Alice Mary Rice

  Noted events in her life were:

• source. Trish Forrest who writes:
Mum (died: 2006) was born under the name Rice, as no father was listed of birth cert. But Sam was not her birth father. Elsie left the Tindall's (NSW) when she fell pregnant at 15, had mum at 16 (guess) and she married Sam, when she was 20 he was 29.

• note. ³¹³ Alan Craxford notes:
I was given the link to your tree by a user of the same genealogy software as me who lives in Australia. I have also sent a similar message to Trish Forrest through Ancestry although I haven't as yet received a reply.

Over the last few months with three other researchers I have following a family from Northamptonshire who moved to Leicester. It has, to say the least, been a rather tragic saga and has been full of twists and turns and blind alleys along the way. One of those researchers mentioned a recent DNA test which showed links between her line and the Forrest family - particularly through Alice Mary Rice, born in 1930. The putative father is one of the family of our study. Trish Forrest has updated her Ancestry tree accordingly.

I have seen the entry for Alice Mary Rice on your website with Trish being the source of that information. I assume that the result of the DNA test came after that entry was made. I am in no way disputing the DNA test - and indeed looking at the longer previous history of this family, illegitimacy was very widespread. The putative father has been named as both Frank Henry Tansley and Frank Henry Johnstone but we have considerable gaps in his history.

Firstly, do you have a date of birth for Alice Mary Rice - your page merely says 1930. Also says that her mother Mabel Elsie Rice was 15 when she became pregnant. If we assume that conception occurred in 1929, Frank would have been 18 years old then. What was he doing in Brisbane? He was born in Leicestershire which is not particularly known for boys running away to sea. Who would have employed him - and what would have been his function? Would he have needed training before he went? Presumably it would have been a merchant vessel rather than a cruise liner or the Royal Navy. We have not found any records to explain this over here and I wondered whether there might be sources in Australia to help. Add to that his own father died at the age of 34 years in October 1927.

It has been said that Frank didn't know of the pregnancy. Maybe not if it had been a quickie dockside encounter and then his boat sailed again. However, is it just a coincidence that the baby was given the same two names as his mother's older sister? Frank did marry in England in 1939 but his own marriage faltered "for some reason".

We now have the narrative of this family's saga complete apart from these one or two gaps

• connection. Trish Forrest 's connection to me is as follows:

Patris (Trish) Forrest
Her father is Matthew Forrest (1919) who married Alice Rice (1930)
Her mother was Mabel Rice (1914) who also married Samuel Skeets (1905)
Her father was Thomas Rice (1880)
His father was William Rice (1844) & he also had Leslie Rice (1885)
He had Hazel Rice (1913) who married Emmett Whyte (1899)
They had Sandra Whyte (1943) who married Colin Parker (1936)
His father was Arthur Parker (1894)
His father was William Parker (1868) who married Martha Butler (1872)
Her father was Joseph Butler (1844) who married Elizabeth Roser (1844)
Her father was John Roser (1812) & he also had John Roser (1838)
He had George Roser (1868)
He had Charles Roser (1897)
He had George Roser (1923) who married Olive Elliot (1924)
Her father was Frank Elliot (1891) who married Doris Emery (1903)
Her father was Jack Emery (1867) who married Phoebe Davies (1876)
Her father was Joseph Davies (1852) & he also had G. A. Davies (1894)
He had Colin Davies (1925)
He had me - Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

Alice married Matthew Percival Forrest, son of Eugene Malachy Forrest and Lillie Frances Stephenson, on 14 Feb 1956 in Charleville, Queensland Australia. (Matthew Percival Forrest was born on 10 Jul 1919 in Charleville, Queensland Australia and died in 1998 in Gladstone, Central Queensland Australia.)

Alice next married Terence George Ganzer, son of Terence Joseph Ganzer and Evelyn Violet Walton, before 1956. (Terence George Ganzer was born in 1929 in Adavale, Queensland Australia and died on 8 Jan 1960 in Brisbane, Queensland Australia.)