Julio/Julius de Castro - was he really a spy? Help please!

[Katie]

If I have time to-morrow Ill look to see if any article was published

[jackieb]

Thank you

Jackie

[Tina]

Thanks all, for interesting information.
Fingers crossed Jackie with the certificate.
Lovely photos!

[jackieb]

Hi All

I now have the Death Cert for Julius de Castro. This gives his date of death as 29th April 1916 and the place of death as HMPrison and there’s something written underneath that I can’t quite make out, but looks like ‘uno’.

Address: 40 Wright Street, Egremont, Cheshire.

Occupation her is given as: A Commercial Clerk.

Informant is A Hughes Deputy Coroner for Liverpool . Inquest was held on 2nd May 1916. Registered 3rd May 1916.

Cause of Death is given as: Congestion of lungs and acute bronchitis following Locomotor Ataxy -
I assume this is Locomotor Ataxia: a movement disorder caused by syphilitic infection of the spinal cord. It’s also called tabes dorsalis.
Tabes dorsalis is a slow degeneration of the covering of nerve cells and nerve fibers (known as myelin) that carry sensory information to the brain. The degenerating nerves are in the dorsal column of the spinal cord (the portion closest to the back of the body) and carry information that help maintain a person's sense of position. Tabes dorsalis results when a syphilis infection goes untreated.

Well, that’d certainly explain why nobody in the family would talk about him – accused of spying for the Germans and then he dies, in prison, from untreated syphilis!

What I’m now left wondering is: Why didn’t his wife, Louise Charlotte get ill? They’d obviously been having a sexually active marriage as Joan G de Castro was born in 1915 (d.1921) and there were seven kids more before her, almost at the rate of one per year. Or, maybe she did die.........would this explain why the woman Sidney (my Dad) and Clarence called “Our dear mother” called herself Florence? Louise Charlotte had a sister called Florence and I always thought it really v odd that she would use the same name as her sister. Did Louise die and did Florence take over the role of mother to the children?

Hmmm....think I’m going to have to save up for a subscription to Ancestry and a trip to Liverpool! Thanks again for all your help and interest.

Jackie

[MaryA]

You may have something there, a sister would often step in to look after the family, depends on finding a death for Louise of course.

Well the certificate links the two addresses, so has confirmed that point, and with an exact date of inquest it gives you the correct place to look in the newspapers.

[Tina]

Amazing information on the death certificate.
Louisa Pierson was 1 yr old in 1881 bn Enfield Mx
Her sister Florence was 3yrs old.

[jackieb]

Thank you MaryA. and Tina - so kind of you both to help me and be interested.

I've been looking into his condition and it seems quite likely that he was taking drugs AND sleeping around. That makes me wonder whether in fact he did try to smuggle papers aboard a ship, as he'd be under pressure to fund his next 'fix' and keep his wife and eight children going. Although, looking at a couple of other pics I have of my father as a small boy, judging by the clothes, the look of the child, the studio setting, they really don't appear short of money. Hmmmm... I suppose it would be easy in those days to find prostitutes around the docks - and if his wife was permanently pregnant and he had the money, he might be tempted.......and would have so regretted it, given the consequences.

What I want to do now is to find Julius' burial place, find that newspaper article (it has to exist - I've seen it) - and find out where Louise Charlotte disappeared to.

On the 1901 Census I found Louise Charlotte, with her parents Leopold Pierson b.1859 (although Parish records say 1857) and Florence Ethel Self b.1859 in Florence Italy. At that time, Louise Charlotte has two brothers Charles FM and Leopold J jnr, and three sisters Annie, Florence ER and Mary A. Their address was 16 Suffolk Park Road, Walthamstow, Essex. Louisa Charlotte was working as a barmaid - and I bet that's where she met smooth-talking Julius.

Louise Charlotte's birth year is given as 1880 and Florence ER's as 1892. But the only death I can find is the one I know about, Florence Louise, in 1943 - whom my dad called "our dear mother" - but which one of them is it?!

Should I join something like Genealogy or Ancestry - which is the best one? Would it actually help me get any further? (I've been doing Pay As You Go on Find Your Past.) Or is the best way forward to plan simply a visit to the Records Office in Liverpool and maybe contact local newspapers to see whether they have archive copies? I would definitely like to see all these places! Would I need to notify the cemetery and Record Office, if I was going to visit? I don't want to be a pain, or drive all that way for nothing.

