Update: See end of Blog!

This is another CDV from 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 this one because I noticed the unusual first name written on the back: Zelie. Unusual is often good for research.

Zelie Morgan Harman was born on 2 November 1874 in London, London, her parents were Walter and Hannah (Bellamy). Walter was a Goldsmith, and Zelie was one of twelve children born to the couple.

Zelie married William Henry Goodchild on 14 September 1907 at St James Church, Muswell Hill, London. As you can see from their marriage record William was the son of Joseph, a Surveyor. His mother was Hannah Marie (Cooper). William was a Mining Engineer.

During their marriage William travelled to Canada and America working.

Zelie and William had three children during their marriage, their eldest child, a daughter called Harmony Gabrielle Goodchild 1908-1991, never married and in the 1930s was living with her parents and brother Paul at their home at 74 Hendon Lane, Finchley, N3. London. The house is still there despite many around it being demolished and replaced by new builds.

In 1939 she was working in domestic service in Worthing, Sussex. I believe her father had died by this time (more later). After or maybe a bit before her mother Zelie died in 1949 Harmony was back at home in Hendon Lane living with her brother Paul and still there in the 1950s. Harmony died in 1991 at the age of 82 at Connolly House, Napsbury Hospital, St Albans, Hertfordshire. Napsbury was a private psychiatric hospital that operated from 1905 to 1998. 

Their second-born son Thomas Harman Goodchild was born on 31 March 1910 in Finchley, Middlesex. He married Lucy Patricia Hope Hancock in October 1937 in Chard, Somerset. They had one daughter Susan in the summer of 1939. Lucy had been born in Australia and I found a record of her death there in 1973.

Thomas died as a young father in action during WW2 on 17 January 1942 at the age of 31, he is commemorated at the Naval Memorial in Plymouth, Devon. Susan was two years old when her father died.

Thomas was in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and killed on the HMS Gurkha when it was sunk.

The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Gurkha (G63) was sunk by a German submarine on 17 January 1942. The ship was hit by a torpedo from U-133 and caught fire. It was later scuttled north of Sidi Barrani. The ship was originally named HMS Larne but was renamed after the loss of another HMS Gurkha. It was commissioned on February 18, 1941.
The ship was escorting the Malta convoy MW-8B. It was hit at 0735 hours on 17 January 1942.
The Dutch destroyer Hr Ms Isaac Sweers towed the ship clear of the oil. Most crew members were transferred to the Dutch destroyer and landed at Tobruk. More here: HMS Gurkha (G63) sunk 1942

The couple’s third child another son, Paul Bellamy Goodchild was born on 4 April 1912 in Barnet, Hertfordshire. As far as I can see he never married and lived with his widowed Mother Zelie in her later years. On the 1939 register, he is an Assistant Secretary at a Piston Manufacturing Company. He died in December 1998 at the age of 86 in Kent.

Zelie died on 3 August 1949 in Hendon, Middlesex, at the age of 74.

Here’s the link to the small public family tree on Ancestry I have compiled: Zelie M Harman Tree

Looking at various old photos shared on public family trees on Ancestry, I came across these two photos of Zelie’s parents, Walter John Harman and Hannah Bellamy, originally shared in 2013.

Also this beautiful image of Zelie’s Mother Hannah (Bellamy)as a young woman on another public family tree on Ancestry.

One thing that does puzzle me is that I am unable to find William Henry Goodchild‘s death record. He is on the electoral roll till 1938 and in the 1939 register, Zenie states she is a widow. So it has to be in either 1938 or 1939 but I can’t find it. I have gone through browsing them all. I have also checked deaths for Canada and America as he travelled over there for his job but no luck.

Update: Because of great research shared with me by Joy Tizzard, see comments.

She found this: “William Henry Goodchild in Napsbury Hospital, St Albans in 1939. Born 1879. A mining engineer” So Zelie was not a widow!

Because of this and the fact that Zelie was obviously not a widow in 1939 at the time of the 1939 register as she had stated and I believed. I started to work my way through the death records again from 1939 to 1959 initially and I found him in 1955, he died on 27 May at Napsbury Hospital, St Albans, Hertfordshire. 

Lesson learnt, if you can’t find someone after the spouse has said she’s a widow, don’t believe her!

I shall remember this and not do that again!

Till next time then…….,