EWTH was an enthusiastic lifelong Mason.  Contacting the Masons was therefore one of the first research steps in this project.   This led us to Jeff Bailey, Secretary of the Masonic "Lodge of Perseverance", No. 164, in Sidmouth, Devon.   We wrote to him, asking if any records of EWTH could be located.

It's a tradition of that lodge once each year to read out the minutes of meetings of 100 years ago, requiring these century-old documents be resurrected from the archives.   As it happened, those minutes were already on Jeff's desk being worked on when he received our letter, and indeed they contained many mentions of EWTH.  Jeff graciously agreed to help, and as he extracted the EWTH quotes, he became intrigued with the man, and joined the EWTH research project with enthusiasm.  Part of the reason for this was that he had recently retired, and being a man with of abundant energy, found that he suddenly had a surplus thereof.  But of at least equal importance were the eerie coincidences that emerged wherein Jeff's life seemed to touch that of EWTH, though a century removed.  Aside from the timely emergence of the 100-year-old minutes, both Jeff and EWTH had been Masters of Masonic Lodges in the area local to Axmouth, Jeff in Sidmouth and EWTH in Axminster.   Jeff, as county civil engineer, had recently supervised a flood relief plan for the terrine around Musbury House, which had been EWTH's residence in Axminster, Devon.   Jeff had gone to University in St John's Road, Clerkenwell, London, the district in which EWTH had been born and raised.  And finally Jeff had gone to grammar school in Kingston-on-Thames, no more than 100 yards from where EWTH's death is recorded.  The suspicion that EWTH was orchestrating our project from On High could not be avoided.

Jeff has performed the lion's share of the EWTH research.  After combing through Lodge minutes, he spent considerable time in local libraries poring through old newspapers (Jeff's a resident of the Devon vicinity where EWTH lived much of his adult life).   And indeed he unearthed several articles that have shed much light on the persona of EWTH, thus quite enriching this study.   He also did extensive slogging through hundreds of census pages (most handwritten and of difficult legibility), and handled the procurement of Vital Statistics certificates from the GRO (General Register Office).     EWTH owes him a lot.
 

Granddaughter of EWTH’s first wife Alice (resident in Yorkshire, England)

Cheryl is EWTH's great-great-grand daughter from his second marriage with Florence Bound.   Cheryl found our query about EWTH on the internet (http://www.ancestry.com) and contacted us.  

She informed us that EWTH and Florence's son Alexander had emigrated to Kenya at some time prior to his marriage.   Of his descendants, Cheryl's family now lives in Australia, having moved to Adelaide in 1981;  others may now be residing in South Africa.  Cheryl shared with us her research on her branch of the family, going back to Alexander.   Alas though, she had no information about Alexander's parents, EWTH and Florence Hoare née Bound.

CLICK HERE  to see the narrative on Alexander.

CLICK HERE  to see Cheryl's family tree, going back to Alexander.

We  found a query by Megan concerning Alice Day on the internet (http://www.ancestry.com) and contacted her.  Megan is a great granddaughter of Alice Day Hoare;  Alice and Alexander Barnett had two sons, Sidney and John Hoare.   Megan's branch, descended from Sidney, settled in Perth, Western Australia.   The descendants of John remained in England.

Megan and her mother had done a great deal of genealogical research on Alice's descendants, which they kindly shared with us, and which has been incorporated into this study.

CLICK HERE  to see the narrative on Alice Day, and her descendants

CLICK HERE  to see Alice Day's family tree

In the autumn of 2003, Colin Guy Treadaway-Hoare, "Trig", a lifelong family friend, was soon to turn 80, and had recently developed a keen interest in learning more about his ancestry.   Both of his parents had died when he was quite young, and he was raised an orphan, with no links to the families of his parents.  Since Trig had had no experience in the field of genealogy, and I did, I offered as an 80th birthday present to look into his ancestry.   That was two and a half years ago.  Since that time, the project has grown to major proportions among its research participants, due to the fascinating persona of Trig's father, Edward William Treadaway Hoare - EWTH.  

Other than visits to the local Mormon library, my participation has been limited by my geographical remoteness (I live in the US;  the data are in England) to internet searches, correspondence with potential sources of information, searching through census pages (in conjunction with Jeff Bailey), and secretarial duties - eg, this summary report.

