• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Gedge

Ruud

Brummie babby
I am doing resaerch on 45 fallen airmen from WWII that lie buried near my hometown in the Netherlands. One of them is Sergeant Edward Gedge of Erdington, Birmingham. He was the son of Edward and Dora and husband to Dorothy. He worked as a chartered accountant. His plane did not return on 20-02-1944. I am looking for possible relatives. Can someone help me.
 

Attachments

  • GEDGE-MEMORIAL.jpeg
    GEDGE-MEMORIAL.jpeg
    54.8 KB · Views: 9
  • JB609 GEDGE - DOROTHY HOWDLE GEDGE.jpg
    JB609 GEDGE - DOROTHY HOWDLE GEDGE.jpg
    11.6 KB · Views: 12
I think we established previously that he had one brother who didn't have children so any relatives would be descendants of his cousins.


His father appears to have had 3 brothers. One appears to have died young but the other 2 (Charles & Henry) married and had children, 5 between them I think (Charles, Ethel & Winifred) & (Elsie & Doris). They all seem to have remained in the Sussex area.

His mother appears to have had one brother, George William who married and had one son (Edward William Henry) who possibly had one daughter.
 
Last edited:
Ruud,

Edward appears to have had an older brother, George August GEDGE born in 1908, but does not appear to have had any children from either of his two marriages to Enese R. SLAUGHTER in 1936 at Hove or to Grace LAU in 1980 at Brighton. There were no other children of Edward & Dora GEDGE née PETERS.

Neither can I find a second marriage for Dorothy Howdle GEDGE or her death up to 2008. However, there is a Dorothy GEDGE, Secretary, with a Birmingham address sailing to New York from Southampton on 15 June 1948 with a final destination given simply as Canada. See the attached passenger manifest. So from hereon things may get a little more difficult.

Maurice :cool:
 

Attachments

  • TNA_BT27_1628_00_0047_P_0037F.jpg
    TNA_BT27_1628_00_0047_P_0037F.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 4
MWS, We seem to differ re: my first paragraph though not the second!

EDIT: Not differ as you are going down the cousin route I think

Maurice :cool:
 
I can find no trace of Dorothy's death in England & Wales and I've now checked right up until last year when she would have beed 106 years old! We have no reason to suggest that she would have died in Scotland or Northern Ireland, so it is most likely she died in North America, possibly Canada.

Following on from MWS's line on cousins, I've looked at descendants of the youngest of the three brothers, Henry, who was born in 1881. Henry married Mabel KINGSLAND in 1903 and they had two daughters, Elsie in 1907 and Doris M. in 1911. Elsie GEDGE married Charles H. MARTIN in 1930 and they had one son, John H MARTIN, who appears to have married twice and in each case all the offspring were daughters leading to marriages that resulted in yet more changes of surname.

Doris GEDGE married Charles G. JOHNSON in 1944 and they had one son, Steven G.F. JOHNSON born in 1951 at Brighton. Unfortunately the current Electoral Rolls show six Steven JOHNSONs living in Brighton, but not a Steven G.F. JOHNSON. Of course he could have left the district, or could have omitted to include his other initials, or could have merely ticked the privacy box on the Electoral Registration form making himself untraceable online at least.

So even if you find a relation, it's likely to be a fairly distant one, who may never have heard of the airman, if you manage to trace an address. For instance, in England & Wales between 2002 & 2020 there were over 880 Steven JOHNSONs listed, and there may be be quite a few others who aren't shown because they ticked the privacy box.

Tracing the death of Dorothy has to be done by province in Canada and the further west you go, the more stringent the privacy becomes. So by the time you get to Alberta it is easier to obtain the military secrets of North Korea! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
  • Appreciate
Reactions: MWS
Dorothy remarried in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1951. I have not traced her death.
 

Attachments

  • Dorothy 1951 remarried.jpg
    Dorothy 1951 remarried.jpg
    732.3 KB · Views: 4
Last edited:
Thank you for this.
Can we email?
[email protected]
Thank you for post on the forum. We strongly advise members not to post their personal email addresses on the thread. Your email address and data could be harvested and used for scams, fraud, and identity theft. If you wish other members to contact you, then its best if you advise them to use the “Start Conversation” facility we provide. This then protects you and your privacy.
 
Back
Top