Thomas May 1819-1874

My 3x Great Grandfather Thomas May seems to have had an eventful life.

Born in Hinckley, Leicestershire in 1819 Thomas was the fourth child of William May & Catherine Townsend.
William was working as a tailor in Castle Street at the time of Thomas's birth, he later became a master tailor & draper and hosiery manufacturer. He was also a publican and an agent for Royal Exchange Assurance.

In the 1841 census Thomas was working as a warehouseman, previously he had been in a partnership with his father as an insurance agent for Fire & Life.

By 1843 Thomas had followed his father into the hosiery business in Hinckley and had also married Sophia Lapworth, the daughter of John Lapworth and Mary Ann Hunt, in Coventry.

During the next ten years Thomas is noted in the local trade directories as a hosier; by the 1851 census he is a master hosier employing forty men, so obviously doing quite well for himself and his family. At this point he and Sophia have three children; William, Alice and Mary Ann.

Their eldest son, William, was born in Manchester in 1844, which seemed odd, so I researched a little further to find a reason for this. I found that Thomas's older sister, Elizabeth, had married John Evans in 1833. In the following years John had many varied occupations in different parts of the country, railway porter, inspector of police (I find that a little difficult to believe!), sawyer, labourer and publican. In 1843, Elizabeth and John had a daughter, Catharine, in Manchester, so it's possible that Thomas and Sophia were with them around this time.

Between the years 1846 and 1854, according to the local directories,Thomas May was also a publican; he had the Star at Stockwell Head in Hinckley.

Stockwell Head, Hinckley

In 1854 Thomas and Sophia had twins, Louisa and Richard Henry, both baptised on the 29th June at St. Mary's Hinckley. Thomas's occupation is noted here as hosier and grocer. Sadly, Richard died on the 4th December the same year and was buried at St. Mary's.

Following this there is no further trace of Thomas in Hinckley. The Star's landlord in 1855 is John Huston. There is a mention of a Thomas May as a landlord of The Grapes in Leicester in March 1856, but there's no proof that this is the same man. if it is him, he's running a disorderly house!

The proof of where Thomas & his family ended up is in the 1861 census. They were living in Dale Street, Sneinton, Nottingham. Thomas was employed as a warehouse man and there was a new addition to the family, a daughter, Julia, born in Nottingham in February 1857. So they must have been in Nottingham by early 1857.

I found a possible mention of Thomas in the newspaper court reports of 1858. It appears that Thomas had bought some shop fixtures from a Mr Slingsby in 1856 that were not actually his to sell. Thomas ended up paying the shop landlord for the items and was attempting to reclaim his money from Slingsby. Thomas lost this case, which may have been quite a blow to the family finances.

If this is the right man then he must have arrived in Nottingham sometime in 1856. I'm reasonably confident that it is him; there are other Thomas Mays living in Nottingham in both the 1851 and 1861 census but none of their occupations fit and my Thomas was working in a warehouse in 1861. He may have been trying to set himself back up in business in his new city.

In 1862, his wife Sophia died aged 42 of a malignant disease of the womb and was buried at St Stephens in Sneinton.

Thomas was an executor of his Uncle Richard May's will in 1869, he swore an oath in Leicestershire and was described as a hosier living in Belgrave.

In the 1871 census 52 year old Thomas was recorded as a visitor at the Pump Tavern in Aston, Birmingham. His older sister Elizabeth & her husband John Evans were the keepers of the pub.






Thomas's son, William, had married Emma Carr; they spent a few years in Nottingham and later moved back to Leicestershire. His daughters Alice, Mary Ann, Louisa and Julia remained in Nottingham and were living together in 1871 at High Pavement.









In September of 1871, Thomas married Sophia Staples, a widow, nee Sault, at St Pauls in Aston. John & Elizabeth Evans were the witnesses.









I have been unable to find much information about Thomas's life after this time. In 1873 his daughter Alice married William Oldknow Oldham in Nottingham and gave her father's occupation as publican.