Incidentally, my own children are absolutely horrified at the tale of Julius - not least because I am a JP! Haha!

Thanks again

Jackie

[Tina]

Hi Jackie
If you Google Lock Hospitals, it gives a good history of how the philanthropic people tried to stop the spread of the disease and help the victims.
I remember very clearly helping a poster, in the forum before this one, trace a young man of a famous Lpool family who was an epileptic in the census, at a nursing home just outside Southport.
All the young men had the same illness, yet, not one of them had it in the census prior to this.
Normally it's a childhood disease.
Poster got the death cert, you've guessed what the cause was.
The sickness was all covered up by the wealthy Lpool families.
These young, rich men, probably went into town to get themselves a "popsie"for the night.
Poster even managed to find who the Board of Directors were of this home. What a surprise!
Yes, it was prevelant and a dreadful disease, so much suffering when it gets to the brain.
As Julius was a foreign correspondent, who knows where he could have picked it up.
As Mary said, we need to find Louisa's death.
Florence may have taken the surname for the sake of the kiddies.
Jackie, it's a fascinating story, fair dinkum

[MaryA]

I'm just surprised that so many of his children survived, maybe that's an indication as to when he caught it. We've had discussions about this in the past, especially following one of the Who Do You Think You Are programmes where this proved to have been the demise of quite a number of the children since it was passed through the wife to them, unknowingly.

To look for BMD's your first point of call would be http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ but this is not complete and an ongoing volunteer project, so check the coverage for the years in question. If you need better, then you can check the indexes on microfiche at most record offices around the country and a variety of libraries, although not all.

If you are going to continue your research after this, you will find a subscription to one of the major sites to be of benefit. Findmypast includes the 1911 census as well as the others, fully indexes, Ancestry is getting there but not yet complete, but has many other databases, especially many Liverpool Parish Registers. It's always difficult to recommend but do a comparison of the databases each has, try out Ancestry World edition at your local library for free or register for a two week free trial for either Ancestry or Findmypast and see which you think will be most useful to you.

For anything held on microfilm at the Record Office you wouldn't need to make an appointment, however if it was in document form you would, a couple of days in advance. You can do a search of the archives http://archive.liverpool.gov.uk/dserve. ... Search.tcl and find what you want then enquire with the Record Office, contact details here http://liverpool.gov.uk/libraries-and-a ... y-history/ or ask us, sometimes we know the answer as to what is held and what dates. I know the Liverpool Echo will be at the Record Office on microfilm (William Brown Street, World Museum, 2nd Floor) and see this post for various holdings that we have managed to collate http://forum.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk ... =newspaper but for the Wirral, if you think there was anything there, I think you would need to go to Chester.

As for the cemetery, Walton wasn't it? please see the information I posted earlier as you do need to give them plenty of warning to find it for you first.

[MaryA]

Joan G de Castro was born in 1915

A quick question for you, do you have Joan's birth cetificate and what is the mother's name on it? My suspicious mind wonders.

my own children are absolutely horrified at the tale of Julius

Just tell them there's no fun in family history unless you unearth a scandal or two.

[jackieb]

Thanks for all that info. I will try all links over this weekend. I've done a 6 monthly with findmypast - hope it helps!

I googled "Lock Hospital in Liverpool" - I'd never heard of a Lock Hospital before. I found this on my travels around the internet – the article dates from before Julius’s time, but is very interesting and informative nevertheless, so I've pasted the link here in case it is helpful to anyone else - it isn't pleasant, so do have dinner first!

The Liverpool Lock Hospital
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article ... 2-0005.pdf

I've ordered birth AND death certs for little Joan de Castro, who died aged just 6. I'm curious to see the cause of death. My dad did mention her, but said he couldn't remember her name- I know he was only 8 when she died, but that does seem odd.

Interesting - she died in 1921 - and that is the year printed on the visiting card for the orphanage which dad (Sidney) and Clarence were sent to, so the family is back in Essex then - West Ham - where the Piersons lived.

Thanks ever so much for your help.

