On the Trail

My great-great-grandfather, Ardeshir Kapadia, moved from Mumbai to London, some time before 1886, to study and practice law. I will post more information about him another time. He married Zoe Hanrott, and they had four sons and a daughter. Recent communication from a relative informed me of a story concerning one of those sons, who was believed to have traveled to India to find relatives, and was never heard from again...

However, I only heard of this story after the research I post here into the trail of Kenneth Peston Kapadia. Of the five children, he was the one I had heard least about. From English records, I had only his Birth Index entry Mar1887 Cranbrook 2a 761, and a marriage Mar1915 Lambeth 1d 547 to Hattie M Maxfield, and his appearance on the 1891 English Census return for the household of Ardeshir Kapadia. At this point I signed up for an account with ancestry.com.

An initial search revealed the following records. The 1906 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta lists Kenneth Kapadiah, born in England c1887, working as a hired man in Souris, Manitoba for the Johnson family. He had arrived in Canada that year. Another Canadian reference had a War Office citation for K Kapadia dated 7th August 1917. He is shown demobilizing as a military passenger on the S.S. Melita in March 1919, along with his wife Hattie. 

And then curiously a US Naturalization Certificate for Kap Kenneth, formerly Kenneth Kapadia, dated 9 Jun 1944. The California Death Index records that Kap Kenneth (born 12 December 1886) died in Los Angeles 25 September 1960.

Further searching for Kap Kenneth, born in England c1887 threw up 1930 and 1940 US Census returns from Los Angeles, California. Kap Kenneth, born in England c1887, arrived in the USA 1923 was living with wife Hattie (indeed Hattie M in the 1940 return) and a stepson Hartland (1930) or Hartmand (1940), and working as a building contractor on his own account in each case. Hartland was presumably Hattie's son, since they are both listed as born in Minnesota. Interestingly, in 1930 he had stated that both father and mother were born in England, when, of course, Ardeshir had been born in India.

How many Kenneth Kapadias could there be? Assuming, of course that Mr. Johnson did not know how to spell the name of his hired hand. And assuming that Kap Kenneth was concealing his father's true origins. Then, looking at only Canadian records, I came upon a 1921 marriage in Winnipeg, Manitoba between Kenneth Kapadia and Harriet Wickert. Now, Harriet can be the same as Hattie, but then perhaps there were two Kenneth Kapadias after all. So, I searched for a Hartland Wickert.

The 1910 US Census has Hartland Wichert, son of Oscar R and Hattie M in Minnesota. In 1920 he is living with his father Oscar, who has remarried Hazel. Further research revealed the marriage on 19 September 1905 in St. Paul, Minnesota of Oscar R Wichert and Harriet M Maxfield.

Conclusions

Harriet Maxfield, then, married Oscar Wichert. They had a son in 1907 and, not long after, divorced. Oscar went on to remarry; Hartland stayed with his father. Kenneth Kapadia arrived in Canada 1906. At some point he joined the military and met Hattie. They married in England in 1915. He demobilized in 1919, and the couple returned to Canada. They registered their marriage in Winnipeg in 1921, and moved to California in 1923. At some point Hartland came to live with them. By this time Kenneth Kapadia was known as Kap Kenneth. The couple lived out their days as US citizens in California.

So far, all the records from 1915 onward are certainly for the same person. The Kapadia-Maxfield-Wichert connection is clear enough, as is the Kapadia to Kenneth name change. Also, the War Office citation records the same service number as the demobilizing Kenneth Kapadia with Hattie on board the S.S. Melita.

Name, year and country of birth link all this to the hired hand of 1906 and the infant of the 1887 Birth Index. To confirm this latter would require the 1887 birth certificate with his date of birth, or 1915 marriage certificate with his father's name. The latter perhaps would be the better identifier, and would also contain the name of Hattie's father. At this point I am content to rest on the assumption of a single Kenneth Kapadia(h) born in England around 1886/7.

It would certainly seem that the "missing Kapadia son" of the family story was Kenneth. Did he ever get to India? Or, more likely, did he make straight for Canada? And why did he so completely sever relations with his family? A story unlikely to emerge unless there are some preserved family correspondence.