Thomas died aged 55 on the 9th August 1874 at the home of his sister, Elizabeth in Belgrave, Leicestershire. Her husband John Evans was present at his death and was the informant. Thomas was buried at St Peters church, Belgrave.

The cause of death was hepatic dropsy; related to the liver and possibly cirrhosis.

I've been unable to find out why Thomas & Sophia left Hinckley in 1854/5. It seems quite a fall in status from an employer of 40 men in 1851 to a warehouse man in 1861. The May family did have money; they were landowners in Sutton Cheney, Leicestershire. Thomas's father, William, had been described as gentry in one local directory, and he owned his own house in Hinckley. Thomas was the eldest surviving son so it would be usual for him to have inherited the majority of his parent's estate.

I suspect that alcohol may have been part of it exacerbated by his run of bad luck beginning with the death of his infant son in 1854, his loss in status, loss of money in Nottingham and then the death of his wife. His lifelong proximity to alcohol is obvious and the cause of his death most likely alcohol related.



Credits:

Tailor; https://unsplash.com/search/tailor?photo=FQ83tBxftJc 
Stockwell Head; http://www.hinckleytimes.net/news/local-news/appeal-photos-peoples-album-9200190
Richard May death; The Leicester Chronicle. 16 December 1854
The Grapes; Leicester Journal 14 March 1856
May vs Slingsby; Nottingham Daily Guardian, Nottingham October 1858
Sophia Lapworth death; Nottingham Daily Guardian, Nottingham, 24 January 1862
High Pavement Nottingham; my photo
St Pauls Aston; https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/File:Aston_St_Peter_%26_St_Paul_Birmingham.jpg
Thomas May death; Leicester Chronicle and the Leicestershire Mercury August 22, 1874

Military Monday - Harold Richardson

Sunday 3rd July 2016 is the 100th anniversary of the death of my Great-Great Uncle Harold Richardson.

Born in Nottingham in 1881, Harold was the eldest son of Robert Richardson & his wife Sarah (nee Percival). He had joined the army prior to the war, in 1911 he was serving with the Northumberland Fusiliers and based at the Hillsborough Barracks in Sheffield. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he was an acting sergeant with the Fusiliers, number 8434.

Hillsborough Barracks

Most of the following information was kindly supplied by Mel Siddons following a Trent to Trenches event in Nottingham.

The 12th (Service) Battalion The Northumberland Fusiliers was formed at Newcastle in September 1914 as part Kitchener's Third New Army and joined 62th Brigade, 21st Division. The Division concentrated in the Tring area, training at Halton Park before winter necessitated a move into local billets in Tring, Aylesbury, Leighton Buzzard, High Wycombe and Maidenhead. The artillery was at High Wycombe and Berkhamsted, RE at Chesham, and ASC at Dunstable.

In May 1915 the infantry moved to huts at Halton Park, whilst the artillery moved to Aston Clinton with one brigade staying at Berkhamsted and the RE to Wendover. On the 9th of August they moved to Witley Camp. They proceeded to France during the first week of September and marched across France their first experience of action being in the British assault at Loos on 26th September 1915, suffering heavy casualties, around 3,800, just a few days after arriving in France.

In 1916 they were in action in the Battles of The Somme, including The Battle of Morval in which the Division captured Geudecourt. On the 1st July 1916 the 12th Battalion were fighting in Shelter Wood.

At dawn on the 2nd of July our troops advanced to the storm of Fricourt Wood, the Contalmaison Road, Shelter Wood, and as much of the bootshaped plateau as they could take. As they advanced, the massed machine guns in all the trenches and strongholds opened upon them. They got across the field of this fire into Fricourt Wood to an indescribable day which will never be known about nor imagined. They climbed over fallen trees and were caught in branches, and were shot when caught. It took them all day to clear that jungle; but they did clear it, and by dark they were almost out at the northern end, where Railway Alley lay in front of them on the roll of the hill. Further to the north, on the top of the leg of the boot, our men stormed the Shelter Wood and fought in that 200 yards of copse for four bloody and awful hours, with bomb and bayonet, body to body, till the wood was heaped with corpses, but in our hands.* 

It is most likely that Harold died in the fighting in Shelter Wood, either in action or later, of his wounds. His body has never been recovered and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial.

