Henry, William and Constance

Assuming a gap of two years after his brother Robert, Henry would have been born in 1816. He first appears in the Bengal Almanac of 1840 listed in two places, once as H and elsewhere as F.H. - possibly Frederick Henry - working as a 3rd Assistant, Import Department, Custom House. His address is given as Psyches's Lane, the same as his brothers Lewis and Robert. He appears again on and off until 1845, when he is listed as a the "Collector's Office Record Keeper, Assistant to the Collector and Registrar of Shipping" at the Calcutta Custom House. He has not been found in any subsequent directories consulted. According to Reginald (the author of the 1940s family tree) Henry had a son, Frederick, who was a Customs officer, and three daughters, Annie, Olive and Theodora, but he does not trace the line any further.

Olive, or Olivia Adeline to give her full name, married Mr Alfred Bully in 1880. [*]

It appears that Frederick's full name was Frederick Conrad, born in 1841 or 1842, although the proliferation of Fredericks in the family gives rise to considerable confusion since most records only provide initials rather than full names. What is more confusing is that Frederick Conrad's wife Anna appears to vary her name in documents, changing to (Amelia) Helen, Hellen and then back to Anna, whilst Frederick Conrad uses Frederick, Frederick C., or Conrad, depending on how the mood takes him. The following biography is therefore speculative and subject to correction.

Frederick appears in the New Calcutta Directory of 1858, as an extra Custom's Preventive Officer, resident at 10 Chandney Choke (the same address as his uncle Robert). He reappears in an 1860 directory as F.C. Deefholts, extra Customs preventive officer. By 1875 he had moved to 22 Chandney Chowk (off Emambaug Lane), adjacent to "shops and natives" at nos. 23-25 and just down the road from a "Ganja Shop" at no.38. At some stage he moved to Entally, where he occupies various addresses including North Road and South Road, and continues to appear in various directories consulted up to 1900, by which time he had retired. [1]

The burial certificate of a Joseph Deefholts is recorded in the Ecclesiastical Returns, born on 12th January 1886 and died of fever eight days later, "the infant son of Conrad Deefholts and Anna his wife". Mary Florence (daughter of Frederick C. and Helen E.) was born in 1887 or 1888. In 1890 the birth is recorded of Frederick Conrad, born on 25th January, the son of Frederic [sic] Deefholts, whose profession is registered as a Preventive Officer, and Anna. Percival St Clair, the son of Frederick and Hellen Deefholts, was born in 1892, followed by twins Emilius[?] Richmond and Helena Adeline, to Frederick and Helen Deefholts, of 75/1 South Road, Entally, in 1897 (in the same year the same address is attributed to F.C. Deefholts, Inspector, Preventive Service, so it must be the same Frederick). Amelia Helen died in 1899 of septicemia, at the age of 43. Frederick Conrad (senior) died in 1924 at the age of 82 of "senile decay". [2]

Frederick Conrad (junior) married in 1913 and had five sons. They lived in the Lower Circular Road, Calcutta. At the time of the birth of his third son, Foster, he was working as an assistant at a Gramophone company. A neighbour, Mona Kranenburg, who used to live in the flat above, remembered them all as a very musical family, playing the piano and the guitar among other instruments. She also recalled the enormous turtles (Mona spread her arms to suggest a beast three feet long!) which she said used to roam freely around the flat.

Henry, born 1913, came over from Calcutta to the UK in 1958 and lived in Swansea for 20 years before moving to London. He had at least one child, Dillon; Dillon had at least one child, Michelle.

Denzil emigrated to Canada, where he had a son, Edward and a daughter, June. Edward married Pamela Whyte and they had two daughters, Susan and Lindsay; they live in Ontario. June married her second cousin, Winston. They have a son, David, who lives in Winnipeg. Denzil died on 14May1997.

Foster Archibald (b. 1916) married Enid Claire Michael in 1940, working at the time as a foreman at Jessop & Co in Dum Dum. He was also employed by the Royal Calcutta Turf club on a part time basis during the racing season. During his time in India he played Spanish guitar for Garney Nyss and his Aloha Boys [3] and double bass for Angie D'Souza (at the Marine Club) and Lance O'Neill (at the Calcutta Swimming Club). Foster and Enid had 6 children. Their first daughter, Carol Ann, was born in 1941, followed by Norma Dorothy in 1943, Winston Conrad in 1944, Frederick Archibald in 1945, Derek in 1947 and Bruce in 1953. He was one of the last of his siblings to leave India, migrating to Australia in August 1971, where he lived for 30 years until the age of 85.

Mervyn Allen, Frederick Conrad's fourth son, died at the age of 5 of Kala Azar, a tropical disease caused by the bite of certain types of sandfly.

Leo, the fifth brother, was born in 1923, and came to England in 1961 when his father died.

William, Frederick's Fifth Son, and Constance, his Daughter

Reginald does not record William's profession but notes that he had no issue. There is no record of him anywhere else, and possibly Reginald was referring in error to Richard’s son William L. Deefholts.

As noted earlier, Reginald's tree shows that Constance Deefholts, Frederick's sixth child, married a Mr D'Souza, and had a daughter who married Mr Edmond Deefholts. The directories record an Edmund Alfred, a customs officer, and his wife Caroline Rose, but whether or not she was Caroline Rose née D'Souza it has not been possible to ascertain. Edmond Alfred and Caroline Rose had various children and grand-children but no living descendants have been traced. Constance is not recorded in the directories, since only adult men were listed.

Notes

History: Index