This is the end, beautiful friend (The Doors)

A sign that hung in WNP's office at Reimers' Ave.
Seems to have resonated with him. 

Wie geht's?

The more I look into my great grandmother's story, the weirder the story gets, but the more real she becomes, and the more I like her.

First some further corrections and further information:

Her 1900 and 1930 marriage certificates both have her maiden name as Emma Meakin (a correction - it is not Meachen as Tom Purdy spelled it in his genealogy which is what I went by previously). 

In 1900 she was a cotton weaver. Her father was James Meakin, a master painter, and her mother was Mary Ann Lett.

In 1900 she was listed as 18 (born 1882), but 30 years later in 1930 her age is listed as 46. That would mean she was either 18 or 16 when she married William Purdy (my great grandfather) in 1900 or else 48 or 46 in 1930. How can birthdates be so fluid? I'm going by the 1900 date and figuring she undersold the 1930 version of herself or else it was a clerical error.

In 1929, it was only Emma who attended the divorce hearing (William was a no show). William was ordered to pay costs and Emma waved the right to alimony or maintenance. I guess because William had custody of the boys. My colleague, Susan,  tells me that this was not unusual for the times. In fact in Victorian England fathers were given custody in the majority of cases. Anyway, there is nothing in the documents I have that mentions custody.

In a sworn statement Emma says that she was abandoned 'without just cause'. She also says she is 'domiciled in New Zealand and resides in Auckland' in 1929 (but she had bought the Mereweather property in NSW in 1927).

Florence and Will. We two.

In 1930 Emma's new husband was 10 years (or 12 years) older than her, but Florence Charlotte Northington (William's new wife) was 22 years younger than him!

William (a 'plasterer') is listed as age 49 on the marriage certificate, she is 27. She is from London, and divorced. 

Florence and William

Interestingly, the marriage certificate has her maiden surname as both Northington and Worthington. Clerical error, I'm picking.

Weirdly, William is listed in 1929 as residing in Auckland, but in 1930 he is living in Turramrra, NSW.

Now to the speculation:

Something seriously went down in 1908 (Emma mentions that the abandonment started three years before 1911). They had only just landed in New Zealand in 1907 - 1908 (Edward was about 1 years old, Harry - my grandad was 4).

Irene Purdy's suggestion was that Emma was a Kleptomanic,  but would that result in an abandonment without just case? Probably not. 

Same goes for an affair by either party. An affair would certainly qualify as just cause, right? 

Maybe this wasn't even Emma's fault. Maybe William had already met Florence Northington and abandoned Emma as a precursor to hooking up with the much younger Florence (born in 1903, like Harry).

Emma's handwritten note in 1929

I find myself leaning more and more towards Emma. She comes across as quite a tough person, very resilient, confident, resourceful (buying a house in her twenties), quite independent, and frugal certainly (mum and dad witnessed that at first hand when they visited, staying one night only, with her and Rube in Mereweather). 

I like her, a lot!

She also looks lovely! In an era when people didn't smile in photos - she does!

For that matter, so does Florence. I presume that is her in the photo captioned 'we two' above - in her handwriting. She was obviously around for quite a few years but there are no pictures in my collection of her with Harry and Edward (a.k.a Eddie and Ted later in life).

No Florence. Just Harry, WNP, Edward

You can certainly see Emma in that photo of Harry and Eddie (Eddie's smile is very similar to hers). I have another when Eddie was a boy at Reimers' Ave - in front of those famous steps. A good looking kid! 

There are similar blind alleys in other family histories, I dare say. This is just one in mine. I wonder if there are others in either the Adsett line (my mother's maiden name) or grandma Purdy (the Curson line).

Probably. 

Love and rest in peace Emma - WNP