* 'The Battle of the Somme' by John Masefield

Workday Wednesday - Nottingham Lace in Calais

I've recently been searching for my Oldham family in Calais, France.

My 3xgreatgrandparents Thomas Oldham and Harriet (nee Winfield) and their sons William and Thomas are missing from the 1861 UK census, but reappear on the 1871 census with five more children, all born in Calais between 1861 and 1870.

The Archives of Pas-de-Calais had already sent me copies of the birth registrations, which reveal the dates and times of their births, both parent's ages, the mother's maiden name and the family's current address - so very useful.

The Calais Archives have digitised many of their records and they are freely available online, unlike the UK's records. The French took a census every five years from 1836; the 1866 one falls nicely in the middle of the period I'm looking for.

None of the records are indexed, so they aren't searchable by name, which means finding the correct district and working through it page by page. It's very time consuming, but well worth it - I found Thomas and his family living on the rue du Jardin des Plantes:

Thomas and his eldest son, William, were working as 'tullistes'. This is a term specific to the Calais area and means a mechanical technician highly specialised in the manufacture of tulle and lace. Thomas and Henriette (Harriet) had six children, William (12) and Thomas (10) who were born in Nottingham and John (7), Eliza (5), Enoch (2) and Anne (2 months) who were born in Calais.

From Google Maps

On the same census, just around the corner, I found Gervase Oldham, Thomas' brother, and his family. They were living on the rue du Temple.

Gervase, or Jervis, also worked as a tulliste and was living with his wife Mary (nee Taylor) and three children, James (3) and Jervas and Eliza (both aged 2 months). The family were back in Nottingham by the 1871 census, but without their daughter Eliza. By this time Gervase and Mary had had another daughter, Eliza Jane born in Calais in 1869, so it's more than likely that the first Eliza died at a young age.  More trawling through the French records should reveal if that was the case.

Also living with the family was Emma Taylor, an unmarried woman aged 21 who was working as a lace operator. She is likely to be Mary's younger sister.

So now I've filled in the gap in the 1860s for the Oldham family, I need to go back to the French records to see if I can find the births and death in Gervase and Mary's family.

I'll also be looking through the French census records to see if Thomas' and Gervase's parents, William and Eliza, were living in France without their children around 1851. They are missing from the English census of that year, but their children are in Long Eaton with their grandparents.

Percival Richardson - A Follow-Up

After finding my 2x Great-Uncle Percival Richardson's marriage to Edith Waby in 1922, the next step was to find a death certificate for him.

I used FreeBMD again, restricting the results to between 1930 and 1975, which fortunately gave only one possible match, in 1965.

When the certificate arrived, it showed that Percival and Edith were living at 72 Belton Road, Hyson Green, Nottingham and that Percival was a retired joiner.

Percival had died in the City Hospital, Nottingham of a number of complaints:
1a Pulmonary oedema
b Congest. left ventricular failure
c Coronary thrombosis
d Uraemia from prostate hypertrophy

I'm not in any rush to Google them to find out the gory details!

I've already searched FreeBMD for any possible children without any success, so it's probable that they didn't have any.

I may try a search of the local newspapers to see if there are any announcements which would help round out the picture of this family.

Previous Posts:
Wedding Wednesday.
Wedding Wednesday Follow-Up.

Great-Great-Grandma Baker - The Story So Far

My Great-Great Grandmother Louisa Baker was born in Wilncote, Kettlebrook Staffordshire on 13th September 1852 and baptised the following December at St. Editha in Tamworth. Her parents were Joseph, a collier and his wife, also Louisa (nee Simnett).

