The story of Edmund Henry Harding.
This is an interesting story that came to light only because of DNA tests on Louise Simon and Nicholas Jefferies that show Edmund's son share ancestors on Ancestry descended from the Mead and Peppiatt lines.
Edmund was born out of wedlock to Mabel Harding of Shottermill, Sussex on 5th March 1916 and adopted by Gertrude Caroline Skarton of Hammersmith around January 1918. All trees on-line say his father was William Thomas Mead. William served as a Sapper with the Royal Engineers in WW1 and was said to have been retired after a gas attack. He and Mabel may well have met during his convalescence but his Army records for this time are not available. I do not know if William ever knew of his son's existence.
By 1931 it appears his foster parents had placed him in the care of the Catholic Emigration Association in Coleshill, Birmingham and they sent hm and many others off to Canada on the 'Duchess of Bedford', Liverpool to Quebec on the 24th April 1931. By the census taken as of the first of June 1931, Edmund was on a dairy farm on the outskirts of Ottawa and working for Patrick Turney as a labourer, with a note saying 'just arrived from England. It is said that he ran away from there because of poor treatment and found his way north west to a place called Red Lake. At the time Canada was very badly impacted by the Great Depression and where and when he arrived there is not clear. He and his wife appears on the Electoral Register there in 1957 and he worked in the Red Lake gold mines for his working life. This mine is one of the largest in the world.
A point of interest is that his marriage to Elizabeth Senick was in Winnipeg. In the record he is recorded as being from England and .his parents are given as Edward Henry Harding and Gertrude Caroline Friend. The only name that seems to be accurate is that his mother has the maiden names of his adopted mother!
July 2026, to be amplified.