Jackie

[jackieb]

Hi all

The birth/death certs for little Joan haven’t arrived yet; however, today I received the Marriage cert for Julius de Castro and Louisa Charlotte Pierson.
They married in 1902, at St Michael and All Angels, Walthamstow, Essex.

Julius is described as 23 (which means he must have been born slightly before Louisa, since both give their birth year as 1880 on the 1911 census) and his profession is given as ‘commercial clerk’.

On the cert, Louisa Charlotte is aged 22 and a spinster. Interestingly, the address for both Charlotte and Julius is given as 16 Suffolk Park Road, Walthamstow –could he have been a lodger?

Where it says Father’s Name/Surname and Father’s Rank/Profession, Julius’ record simply has a line under both – would this mean that his father is dead, or that he doesn’t know who his father is?

Louise C’s dad is given as Leopold Pierson, a salesman. This is very useful, since I have now identified her correct family on the 1901 census – it’s not the same person (or Pierson!) that Tina mentioned.

The 1901 census gives the whole Pierson clan living at 16 Suffolk Park. Leopold is the Head. It says he was born in 1859, but I’ve checked the parish registers, and it looks like he was born in 1857 and the birth registered in 1858 in Macclesfield Cheshire – interesting here is the link with the Cheshire area again – is that why Julio and Louisa ended up there at the time of his arrest, I wonder? They clearly moved to Liverpool, then out to Cheshire – possibly she might have needed family support with so many children and Julius away overseas?

On the 1901 census, Leopold is married to Florence Ethel Self b 1859, in Florence Italy. That explains why my Auntie Rose used to tell me that her mum sometimes used the surname Self-Pearson. I didn’t get that at all – but now I do! They married in London in 1889. It seems to me that they married v young – she was only 19 and he (if the Parish records are correct) was just 17 – maybe she was pregnant – or was it common to marry that young?
They had six children: Charles FM b. 1878, Louisa C b. 1880, Annie R b. 1882, Leopold J b. 1891, Florence Ethel R b. 1892 and Mary A b. 1894. Charles Francis Montague and Annie Rose were witnesses at the wedding – which would make sense since at RC weddings, the best man and chief bridesmaid usually sign the register.

Leopold died age 71 in 1933, registered at West Ham Essex. Interestingly, Florence Ethel Self (his wife) died in 1916 – that’s the same year that Julio died. Poor Louisa lost her husband and her mum that same year. So it would make perfect sense that she probably moved back to Essex to give her children a home and look after her dad.

This still hasn’t solved all the mysteries, but I’m (slowly!) getting there!

Jackie

[Hilary]

The usual meaning of no father in the father's column is that the person was illegitimate.

People often gave the same address when one party did not live in the same parish, it meant only one set of banns needed to be called and was therefore cheaper.

Macclesfield and the Birkenhead area although both in Cheshire are some distance apart. Birkenhead is just over the river from Liverpool and it was quite common for people to live there but work over the other side. My grandad lived in Wallasey but worked at edge Hill Liverpool.

Have you tried something like the Times online site to see if there is any mention there?

Also try the National Archives site to see if Julio gets a mention there.

[jackieb]

Thank you, Hilary.

I haven't tried The Times. The cutting I saw was (or so I was told) from Liverpool newspaper - and it was a shortish column, not a front page headline. I have been on the National Newspaper archive, but despite entering all variations on names and spellings, nothing is coming up. I'll give it another go though - nothing ventured....!

I don't think Julio was illegitimate. The info I have from Aunt rose was that he was born in 1880 at sea (there is a record of a male called de Castro born at sea in 1880) and his family came from Cedofeita, Porto, Portugal. I have found a record of a Julio de Castro born 24/03/1880 and baptised at the church there Sao Martinho on 01/08/1880- and on that record, there is a mother and father. BUT - although the link is for a match for Julio de Castro, the father's name is given as Manual Pereira D'Oliviera De Castro - but then again, I imagine Julius de Castro probably sounded simpler and easier in London in the early 20th century than Julio D'Oliviera de Castro! There is also a record held that he studied European languages at the University in Porto (Oporto). I suppose it is possible that his father (at the Baptism) was not his real father......and if Julio/Julius knew that, he might not give a name.

