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Levina Macro Janeck

 

Alice ( 1756 or 0084 ? ) was present at the death of Levina at her home in Tonteg, Wales .
 Levina died of T.B. and so her kids Constance, Kathleen and Frederick Janeck were taken to the workhouse . I still have been unable to discover why no family member took the children in, apart from being told that the marriage of Charles Bertram and Levina was not well accepted in the family (I have taken this to be Janeck family.We must bear in mind that the Macros were very poor and a journey to Wales would probably have been out of the question ,due to distance & expense.)

Alice was housekeeper to a Dr. in Cardiff and so was not far away from her sister. Perhaps that is why Levina went to Tonteg, having found a job also as housekeeper . It must have been a desperate situation for her to have left Norfolk with 3 small children- and only 11/6d per week army pension!

Alice's birth date is uncertain; I believe she was unmarried and returned to Norfolk to live in Fakenham, possibly with brother George (a former policeman and soldier-I have a copy of his police record ).I went with my father ( Frederick Janeck ) to her bungalow in the 70s' to see if we could find her, only to be told by a neighbour that she had unfortunately died 2 yrs previously. We were so disappointed as I should have loved to have met her and she could have shed so much light on the Macros'. My father had been reluctant to visit family earlier, presumably still distressing for him.

Levina's cousin, Frederick Ellender ( 1759 ) (nephew of her mother Keziah) later took Constance, Kathleen and Frederick to live with his family in Pretoria Rd, Romford, Essex. He and wife Ada (I believe she was Levina's sister & so 1st cousin to Frederick Ellender) had 5 children of their own ( my father said it was only for the war pension that they took them in! ) so it could not have been easy. Apparently Ada was a tyrant, but Frederick was alright. Hard to understand why Ada was unkind to her sister's children.

Constance and Kathleen went into "service"-pity as they were both so talented. Frederick was able to acquire a place for Dad -Frederick-at The Duke of York's Military School, Dover, on compassionate grounds as his father, Charles Bertram ,had been killed at Ypres in 1915. 
 This was a great opportunity for Dad and I think Frederick Ellender must have been a good man. I have copies of all the correspondence between The Norfolk Regt. ,the Duke of York's, local authorities and Frederick Ellender. Also all Dad's papers from the school, somewhat sad. The head master at the Duke of York's was most helpful and invited me to visit them.

 

 Notes originally by :  Freda Janeck-Weidmann