So far, I have found four siblings; Henry b.1849, Rebecca b.1858, William b.1861 and Sarah Ann b.1865. I believe Henry married Ellen Peach and worked as an engine driver in and around Burton-On-Trent. Sarah Ann married Adam Tait and also stayed around the Burton-On-Trent area.

The 1861 census was the first following Louisa's birth and finds her living in her maternal grandparent's (Samuel and Ann) home of 29 Guild Street, Burton-On-Trent. She was with her mother and her siblings Henry and William but there was no mention of Rebecca.

According to this census entry Louisa's father, Joseph, had absconded. I haven't as yet been able to find him elsewhere in census searches on both Find My Past and Ancestry.

I have also been unable to find Louisa in the 1871 census, but I have located her parents, Louisa and Joseph, back together and living at 2 Albert Place, Station Street, Burton-On-Trent. Henry, Rebecca, William and Sarah Ann were all living with them; Joseph and Henry were employed as labourers.

Station St. Burton-On-Trent c1880

The next record of Louisa I have found is her marriage to Charles Bateman on the 17th October 1874 at St. Nicholas in Nottingham. I have no idea how she ended up in Nottingham; she was living at 24 Castle Terrace at the time and gave no information as to employment.

St. Nicholas. Nottingham

The 1881 census shows Louisa and Charles living at 1 Crown Street, Nottingham with their first two children, Louisa Rose b.1876 and Charles Nelson b.1879. Charles was employed as a telegraphist at the Post Office and Louisa was working as a mantle maker.

The family moved to 138 Noel Street North sometime between 1881-5 and then on to 86 Burford Road, Hyson Green in 1887. 

Louisa and Charles had five more children; Bertie Fawcett b.1882, Margaret Elizabeth (Marguerite) b.1884, Winifred J b.1886, Florence Mary (my g-grandmother) b.1887 and Dorothy Maud b.1892.

By 1891, they were living at 29 Claypole Road, also in Hyson Green and had a visitor, 7 year old Nellie Lamb from Middlesex, staying with them. Louisa Rose, Margaret, Winifred and Florence were living with their parents at this address in 1901.

Claypole Road 2009. John Sutton

Louisa died on the 22nd January 1905 at home in Claypole Road; her death was attributed to cirrhosis of the liver and exhaustion. She was buried in Nottingham's General Cemetery on the 26th January.

So, I still have some missing information to track down for Louisa; her father's missing census in 1861 and her own missing census in 1871. I'd like to see who else lived at 24 Castle Terrace in 1871 and what the property was being used for, that may give a clue was to how Louisa ended up in Nottingham. And it may also be useful to find out who Nellie Lamb was and if she is connected to the family.

Station St. Picture Credit: http://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/engine/resource/default.asp?resource=4861

St Nicholas Picture Credit: http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/whatnall1928/stnicholas_church.htm

Claypole Rd. Picture Credit:John Sutton [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Travel Tuesday - Francis/Frank Jowett

I can remember my Grandmother telling me about her Uncle Frank emigrating to Canada when she was quite young.  He worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway for many years, a fact she was very proud of.

I noticed recently that both Ancestry and Find My Past have very detailed ships' passenger lists available so I thought I'd see if I could find details of his journey. Find My Past only have outgoing passenger details, but Ancestry also have incoming, so I could track any return journeys.

Uncle Frank (my 2x great Uncle) was born Francis Albert Jowett in Nottingham in 1894 and was the youngest of eight siblings. His parents were Edmund Jowett a Nottingham lace maker and Theresa Bates.

His father Edmund died when Frank was just fourteen in 1904 and in the 1911 census he was living with his mother Theresa, his brother Charles (my great grandfather), his married sister Mabel and two of her children, his nieces. Frank was working as a card lacer in a lace factory.





