Ada Eunice 1849-1941.

Bertram Philip Crawshaw 1882-1972.

Here’s a list of the eleven children:

Here’s the link to the small public family tree I have compiled for them on Ancestry: H & O Trumper Family Tree

There are many descendants of this family and also many photos of them on public trees on Ancestry, they look like a fascinating family with lots of records to follow up on.

Till next time then……..