Christine Hamilton Dicker

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1963, Kingston, Jamaica

Notes:

She was a well-educated writer, watercolorist, and poet who published journalism, poetry, and fiction under the name Felix Sturgeon.

Christine married Edward Molineux Waldo on 18 Jul 1915 in Buxton, Derbyshire, England. Edward (son of Howard Lovett Waldo and Clara Waldo Sullivan) was born on 6 Mar 1884 in Brooklyn, Kings, New York; died on 28 May 1964 in Queens, Queens, New York; was buried in Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, Staten Island, Richmond, New York. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Christine married William Dickie "Argyll" Sturgeon in 1927. William was born in 1890 in East Ayrshire, Scotland; died on 28 Mar 1954 in Grenada; was buried in St. George's Cemetery, St. George's, St. George, Grenada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was born in New York City, as stated in both Continuation of Waldo Genealogy and the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (citation details below), but neither source mentions specifically that he was born on Staten Island. That borough appears occasionally in his fiction, notably the story "Shottle Bop."

Continuation of Waldo Genealogy (citation details below) calls him "Theodore Hamilton Sturgeon", but he was born Edward Hamilton Waldo. His name was legally changed to Edward Hamilton Sturgeon at age 11, after his mother's divorce and 1929 remarriage to William Dicky "Argyll" Sturgeon, an event unmentioned in Continuation of Waldo Genealogy. [Source: Adoption record of Edward H. Waldo, now renamed Edward H. Sturgeon, reproduced in the 2013 Open Road Integrated Media e-book edition of Sturgeon's More Than Human.]

Sturgeon wrote years later about how his first name subsequently changed from Edward to Theodore: "I was confirmed a year [after the adoption proceedings] as Theodore rather than Edward because my mother told me I didn't like to chance being called Eddy. Hindsight again: I was my father's namesake (he was always Ned, never Ted) and she wanted the crumbs swept out. (Years later when I was having therapy with Milton Kline he asked me with shocking abruptness, 'What ever happened to Edward Waldo?' It was weird. My guts contracted.) Anyway, as far as self-indentification is concerned, I was always Ted or Teddy or, to my mother, Thuddy, no matter what the legal handles were." This is from the posthumously-published chapbook Argyll: A Memoir (Pullman, Washington: The Sturgeon Project, 1993), which consists of a pair of essays in which Sturgeon grapples with his fraught relationship with his stepfather, who by modern standards was obviously a classic abuser.

Seventh cousin twice removed to Robert A. Heinlein, via John Hutchins (1604-1685) and his wife Frances (d. 1694).

Eighth cousin once removed to Fritz Leiber, via William Allen (1615-1686) and Ann Goodale (1618-1678).

Ninth cousin once removed to Damon Knight, through Thomas French (1584-1639) and Susan Riddlesdale (1584-1658); also, the same degree, through Henry Adams (1583-1646) and Edith Squire (1587-1673).

Also through Thomas French and Susan Riddlesdale, ninth cousin three times removed to John M. Ford.

Also through Henry Adams and Edith Squire, third cousin six times removed to President John Adams; fourth cousin five times removed to President John Quincy Adams; and sixth cousin four times removed to historian Henry Adams.

Through shared ancestors William Hunter (1807-1878) and Jane Curling, Theodore Sturgeon was also a second cousin once removed to Elizabeth "Lisba" Curling Hunter (1915-1971), who married Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand (1908-1963), grandson of King Rama V (1853-1910) of Siam. And a third cousin to their daughter Narisa Chakrabongse (1956- ), writer, publisher, and environmental activist. And a third cousin once removed to Narisa Chakranbongse's son Hugo Chakrabongse Levy (1981- ), Thai-American actor, singer, rapper, and songwriter, who performs under the stage names "Hugo" and "Chulachak Chakranbongse."

Finally, through their common ancestors Andrew Hunter Dunn, 5th Anglican Bishop of Quebec, and his wife Alice Hunter, Theodore Sturgeon was a first cousin once removed to Joan Hunter Dunn, the inspiration for John Betjeman's much-anthologized 1941 poem "A Subaltern's Love-song."