Hello Family History UK Form
Ruth Thrasher later known as Ruth Jezard/Ruby Jezard is described with her family in this post.
https://forum.familyhistory.uk.com/...name-changing-after-births.32202/#post-241863
Jessie Almer sailed to America in 1897 (need to look up Ruth Jezard & Jessie Almer is found just above Ruth on the UK outward bound passenger list travelling with a group of theatricals to America with their manager Charles Hedersley).
UK Outward Bound Passenger List
Name: Miss Ruth Jezard
Birth Date: abt 1876
Departure Date: 7 Aug 1897
Port of Departure: Southampton, England
Destination Port: New York, USA
Ship Name: Paris
This makes sense as according to the programme Jessie Almer left her daughter Beatrice at Nazareth House on 29 July 1897.
http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/F...ad.php?t=14969
Samantha Womack visited Nazareth House and was shown the Children's Admission Register which showed that Beatrice's parents were Peter Garraud and Jessie Ryder (Jessie Almer) and that she was received on the 29th July 1897 and taken away by her grandparents in May 1902.
This also makes sense as Jessie Almer is reported in the New York Times on 15 August 1897.
"Cynthia Harris, manager of the New Jersey Room, had done research on Samantha Womack’s great-grandmother prior to the video shoot. In an August 15, 1897 article in the Theater section of The New York Times, reference was made to her great-grandmother, by maiden name, “Miss Jessie Almer has been over to America before, as the clown in Barnum’s Circus, and by right of larger experience, she was much respected by the other members of the group. They met at the pier, however, by a representative of the Academy of Music, who took care that none of them should stray away. Once he lost his count.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...(New_York_City)
Travelling with Jessie Almer and Ruth Jezard was their manager Charles Hedersley and they are cast for performing as The Coryphees in 'Nature' at the Academy Of Music an extremely lavish production that bankrupted the financier Benjamin Cohen of Coney Island and owner of the Albemarle Hotel and sent the stage producer William E De Verna to an early grave
https://newspaperarchive.com/new-yor...g-15-1897-p-8/
New York Times
15 August 1897
American Musical Theater: A Chronicle
By Gerald Bordman
Page 174 describes Nature
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...20york&f=false
Benjamin Cohen the promoter of Nature lost $50,000 - $1.5 million in today’s money and by 1899 he was bankrupt
http://www.in2013dollars.com/1897-do...7?amount=50000
However, the cast are paid in full
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030...7,0.185,0.16,0
A History Of The New York Stage
Page 13 William E De Verna and James Schonberg produced the show Nature
William spent years trying to bring Nature to the stage and tragically died a few days before the first performance, although he had seen the cast practising
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digi...864656_002.pdf
William E De Verna produced Nature and Benjamin Cohen helped finance
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/tim.../101107950.pdf
Advert & article about Nature
Image 7 of New York journal and advertiser (New York [N.Y.]), August 27, 1897
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030...,0.373,0.321,0
Benjamin Cohen owned the Albemarle Hotel
https://www.heartofconeyisland.com/w...d-history.html
Barnum's circus came to England in 1897 and Ruth’s family lived in Earl’s Court near Olympia at that time, did Ruth perform with Jessie Almer in the circus, the circus had various water based entertainments that Ruth performed in 1917 as a Diving Belle
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail...hoto/498836617
"Most outstanding of the foreign tours was the five-year stay of the Barnum & Bailey Circus in European countries from the fall of 1897 through the 1902 season. The circus was transported to England at the close of the tenting season in America in 1897 and played an indoor winter engagement at the Olympia in London.
Ruth Thrasher later known as Ruth Jezard/Ruby Jezard is described with her family in this post.
https://forum.familyhistory.uk.com/...name-changing-after-births.32202/#post-241863
Jessie Almer sailed to America in 1897 (need to look up Ruth Jezard & Jessie Almer is found just above Ruth on the UK outward bound passenger list travelling with a group of theatricals to America with their manager Charles Hedersley).
UK Outward Bound Passenger List
Name: Miss Ruth Jezard
Birth Date: abt 1876
Departure Date: 7 Aug 1897
Port of Departure: Southampton, England
Destination Port: New York, USA
Ship Name: Paris
This makes sense as according to the programme Jessie Almer left her daughter Beatrice at Nazareth House on 29 July 1897.
http://www.genealogistsforum.co.uk/F...ad.php?t=14969
Samantha Womack visited Nazareth House and was shown the Children's Admission Register which showed that Beatrice's parents were Peter Garraud and Jessie Ryder (Jessie Almer) and that she was received on the 29th July 1897 and taken away by her grandparents in May 1902.
This also makes sense as Jessie Almer is reported in the New York Times on 15 August 1897.
"Cynthia Harris, manager of the New Jersey Room, had done research on Samantha Womack’s great-grandmother prior to the video shoot. In an August 15, 1897 article in the Theater section of The New York Times, reference was made to her great-grandmother, by maiden name, “Miss Jessie Almer has been over to America before, as the clown in Barnum’s Circus, and by right of larger experience, she was much respected by the other members of the group. They met at the pier, however, by a representative of the Academy of Music, who took care that none of them should stray away. Once he lost his count.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...(New_York_City)
Travelling with Jessie Almer and Ruth Jezard was their manager Charles Hedersley and they are cast for performing as The Coryphees in 'Nature' at the Academy Of Music an extremely lavish production that bankrupted the financier Benjamin Cohen of Coney Island and owner of the Albemarle Hotel and sent the stage producer William E De Verna to an early grave
https://newspaperarchive.com/new-yor...g-15-1897-p-8/
New York Times
15 August 1897
American Musical Theater: A Chronicle
By Gerald Bordman
Page 174 describes Nature
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...20york&f=false
Benjamin Cohen the promoter of Nature lost $50,000 - $1.5 million in today’s money and by 1899 he was bankrupt
http://www.in2013dollars.com/1897-do...7?amount=50000
However, the cast are paid in full
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030...7,0.185,0.16,0
A History Of The New York Stage
Page 13 William E De Verna and James Schonberg produced the show Nature
William spent years trying to bring Nature to the stage and tragically died a few days before the first performance, although he had seen the cast practising
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digi...864656_002.pdf
William E De Verna produced Nature and Benjamin Cohen helped finance
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/tim.../101107950.pdf
Advert & article about Nature
Image 7 of New York journal and advertiser (New York [N.Y.]), August 27, 1897
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030...,0.373,0.321,0
Benjamin Cohen owned the Albemarle Hotel
https://www.heartofconeyisland.com/w...d-history.html
Barnum's circus came to England in 1897 and Ruth’s family lived in Earl’s Court near Olympia at that time, did Ruth perform with Jessie Almer in the circus, the circus had various water based entertainments that Ruth performed in 1917 as a Diving Belle
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail...hoto/498836617
"Most outstanding of the foreign tours was the five-year stay of the Barnum & Bailey Circus in European countries from the fall of 1897 through the 1902 season. The circus was transported to England at the close of the tenting season in America in 1897 and played an indoor winter engagement at the Olympia in London.
Last edited:
