Re: Molly van der straaten nee Madden
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In reply to:
Re: Molly van der straaten nee Madden
Michael Beck 8/19/04
My maternal grandmother's sister was Betty Karl. She married an Irish man by the name of Madden. Grandaunty Betty was born around 1890, mere guess, as my maternal grandmother Maud Karl was the younger of the two and was born in 1892. Betty and Maud Karl were daughters of Charles Ernest Tardy and Emma Florence Geraldine Locke. Charles Ernest Tardy was a defrocked Roman Catholic priest from Bitche, Lorraine. When he defrocked from China and went to work for the British consol in HongKong he changed his surname by deed poll to Karl. He came to Penang where he met Emma, his young bride, at a Japanese hotel. Emma and Charles had 10 children. Charles was confused as to where his loyalties were and finally he chose God and left Emma and the 10 children and went back to spend his last years in a monastry in Europe. Betty was said to have evacuated to either Australia or Britain with her children. We know little of her as she isolated herself from the family. Some say she lived in Kuala Lumpur and she had many children with her husband, Mr. Madden. Two of Betty's children are Molly and Sheila and she also has two sons born around 1925 and 1928. They attended for a while the Convent Light Street.