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GOULSTONE

Published by on Mon, 22/06/2020 - 15:39
Surname:GOULSTONE
Parish:Weston
Place/Region:SOM Somerset
Periodafter 1900
Notes:

Dolly (or Dollie) Rose Goulstone (1904-1993) was the adopted daughter of Walter and Amelia Goulstone of Weston. Apparently the Goulstones ran a restaurant called Goulstone's at 32 Regent Street in Weston.

Walter John Goulstone was born in 1861 in Bath and married Fanny Holtrom (1857–1920).in Bath.  After Fanny's death, in 1921 he married Amelia Ellen Dade Hill (1872–1937), whom he met through their membership of the Salvation Army. He died 6 May 1936 and is buried in Weston.

Dollie was an Armenian refugee from the Turkish genocide of her people. From her death certificate, her original name seems to have been Semaghoul (or Senaghoul) Marusajian. From the London Gazette, 5 Feb 1935, she received British citizenship on 19 January 1935.

I (as a small boy) knew Dolly Goulstone when my family went to Weston for summer and Christmas holidays in the 1950s. She was a long-term resident with my great-great aunts, Hannah and Aggie Ritchie, who ran a boarding house at Maycot, 12 Beaufort Road, Weston. (Please see my notes under Ritchie for more about them.) Dolly was totally blind. Although she wasn't related to me, I knew her as Auntie Dolly. I have her recorded as living later at 33 Milton Brow, Weston, although I don't remember meeting her there. She died in Plymouth at Pocklington Rise, George Lane, Plympton, Plymouth, apparently sheltered housing for those with sight loss.

My father knew Dolly from his visits when he first met my mother at Maycot and our family holidays. He told me what he can remember of her. He says she was blinded in a massacre of Armenians.

My father was called up in 1942, and after being at the liberation of Rome he was sent for mountain warfare training in Lebanon. He had some time off in Jerusalem and on Dolly's behalf he went by bus to Ramallah to see a friend of hers who was a fellow survivor of the incident. The friend is probably Miss S.A. Ketchijian  and she was running a school for blind children where both she and Dolly had been pupils.  

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Comments ..


Submitted by Pat Hase on Wed, 01/07/2020 - 22:49
What a fascinating story! - Is there any chance that her death certificate will show her original name?
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Submitted by daveerasmus on Thu, 02/07/2020 - 11:34
There are a number of trees on Ancestry. Most show Dollie's place of birth as Plymouth. 2 trees show it as Armenia but they are both Private so it is not possible to ascertain what other information is on them without contacting the tree owners.
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Submitted by on Sat, 04/07/2020 - 22:53
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm passing information on to Kathy Viney, nee Goulstone, in New Zealand, who is researching both her family history and the story of Armenian refugees who were adopted into families in England (she maintains pages on Wikitree). There are also mission society papers naming Dolly and her friend at the University of Birmingham, so I'm hoping to go and look at those when it becomes possible to do so.
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Submitted by gricharduk on Sun, 05/07/2020 - 9:57
I am sorry if this is a repeat of information but I was interested in finding out more on Dolly. Mary Jane Lovell’s home and school for twenty blind Palestinian and Armenian orphan girls was established on Windmill Hill in Jerusalem in a house named Barachah and Dolly was was one of her pupils. This is reported as such on page 10 of the Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 10 December 1949, when Dolly attended a lunch at Talbot House, Trinity Square, London, to celebrate the centenary of Mary Jane’s birth. It also became a second home to some of the British soldiers stationed close by (that’s where Harry Holdcroft comes into the story) Adele Hanna Dafesh was also a pupil of Mary Jane, at the same time as Dolly, and continued her work from the 1930s onwards - Adele and Dolly knew each other. There is a great article (see link - pp. 33-35) on Mary Jane Lovell in the Lincolnshire Poacher - shorturl.at/guDFS (if should download a PDF). I hope this helps, Richard
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Submitted by gricharduk on Sun, 05/07/2020 - 11:05
Here is a better link (no URL shortener requires) from Pat to the same article: https://www.lincolnshirelife.co.uk/shop/view-product/lincolnshire-poacher-winter-2014. More information from Pat here: nhttp://stickneyhistory.co.uk/documents/mary%20jane%20lovell.pdf Thank you Pat.
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Submitted by gricharduk on Mon, 06/07/2020 - 8:41
I am wondering if the connection might lie with Walter's second wife, Amelia Ellen (or Helen) Dade Hill, born at Stonehouse, Plymouth, who was a Salvation Officer (as was Walter, and his first wife Fanny, in Bath). Walter's first wife, Fanny Holtom (or Holton), died on 9 February 1920. Dollie is not reported to have attended the funeral but her other children did. Walter moved back to Weston and married Amelia on 11 October 1921 at the Sunnyside Primitive Methodist Church in Weston-super-Mare. Dollie would be 16 at this point (b:1 January 1905). Dollie is certainly writing letters from their restaurant in 1923. So, perhaps contacting the Salvation Army tracing service might be an option. It might also explain the link to Plymouth where Dollie died - the death certificate may provide some clues. Walter is buried with Amelia at Milton Road cemetery (thanks to this site!) and not at Bath with his first wife.
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Submitted by on Mon, 06/07/2020 - 9:14
Thank you very much for this information. I had obviously confused Walter's first wife with his second.
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Submitted by on Fri, 11/06/2021 - 18:44
Now updated with information from Dollie's death certificate.
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