Sigrid Delia Marie Uddenberg of St. Kitts, BWI
In my quest to find out all I could about the family I asked my cousin, Langford’s daughter, about her mother, Sigrid. She seemed quite secretive and told me she had to ask her mother if it was okay to talk to me. I persisted and she finally gave me the name of a relative, Tian Uddenberg, who supplied me with a great Uddenberg family history. I wrote to him saying my information shows that Sigird and Langford married in 1966, I know they were childhood friends, so they knew each other but if they married in 1966 and she returned from England in 1966 it must have been a whirlwind romance, perhaps my marriage date is incorrect. He wrote back, “LOL! You’ve never met Langford or Sigrid. Neither could be accused of reticence. You’re dates are correct. It was always said Sigrid married on the rebound. They already knew each other and if you’ve ever lived in a isolated community, you’d understand when I say the gene pool was very small. Maureen and Roland (her parents) were not very happy with the idea, but they were grown people.” Tian had done some indepth research into the Uddenberg family and he wrote me. “You were very fortunate to plug into the excellent historical work done in the last 20 years re the sugar industry in the Northern Leewards. Impressive that you were able to make connections with relatives still living in Antigua. There are many good resources now available online re Antigua and hope you have made connections with other searchers in that area. Something really basic for you to come to terms with is what I call the 'culture of conscious forgetting' which pervades the islands. Since Emancipation and up to the present, each generation lives without reference to the past, and until lately, without reference to people and places outside their own immediate experience. That's how it was, and often still is. For those raised 'overseas' it is difficult to understand why there is little understanding of interrelationships. Even more difficult to 'get' is how quickly the flash of 'connection' disappears between families once they are reconnected. There is an attitude of 'nice to meet you, nice to see you' while the researcher is in direct contact, but without that physical contact, all enthusiasm quickly fades. That has been my experience; I hope yours is different. Looking at my data, I see that Langford Cranstoun is officially a complete blank. No information in the first 'family Sigrid Uddenberg is the 3rd of 11 children born in St. Kitts to Roland Uddenberg and Maureen Rodrigues. She was Sigrid had 3 children of her 1st marriage, born between 1958 and 1963. These children have the surname, DAVISON. Sigrid returned to St. Kitts with the children after that relationship fell apart. The family lived on Cayon Street, Basseterre, next door to St. George's church. The house was diaginally across from the home in which Sigrid grew up. Her mother and father still lived there, and so the children were 'raised' between the two houses, literally within hailing distance of each other. Langford moved into the house with Sigrid and the Davison children.
After her marriage to Langford in 1966, Sigrid had 3 more children born between 1967 and 1974. These bear the surname CRANSTOUN. Langford moved the family to Canada in about 1975, and all but the eldest of the children (who moved back to England) lives here in BC, some on Vancouver Island, and some here in the greater Vancouver area. Sigrid and Langford had a stormy marriage from the outset, and Sigrid decided she'd be better off living on her own. Langford remained in contact with his children and Sigrid occasionally met him socially. Sigrid's father, Roland, descended from a Swedish family traced back to the first grant of the surname in 1700 to a soldier (Peter Uddenberg 1685-176?) in the service of the Swedish crown. 2 generations later (8th child of 21) Johan Gustaf Uddenberg (1768-1848) became the Lutheran pastor in Smedby, Oland. He was married 3 times. The 3rd child of the 2nd marriage was Johan August Uddenberg (1812 - 1852) born in Smedby, Oland, Sweden, died in St. Barthelemy WI. The family expanded exponentially in Sweden into the C19. However during the C19 fewer and fewer males were Dr. Johan August Uddenberg was recruited in Boston by Mr. John Portelly, a merchant sea captain who was a member of the Governors' Council in St. Barthelemy. That tiny island was then a Swedish colony, having passed from French control to that of the Swedish West India Company in the early 1700s. In 1844, Johan August Uddenberg arrived in St. Barts where he was garrison doctor, and acted also as government secretary, registrar of vital statistics, and sometime preacher at the Swedish Lutheran Church of Sophia Magdalena in Gustavia. Johan August Uddenberg married Angelina Portelli in St. Barts (niece of John Portelly). Both died young, victims of TB which the doctor contracted in his medical practise. They had 3 children, of whom only one boy, August Portelli Uddenberg (1850 - 1894) born in St. Barts, died in Basseterre, St. Kitts. August P. Uddenberg died young in St. Kitts. He married in St. Barts, Emilie Lagois and they had 5 children very quickly, all born in St. Kitts. Of these there was only one boy, John August Uddenberg (1874 - 1934) born and died in St. Kitts. He married in St. Kitts Rosalie McKoy and had 3 children who survived into adulthood, all boys. These three brothers all married in St. Kitts and had children. In the 1940s and 1950s, two of the 3 families left St. Kitts (for Canada and Trinidad). The family of the youngest brother remained in St. Kitts. That brother was Roland Uddenberg( 1912-1971), Sigrid's father. Caribbean women are even harder to research than most!
It took me close to a decade to get my paternal grandmother, Maureen, (Sigrid's mother) to correspond with me about her birth family lines. She insisted her family roots had nothing to do with Uddenberg's. For over 30 years, she told all and sundry when she died she wanted to be buried with her mother, and not with the Uddenberg's." Tian Uddenberg is the eldest son of Sigrid’s brother Terry Udenberg. The exploits Sigrid's husband Arthur Langford Edwin Cranstoun are discussed in his section.
Hyacinth Neville Marguerite Palmer
|