I have no idea what made Frank head off to Canada at the age of thirty-three, but he left from Liverpool on the 17th March 1922 on the Minnedosa. He gave his last residence as England, Haydn Road in Nottingham, and his intended future residence as Canada, so it was obviously his intention to emigrate permanently. He gave his occupation as 'agent'.


Frank next appeared in the records on the 8th March 1924 as he arrived back in Liverpool on the Montclare.  He had travelled from New Brunswick in Canada with his wife, Amelia. Frank gave Haydn Road in Nottingham as his intended address whilst staying in the UK, so it appears he had brought his wife home to introduce her to the family. They left for Canada on the 9th May 1924, again on the Montclare from Liverpool. Frank stated his occupation as a telegraph operator at this time.


Frank and Amelia returned once more to England on the 16th June 1935, this time accompanied by their nine year old daughter Marguerite. They again stayed in Nottingham until their return to Canada on the 10th August 1935, leaving from Southampton on the Empress of Britain.

I'm not sure if they ever came back to England after this visit. I know my Grandmother always regretted not having taken the opportunity to visit this branch of the family in Canada and she was in touch with Marguerite for quite a few years but the correspondence petered out eventually over the years.



So if you know any Canadian Jowetts, or you are a Canadian Jowett with Nottingham roots, drop me a line, I'd love to hear from you!









Picture Credits:
http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/type-typography/the-canadian-pacific-railway-poster/
http://www.greatships.net/minnedosa.html
http://digitalpostercollection.com/?attachment_id=56706

Wedding Wednesday Follow Up - Percival Richardson & Edith Waby

Following my previous post about Percival and Edith, I thought I'd have a quick root around to see what I could find out about her.

From the marriage certificate I knew her father was John William Waby who worked as a gardener.  I started searching the 1901 census to start with and found them in Scothern in Lincolnshire.

© Copyright Graham Hogg 

Edith was aged 7 and was living with her parents and siblings; all were born in Scothern except her mother who was from Grantham.  John was a garden labourer which matches with the marriage certificate.  There were eight children altogether in the household, the oldest of which was William W Shepherd aged 15.  He was noted as a son but had a different surname, so it's possible that Elizabeth had been married before and that William was from her first marriage.

By the 1911 census, Edith had left Scothern and was working as a housemaid in the home of George Bromet, a solicitor, in Tadcaster, West Yorkshire.  There was another Waby, Ellen, also working in this household as a parlour maid, she may have been an older sister or other relative.

I wonder how Edith got from Scothern to Nottingham via Tadcaster? Interesting though it is I don't think I will be following this branch of my tree any further because she isn't closely related and a quick search of FreeBMD again (using Richardson & Waby as surnames) suggests that they didn't have children.

But I may change my mind!


Picture Credit:

Scothern village sign (Graham Hogg) / CC BY-SA 2.0

Friday Funny - Sir T.W. White's Ball

The (Old) Exchange

With Christmas just around the corner, many of us will be shopping and cooking for family gatherings. and feeling pushed for time.

Spare a thought then, for the people involved behind the scenes at Sir T.W. White's ball in Nottingham in February 1849.

Held at The (Old) Exchange, Nottingham, it involved enormous floristry displays, lace draped to imitate a tent and the most able ball room band in the country.

The two hundred and fifty plus guests arrived at 9pm, dancing began at 10pm and continued until 5am the following morning.  During this time the guests had access to the Refreshment Room, which offered wines, liquors, confectionery and fruits.

In addition to this The Supper Room offered the following:

This makes Christmas lunch for ten pale into insignificance!



Picture Credit: http://nottinghamhiddenhistoryteam.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/nottinghams-old-market-square/
Newspaper Credit: 08 February 1849 - Nottinghamshire Guardian - Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England

Wedding Wednesday - Percival Richardson & Edith Waby

One of my (many!) on-going areas of research is that of the Richardson brothers and how they faired during the First World War.

My 2x Great-Uncle Percival Richardson was with the Royal Engineers in WW1 and I know he survived the war but I didn't know what happened to him afterwards.

