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Constance 's original Birth Certificate - issued five weeks after her birth and signed by a Mr. Austen, no relation but the cause of a minor confusion over the family name. The place of issue appears to be Beckham.
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Constance Hilda Austing ? Unconfirmed.
- an undated photo (full photo above, detail on the left)
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Constance Hilda Austing
- an undated photo (full photo above, detail on the right)
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On Christmas Eve 1903, Constance gave birth to a son, Edward, my father. Constance was unmarried and the story of the father was hushed up in the family, not too unusual for that time.
In 1905, Emily Winifred, known as Winnie, Constance's sister, had given birth to a baby girl which was named Regina. Winnie died shortly afterwards. Her husband, Frank Moore, and Constance decided to get married but due to the Law of Affinity, he was not allowed to marry his widow's sister and therefore they married in Belgium using Frank's middle name, William, as surname.
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This is Frank with his new wife, my grandmother, Constance. The girl is Regina, aged two, and the daughter of Franks first wife, Emily Winnifred, sister of Constance and Florence. The three-year old boy is Edward, my father. Frank went on to have three more children with Constance; Rex (Reginald), Cissie (Cecelia) and Victor who died whilst still a baby. Following the death of Constance, Frank had one more child, "Queenie' (Victoria), with his third wife, Alice. Alice already had one child, Theodora, known as May. You see where the confusion begins to arise.
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Frank was a wanderer and his subsequent children with Constance were Rex (Reginald), born in Hastings, 1910, Cissie (Cecelia), born in Dover in 1912 and Victor born in Southsea in 1913.
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This family group photo is scanned from a very poor original which is clearly a poor copy of an original print.
According to my father, it was taken at Dover in 1912. Cissie is the babe in arms, Rex in the sailor suit, my father on the left and Regina on the right.
Constance died in 1913 giving birth to Victor who did not survive her for many months.
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