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“My brother Ian has the unusual middle name of Algar, and had always wanted to know its origin,\u201d explains Peta McCauley. \u201cHe shares it with our grandad and uncle, so it must be significant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>
Peta had already researched the life of her grandfather Joseph Thomas Algar Jackson, who was born in 1899. \u201cI hadn\u2019t found any Algars, but then I discovered his birth certificate<\/a> among inherited papers. His mother was Edith Elizabeth Jackson, n\u00e9e Algar [pictured above<\/em>].\u201d<\/p> Edith\u2019s marriage certificate<\/a> provided more intriguing clues. \u201cHer father\u2019s name was Charles Algar, and his occupation was given as \u2018artist\u2019. This was fascinating, because Grandad had told me that his grandfather carved church pews for a living.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> Charles Algar married Elizabeth Measey. Like many working-class women, Elizabeth faced huge struggles when her children were young.\u00a0<\/p> She was born in 1850 in the rural parish of Finmere, Oxfordshire. \u201cElizabeth\u2019s family were agricultural labourers<\/a>, and she was the youngest of eight children. The Measeys must have been quite poor.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cI traced Elizabeth forward and found her in the 1871 census records<\/a> working as a housemaid in Hampstead in London. Did she feel homesick being so far from her family and village home?\u201d<\/p> Around that time Elizabeth must have met Charles Algar. Their first child Edith, Peta\u2019s great grandmother, was born in 1872 in Hereford. \u201cAs a carpenter, Charles would have moved around to where the work was. Over the next five years, the couple had four more children in Tipton, Staffordshire.\u201d<\/p> The 1881 census revealed a shock for Peta. \u201cI found Elizabeth living in Tipton with her five children, listed as a widow and living with John Morgan as his housekeeper. Charles Algar had died of typhoid fever in 1877.\u201d\u00a0<\/p> \u201cThis must have been catastrophic for Elizabeth,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to imagine what life was like for a poor, lonely and grief-stricken widow in Victorian times.\u201d<\/p> Elizabeth had a son with John, George Morgan Algar. \u201cThe relationship didn\u2019t last, however, and Elizabeth took refuge with her brother in West Bromwich.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cTragically, in 1882 Elizabeth decided to place George in the workhouse<\/a> because the toddler wasn\u2019t well, and return to Buckinghamshire with her older children. It must have been an agonising decision, but Elizabeth was alone and had four other children to care for. I wonder if she ever saw George again.\u201d<\/p> By the 1891 census, Elizabeth was living in Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire, and had two more children. No father was listed on their birth certificates, but they both gave her occupation as \u201chousekeeper\u201d, so perhaps history was repeating itself.<\/p>