The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.2 | September 2022

Member’s article

My Grandfather was a Bigamist

I spent nearly 40 years trying to find the whereabouts of my paternal grandfather and it wasn’t until 2017 I discovered he was a bigamist. Henry Norton Wheeler GILMOUR was born on 17th June 1887 in Winchester. He was the first born to Frank and Mary Ann Gilmour. Frank was a successful printer and book binder in Winchester running the business set up by his father. I’m not sure how he met my grandmother but she was a domestic servant and clearly a status or two below the Gilmour family. When she became pregnant, Henry was kicked out of the family business and became a merchant seaman, based in Southampton. My grandmother always referred to herself as an “April Fool” bride as she married Henry on 1st April 1907. Harry Douglas, their first child was born on 13th August 1907, followed on 21st November 1909 by Charles Frank and 26th August 1913 by Arthur William. Returning home after one of his seafaring trips in1920, my grandmother announced that she was pregnant again. Henry told her not to worry as he was setting up home in the USA. This was the last time my grandmother saw Henry as it was suspected he jumped ship in America, never to be seen or heard of again. When I became interested in family history, some 45 years ago, I tried to trace Henry but had no luck until Ancestry opened the American records for free one week-end. I started trawling and there he was. No attempt to hide his identity, Henry Norton Wheeler Gilmour, born in Winchester on 17th June 1887. He had lodged a petition for Naturalization as an American Citizen. On the application form he stated that he was

Edith and Henry

living in Jackson Heights in New York and that he had served for 3 or more years on an American registered vessel and that his last place of residence was Liverpool England. He had emigrated from Southampton, England on the vessel Mongolia and arrived in New York on March 14th, 1921. His application was dated May 28th, 1937, some 16 years after his arrival in America. While serving in the American merchant navy he met Dorothy L EWING . Dorothy was a nurse on board the ship Henry was serving on and a romance blossomed. He had married Dorothy on October 15th, 1935, in Manhattan

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