Since starting this project, I have felt rewarded to have made headway, to have unearthed some historical data that matched the sketchy details I knew about my Dad’s origins. But now my knowledge had grown, I had also increased the unknowns at the heart of this story. What role did Frederick Ihlee and his family have in bringing Rose into the picture ? After Rose brought the baby to Coates, why did she go back to the house in Kensington ? What did she do after Rudolph and Edgar left for France, and how did she feel ? As James Trollope suggested, had there been any financial consideration ? Did Rose and Rudolph ever have any other contact ?
The obvious problem I faced is the extended passage of time since the events, and the passing of all the players on the stage. My dad died back in 1991. All of my Dad’s family have also passed, as have many of the next generation. I remember as a young boy attending both the weddings of Ernest Willimer’s twin sons, Peter and Paul, and later seeing obituary notices for both of them. My Aunt Renee – dad’s sister – had passed away in 2017. I know no-one on the Peterborough side of the family, though I know I have relatives out there.
As for the Ihlee family – Rudolph married in France to Isabelle, and they returned to England with a child Laure Doher who they had adopted, but had no children of their own. He died in 1968. His brother Frederick had died in 1938 without issue, but Rudolph’s sister Gertrude married and had three children – all of whom have now passed on. And even if there are descendants around of Rudolph’s family, or even his close friend Edgar, it’s unlikely that rumors of an incident with a servant girl so many years ago had found passage down the years.
For some time, Linda had been urging me to take a DNA test. Perhaps there might be a match with someone outside the immediate family, that might provide more substantive evidence of my Dad’s origin ? In Trollope’s biography, he quotes from interviews with someone named James de la Mare, who is described as a great-nephew of Frederick Ihlee. The nature of family trees is such that the branches do spread wide, and we may have ‘official’ distant relatives we know nothing about – let alone ones derived from illicit relationships. There did not seem to be any downside to trying to find a genetic match through science. It might provide a more solid basis for my family legend or, indeed, it might bring the speculation to an end and close down this unorthodox tale. I guess it had to be done.
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