Guggenheim question

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Is Susan Bridges (nee Guggenheim), wife of Hon. Nicholas Edward Bridges, hp to his brother, the 3rd Baron Bridges, a descendant of the famous Guggenheim family?

All I can find is that she was the eldest daughter of the late Peter Guggenheim, but I can't find a tie of Peter to that tree.  

The Guggenheims already have a family connection to the peerage, as Eleanor Guggenheim married the 7th Earl Castle Stewart.  Their son, (b. 1928) is the present Earl.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Brooke

[dpth...@gmail.com]

No trace of them on this page, which is not necessarily ccomprehensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim_family

[bx...@yahoo.com]

Yes, that was the first page I checked.  When I didn't find anything there, I thought I'd reach out here, hoping someone would be able to find something.

Thanks anyway!

Brooke

[G. Willis]

I think these conclusions stand up:

Initial searches found little on Peter Guggenheim, save that in Debrett's 2008 and 2011 he was not referred to as "late" (this not of course necessarily meaning that he was still alive, as it is fairly often omitted), and was of Woodbury Salterton, Devon.

No evident birth record for Susan Guggenheim, raising the possibility/ likelihood of overseas birth; nothing was evident re: assumption of the surname (London Gazette or elsewhere), so going on the assumption that it was the birth surname of Peter Guggenheim, the only Peter Guggenheims in BMD records were one born 1930 at Wolverhampton, mother Bicknell [per Ancestry, s. of Thomas Neville Guggenheim (1904-1987) and Cora May Bicknell (1909-1996), dau. of William Henry Bicknell; this Peter Guggenheim evidently he who m. 1960 Kathleen N. Fenton; their children being Jonathan b. 1961 and Lesley J. b. 1963, he could be discounted] and Peter F. Guggenheim, born 1930, mother Miles [this evidently the Peter Francis Guggenheim who d. 2015 aged 85, a retired head master of West Sussex, "loved and missed by Peggy, Anna, Julia, David, Sally, Tim, Edward, Rachel, Ella, Mali, Lyle, Poppy and Digby" and therefore clearly a different person from the Peter Guggenheim with whom we are concerned].

Per 192.com, Peter F. Guggenheim (vide supra) is accounted for, as is a Peter Guggenheim of Exeter, living with Rae P. Guggenheim. No evident U.K. marriage record, but a Peter Guggenheim was proprietor of a sewing machine, fabric/ haberdashery shop in Exeter for twenty years until selling it in 1996 to retire. Woodbury Salterton, the place of residence of Peter Guggenheim, father of Susan Bridges, is only six miles from Exeter, making this connection a useful one to consider, but the absence of available records closed this line of research temporarily.

Susan Bridges appears as a director alongside Nicholas Edward Bridges of his law firm, her birth given as "July 1958"; another Susan Bridges with the same birth details, nationality given as "New Zealander", is listed as director of a residential management company. Searches for Peter Guggenheim in connection with New Zealand yielded details of an Auckland company, Peter Rae Ltd, incorporated in 1957 and dissolved in 2011, a director of which, from 1989 to 1993, was a Peter Guggenheim. None of the other directors were named "Rae", and this being the name of the wife of Peter Guggenheim of Exeter was a useful point to consider. In connection with Auckland, a Peter Guggenheim was in 1954 accountant for the Matson Navigation Co.'s Matson Lines in Auckland.

Returning to Rae P. Guggenheim, this seemed not unlikely to be the same person as the Rae Pamela Caroline Guggenheim who died 2018, formerly of Mulberry House, 8, Couching Street, Watlington, Oxon. Details of her estate given in the Gazette gave as her personal representatives a David Guggenheim and a Sarah Stoker. A Sarah Stoker born 1971 appeared in company records as a director of a chiropractic clinic alongside a John Willem Stoker, chiropractor (nationality Australian, perhaps relevant given the New Zealand connection); a Sarah Guggenheim born 1971 was director of a residential management company until 2002, which also seemed worth factoring in.

