New Research on Ernestine Rose

In researching my forthcoming novel on Ernestine Rose, I quickly found that biographers knew little about her family–only the names of her husband William Ella Rose and the three nieces that she named in her last will and testament. Knowing that genealogical information is far more accessible now than it was to her biographers, I set off to discover what I could. To my delight, I managed to identify Ernestine’s parents, four of her siblings, and one of her two children–and stumbled across a secret as well. (Hint: William Ella Rose, Ernestine’s beloved husband, was her second husband.) After all this digging, I decided to publish my research in a peer-reviewed article. I was also able to trace William Rose’s ancestry back to the seventeenth century–not bad considering how common his surname is.

Many of the records mentioned in the article can be found here for those with access to Ancestry USA. I am happy, however, to share any records that are not available there.

Incidentally, although none of Ernestine Rose’s New York City residences have survived (as far as I know), several of her lodgings in England remain. In 1871, the Roses lived at 24 Paragon in Bath. (Decades before, Jane Austen had visited an aunt at 1 Paragon.)