Carl Johann 'Emile' Martin 1843/4-1923 Shipbroker L1276
Emile, was born in Oldenburg, Germany, and married Johanna Eliza 'Sophie' Baselow, the only daughter of Captain Franz Baselow. Emile was a shipbroker and the family lived in the prosperous Mount Stuart Square. Emile and Sophie had eleven children, nine of whom survived into adulthood. As their family grew, they moved to Stacey Road, in Roath. Emile died in his 80th year in 1923, in Bath, and Sophie in 1833, aged 81. They are both buried with Sophie's parents in Cathays Cemetery.
With grateful acknowledgement to Kathy Thomas for passing on the product of her research into the Baselow family.
Captain Hans Henrich Baselow 1816-1881 Ship chandler, etc L1276
Hans Henrich Jacob Baselow, was born in the port of Rostock, Prussia, on 26 Jan 1816. He went by the name of Henrich. He emigrated to Wales in the 1860s bearing the title Captain, presumably because of maritime experience in his earlier life. The 1871 census shows the Baselow family living at 162 Bute Street. At this time, he is a partner in a ship chandlers and sail making company, Baselow, Gensz & Goulter and also works in the maritime insurance industry. However, in 1874, he and his business partner Albert Goutler are declared bankrupt. By 1880, his fortunes had revived and the family were living in 17 Mount Stuart Square, a prosperous location overlooking the central green park. This prospect would have changed a few years later, the Coal Exchange being built on the park between 1884 and 1888. Henrich was now working as an agent for Germanischer Lloyd, a classification society that established and maintained technical standards for the construction and operation of ships. A certificate issued by the society was required by a ship's owner in order to register the ship and obtain marine insurance, had to be produced before a ship could enter some ports or waterways and was of interest to charterers and potential buyers. Captain Baselow died on 8 Sep 1881, aged 65.
On 4th December 1846, Henrich had married Marie Henrietta Sophie Olerich, who had been born in Rostock around 1826, and was generally known as Sophie. The couple had four children before emigrating to Wales. The 1891 census tells us that, after Henrich's death. Sophie continued to live at 17 Mount Stuart Square with her children and still employing a servant. However, by 1901 she had moved to 1 Howard Gardens with her eldest son, Franz. This house was called 'Rostock'. Howard Gardens was one of several town square garden developments created by the Bute estates and was large enough to include tennis courts. Sophie died on 9 Mar 1902, aged 76, and is buried alongside her husband.
What prompted Henrich and Sophie to leave the prosperous city of Rostock and settle in Cardiff remains a mystery, for the time being.
Henrich and Sophie's children were:
- Henry David Frederick - born in 1848 in Rostock, he fought right through the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 on the German side, seeing action in Sedan, Metz and Paris. He was to later deliver lectures in Cardiff on his experiences in that war. He became a naturalised 'Englishman', as did all the Baselow family. In the 1881 census, he is in a Middlesbrough boarding house, describing himself as an iron merchant. In 1891, he married Alice Emma Bielski at Broadway chapel in Roath. She was the daughter of a Polish shipbroker and had grown up in Roath. They went on to have four children three of whom survived into adulthood. Henry attended Broadway Wesleyan Methodist church and supported temperance and, in 1898, campaigned against the running of trams on Sunday. His business interests included running a large cigar factory in Mexico. For a time, he was the British vice-consul in Vera Cruz, Mexico. The Mexican climate undermined his heath causing him to return to the UK, spending his later years in London, though still described as a cigar manufacturer. However, when he dies, in 1913, the funeral takes place back in Cardiff, officiated by the minister of Broadway and attended by the German Consul and W H Seager the Cardiff shipowner. After his death, Emma and the children return to Cardiff, living at 55 Westville Road, Penylan. Henry and Emma's son, Henry Frank Baselow, worked in the accounts department of Morgan Wakely and Co, coal exporters, Mount Stuart Square. He enlisted in the British army in 1915 but was killed on the Western Front on 5 Oct 1917, aged 20. He is buried in Belgium but is remembered on a war memorial plaque that used to be in Roath Park Wesleyan Church When the church closed down the plaque was removed: more recently it was rediscovered, propped against a wall in one of the chapels at Cathays Cemetery, nobody knowing its origin. The plaque is now in safe storage at Thornhill Crematorium.
- Johanna Eliza 'Sophie' - married Carl Johann 'Emile' Martin, in Cardiff in 1875
- Arthur Jahanas August - born in 1862 in Rostock. In 1881, he is living at home in Mount Stuart Square and working as a chemist's assistant but, in 1888, he emigrates to America, where he works as a 'druggist', in Manhattan. He becomes an American citizen, marries Joanna Salinger in 1897 and they have two daughters, Marjorie Louise Baselow and Dorothy Lorna Baselow. In 1911,they were living on East 96th Street and Arthur managed the Altamont Pharmacy on 7th Avenue, a few yards from Times Square. He died suddenly of a brain haemorrhage in 1914, aged 52, the funeral taking place at St Peter's Church, Manhattan.
With grateful acknowledgement to Kathy Thomas for passing on the product of her research into the Baselow family.