 

A mysterious person named Sidney West appeared one day in a chauffeured limousine at the Royal Masonic School for Boys in London, where Trig was being educated, and asked that Trig, who was then ten, be assigned to guide him around the campus.  West thereupon offered to adopt Trig, a proposal strongly endorsed by the school authorities, but rejected by Trig's guardian, an uncle resident in Canada.   West was not heard from again.

The connection of Sidney West to EWTH's family - there must have been one - has been one of the prime subjects of inquiry for this study.   Knowing his address from his correspondence with the school, we were able to get in touch with the present owner of his house, Sue Parsons, who, it turned out, was also quite interested in learning more about Sidney.   Sue most energetically ran down lead after lead, and between us we developed almost as much knowledge of West's life as we have of EWTH's.    But alas, Sidney West's connection with the EWTH family remains a mystery to this day.

CLICK HERE  for the index to the Sidney West story

CLICK HERE  to see Sidney West's family tree

Tim's wife is a the great-great-great granddaughter of EWTH's grandfather, James "I" Treadaway Hoare, and great-granddaughter of dentist James "III" Treadaway Hoare;  therefore EWTH's first cousin thrice removed, and third cousin of Trig's children.  

Tim has done extensive genealogical work on his family, the results of which he's posted on the internet.  Google led us to his site, which provided many helpful details of the Treadaway-Hoare family in the later half of the 19th century.

Trig was able to offer a number of helpful recollections of his father, EWTH, though EWTH had died when Trig was but four.   Trig's archives also contained a number of letters, photos, medals and other mementos of EWTH, which provided valuable clues for our research.  

And of course..... Trig was the inspiration for the entire study in the first place.

BASS ALE   The archivist kindly provided us with a photo of the Star Tavern at 31 Aldersgate, but there were no records to be found of the Hoare family, whose brewing business Bass had acquired
   
CRIMP HILL HOUSE   The institution in which Alice Day Hoare spent the final period of her life.

BURGESS HILL HISTORICAL CENTER, library and sporting facilities, where Sidney West made his home and founded the Sporting Center.

DEVON LIBRARY  The repository of local journals such as Pullmans News

GENERAL RECORDS OFFICE (the GRO), which keeps, indexes, and makes available, certificates of vital statistics in England from mid-1837 on.

HOARE BANK   The bank's archivist was unable to identify any relationship between the Hoare banking family and that of EWTH.  She did inform us that there were in fact three Hoare banks:  two in London and one in Ireland, helpfully providing us with contact information.  But this too yielded no lead to a relationship between EWTH and these Hoare family branches.
 
LICENSED VICTUALLERS ASSOCIATION and BRITISH BEER AND PUB ASSOCIATION   EWTH and his father would certainly have belonged to one or both of these associations, and there may well be valuable information about EWTH and his father somewhere in their archives.  But a number of requests to various branches of the organizations have failed to elicit any  interest.
   
MASONS   Aside from Jeff Bailey's support, various Masonic offices have been most helpful in providing details of EWTH's lodge memberships and positions he held.
   
MUSBURY HOUSE   The current owner, Mr Stephen White, most kindly provided a history of Musbury House, showing EWTH as owner from 1898 (it was EWTH who gave the house its name), and an image of a painting of the house.

NEIGHBORS of the HOUSE at 42 PINECLIFF AVENUE, BOURNEMOUTH  
On his 1922 marriage certificate, EWTH listed his occupation as "Apartment House Keeper" of  "Kit-Tha-Reng", a resident hotel at 42 Pinecliff Avenue.   We wrote to current occupants of addresses up and down that street, but were unable to learn anything about EWTH or indeed about "Kit-Tha-Reng".

SILVERLEIGH  Listed on their Certificate of Marriage as the Boarding House wherein EWTH and Florence Bound were resident at the time of their wedding (though EWTH then owned Musbury House, which was nearby).  They had no records from that period.

WEBSITES:

- Index of the GRO's vital statistics:     http://www.1837online.com/Trace2web/HomeServlet
- Ancestry.com:     http://www.ancestry.com/
- Genealogy.com:      http://www.genealogy.com/index_n.html
- The Mormons, "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints", (LDS):     http://www.familysearch.org/

        and of course

- GOOGLE:     http://www.google.com/