The record of the 1980 marriage of David Guggenheim and Alycen (1953-), dau. of Dewey Whiddon, of Worth County, GA, U.S.A., showed the groom to be of 29, Monmouth Street, Topsham, Devon [given the aforementioned connection to this county, corroborative], born 1958 at Caster Bay, N.Z., father Peter Guggenheim, born Bombay, mother Rae Pamela Caroline Martin, born Auckland, N.Z.

Searching around in connection with Bombay led to the record of Peter Guggenheim, born 1934, travelling from England to Bombay alongside Gladys Guggenheim, born 1907, and Dinah Guggenheim, born 1935, likely his mother and sister. This was supported by the record of Gladys Arbuthnot Guggenheim, born China 1907, travelling to Wiltshire from Wellington in 1943, accompanied by Peter Guggenheim, aged nine, and Dinah, aged seven, both born India. A Gladys Arbuthnot Guggenheim born 1907 died 2001 in Gloucestershire.

The Pahiatua Herald of Wednesday, 10 Feb. 1932 included ""ENGAGEMENTS. The marriage will take place early in March of Miss Gladys Arbuthnot Armistead, of Hopelands, Woodville, and Mr Oscar Armand Guggenheim, of the firm of Messrs E. Spinner & Co., merchants, of Bombay. Miss Armistead is at present visiting friends in Poona, India, and this announcement will be of interest to her many friends in New Zealand." An Oscar Armand Guggenheim born 1904 died 1998 in Gloucestershire. A notice in the Sydney Morning Herald of Tuesday, 28 April 1998 included "Oscar Armand Guggenheim was born in 1904 in Manchester, where his father was the Swiss consul He was sent to Charterhouse, where he was taught by George Leigh Mallory, the mountaineer who died in an attempt on Everest in 1924, and from him acquired a life-long enthusiasm for mountaineering and hill-walking. After school, Guggenheim spent a period studying the cotton trade in Switzerland and France, and was then dispatched by his father to the firm's Bombay office. During service in the RAF in World War II, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre. He was one of a small group sent behind the German lines to save an important radio station. After the war, with the cotton trade in decline, Guggenheim sold E. Spinner & Co. In 1932 Guggenheim married Jean Armistead; they had a son and a daughter." [Given Gladys Arbuthnot Guggenheim was apparently called "Jean", I wondered if the Dinah Jean Guggenheim who married David Huntley Naylor, of Oakridge Lynch, Glos. was the same person as Gladys's daughter; it seemed fairly likely. Two Huntley Naylor sons married, respectively, a descendant of the Barons Ashcombe and Marquesses Camden (etc) and the adopted daughter of the 12th Baron Farnham.]

Further research on Oscar Armand Guggenheim showed he was commissioned a Pilot Officer, Administrative and Special Duties branch in 1940, and his siblings were Edward Armand (b. 1901) and Dora Marguerite (b. 1909); this is corroborated by the user-generated Ancestry files here: https://www.ancestry.ca/genealogy/records/hermann-armand-guggenheim-24-2bzm16h , which indicate Oscar's father to have been Hermann Armand Guggenheim (evidently the Swiss consul in Manchester mentioned in the Sydney Morning Herald as above), whose own father, Max, was per that user-generated source born in 1828 at Lengnau, the same place in Switzerland as Meyer Guggenheim, founder of the notable family. Whether "1828" is the year of his baptism as sometimes is given, or rounded up from 1827, or what have you, is unclear, but should these details be factual, it would seem likely there is a relationship with Meyer Guggenheim, perhaps sibling or cousin.

[G. Willis]

"Law firm" should be "architectural firm".

[bx...@yahoo.com]

G. Willis, thank you so much for all of that information.  You've really done a masterful job.

I have just did a brief readthrough and will now take some time to go through it more slowly.  Nevertheless, it would appear that there would be some sort of connection between the 2 Guggenheim families,   not only having the same unusual last name, but that they both originally came from Switzerland, a relatively small country.

Thank you again for all of your hard word.  It is much appreciated.

Brooke