Jackie

[Alison C]

Hi Jackie,

On the 1901 census, Leopold is married to Florence Ethel Self b 1859, in Florence Italy. That explains why my Auntie Rose used to tell me that her mum sometimes used the surname Self-Pearson. I didn’t get that at all – but now I do! They married in London in 1889. It seems to me that they married v young – she was only 19 and he (if the Parish records are correct) was just 17 – maybe she was pregnant – or was it common to marry that young?
They had six children: Charles FM b. 1878, Louisa C b. 1880, Annie R b. 1882, Leopold J b. 1891, Florence Ethel R b. 1892 and Mary A b. 1894. Charles Francis Montague and Annie Rose were witnesses at the wedding – which would make sense since at RC weddings, the best man and chief bridesmaid usually sign the register.

As Florence and Leopold married in 1889, that would make her aged 30 at the time of the marriage. It would also mean that Charles FM, Louisa and Annie R were born before the marriage. On FreeBMD, they are registered under the surname of Self....not surprising as Leopold and Florence were not married

Births Jun 1878 (>99%)
SELF Charles Francis M Chelsea 1a 335

Births Sep 1879 (>99%)
Self Louisa Charlotte Chelsea 1a 368

Births Jun 1881 (>99%)
SELF Annie Chelsea 1a 364

However.....there are also baptisms on Ancestry giving their father as Charles William Self and their mother as Florence Helena Elizabeth Self. Charles William and Florence Helena Elizabeth Wenham were married Q2 1877 in Kensington. There is also a death for Charles William Self in 1883. Florence Helena Elizabeth McDonald Wenham was born Q4 1855 in Kensington.

So it looks like Leopold may have been Florence's second husband. But this then begs the questions:
- Why did Florence change her middle names from Helena Elizabeth to Ethel Rose?
- Why did she say she was born in Florence, Italy?

Maybe I've gone completely off track and it's 2 different Florences but the children's names seem too much of a coincidence. I'm puzzled!!

Alison

[jackieb]

I don't think I have ever been so confused! I thought the de Castro side of the family was the big mystery - but the whole lot of them seem to be at it!

Will have another good look at this at the weekend!

Thanks

Jackie

[jackieb]

JOAN de Castro

I received Joan’s certificates today.

Birth - She was born 5th January 1915 at 40 Wright Street. Reg district: Birkenhead, Sub-district: Wallasey, County of Wallasey. Her full name is Joan Gwendoline de Castro. Mother is Louise Charlotte de Castro, formerly Pierson. - she registered the birth. Father is Julius de Castro, Foreign Correspondent.

Death - Joan died aged 6 years old on 13th March 1921 - in St Mary’s Orphanage, Walthamstow. Under occupation is says: Daughter of Julius de Castro a Commercial Clerk deceased. Cause of death is - Convulsion incipient Double pneumonia. Could this illness be related to her father’s death from syphilis in 1916? Wouldn't she have died before this time if she'd caught it? Certificate issued by A Ambrose, Essex Coroner. Inquest held 16th March 1921.

So I imagine, at some stage, Louise Charlotte headed back from Birkenhead to Essex. Her Mum and husband died in 1916. The first we hear of her again is as a visitor to two of her sons - because as we know, Clarence and Sidney were in The Orphan Working School and Alexandra Orphanage, Maitland Park, in 1921 - as confirmed by the visiting card. I was told that Uncle Dick (Julius jnr) went to a school in Manchester - and I have no idea what happened to Uncle Charlie until I met him in his later adult life living in Fulham. Wonder why they were not put with the other two boys? I was always told that the girls remained at home with their mother - but Joan's tale suggests otherwise.

The plot thickens!

I have found info about the Orphanage here –
http://www.walthamstowmemories.net/pdfs ... hanage.pdf

Jackie

[annron]

Wow Jackie, I love this story, can't wait for the next episode.

[Blue70]

I noticed there was a lot in the news about Portugal's neutrality and then entry into WW1 on the side of the allies in 1916. Portugal had friendly relations with England/UK going back to the middle ages. Even though Portugal was supposed to be neutral they showed favour towards the allies and angered the Germans.

Blue

[MaryA]

Little by little you are gathering the information, I too am enjoying the tale.

Sorry don't know the answer to the query about the cause of death, I suspect it might take a doctor to give an opinion like that.