Splendid Brunswick Square, Hove, where Catherine and the Vicomte lived in 1871
It’s the biggest thrill, unearthing something in the records that, far as you know, no one in your family has laid eyes on before. Thanks to my cousin’s detective work years ago, I always knew our 2x great-aunt Catherine Mary ended up in France. For me, then, it was about adding the detail and the depth – more the journey than the destination, if that doesn’t sound too reality TV contestant.
But one part of the journey I definitely hadn’t reckoned on, was finding three-year-old Catherine still living in England on the 1871 Census. It’s been well over a year since Vicomte Edgar de Brimont adopted her, and I assumed she’d have been taken to France long before now. Apparently not, though, so let’s head back to the census to see what I missed in all the excitement.
Our strange little household – the Vicomte, the child, the nurse, the housekeeper, and husband-and-wife servants – are living at 15 Brunswick Square, Hove. Looking on a modern-day map, the square lies right on the seafront and I fly down on Google Street View to check it out. Ooh, very nice indeed! Three sides of creamy stone, regency-style Georgian splendour stand around a huge central garden, with the fourth side open, facing out to sea.