A few weeks ago, I found a BMD (Births, Marriages and Deaths) reference, via FreeBMD, to a possible marriage for him.  Certificates cost £9.25 at the moment, so it's an expensive mistake if it isn't the correct person, although sometimes you have to order an incorrect one just to eliminate possible matches.

Fortunately when it arrived it showed his father as Robert and the address I have for the family at Berridge Road West in Nottingham also matched.

Percival married Edith Waby at the Registry Office, Nottingham, on the 31st August 1922.  Her father was John William Waby, a gardener.

As well as moving my research on Percival a little further, the marriage certificate has also helped solve another problem. The witnesses to the marriage were William and Robert (Fred) Richardson, two of Percival's older brothers. Up to finding this information I hadn't known whether William survived the war.  I had found a possible match in the Lincolnshire Regiment who died in 1914, but hadn't been able to corroborate this.

So now I know he survived I can carry on looking.

(Follow Up Post)

Friday Faces - Who Do You Think They Are?

I inherited a box of photographs following my grandparent's death and have since spent a good while trying to identify and sort them all.  I've been relatively successful at this - apart from the two people in the pictures below.

I think it is the same man in both photos, the one on the right being an earlier photo than the wedding one, because he has gained some stripes.

I'm almost sure they aren't immediate family so they may be friends of my grandparents or possibly more distant relatives.

The wedding photo is lovely; the bride looks wonderfully elegant in her 1940s dress and large floppy hat - I would love to find out who they are.

Those Places Thursday - The Elstree Drive Blues...

I came across this video by Nottingham blues singer Ryan Thomas a while ago - it's good to see the street where my family lived mentioned.

Here's a photo of me outside 75 Elstree Drive, aged two in 1967.


I lived there until I was six, but my grandparents lived in this house all their married life, from 1939 to 2001.

Happy memories!

Sundays Obituary - Thomas May

A distant cousin and I had spent lots of time trying to find the death of our mutual ancestor Thomas May, without success. 

Thomas is my 3x great-grandfather and he was born in Hinckley, Leicestershire in c1819, the son of William May and Catherine Townsend.  During his life he had lived in Hinckley, Nottingham and Birmingham so we needed to consider all these places when we searched for his death.

I managed to order an incorrect certificate - the age and occupation were both wrong; but I prefer to think of it as part of the process of elimination rather than being yet another £9.00 out of pocket!

My cousin had asked for help on both the Ancestry and Roots Chat forums but without luck.

Then a general search on the British Newspaper Archive  revealed the following death notice in the Leicester Chronicle of 22nd August 1874;

Thanks to the definite date and place I managed to find the GRO reference and order the certificate:

To my delight everything matched up - the newspaper said Thomas had died at the home of his sister in Belgrave, while the informant on the death certificate was John Evans.  Thomas had a sister, Elizabeth, who had married John Evans.  In the 1871 census, Thomas was living with Elizabeth and John Evans at their pub in Aston, Birmingham.

Thomas May's death was attributed to 'hepatic dropsy' or an accumulation of fluid in the liver, possibly cirrhosis.  As well as being a hosier he had also been a publican; the cause of his death suggests he had enjoyed being a landlord far too much!




Newspaper Credit: Leicester Chronicle and the Leicestershire Mercury (Leicester, England), Saturday, August22, 1874; pg. 9; Issue 3395. 19th Century British Library Newspapers: Part II

Workday Wednesday - Nottingham Lace Makers

If you have traced your ancestors back to Nottingham in the census years of 1841 to 1911, it is highly likely that you will have come across lace making as an occupation.

My three main lace making families are the Oldhams, who worked in Calais during the 1860s as well as Nottingham, the Jowetts and the Bucknalls.

Looking through the census returns for these families, they did many different jobs within the lace industry, such as; 'mender', 'threader', 'draughtsman', 'clipper', 'manufacturer', 'winder', and 'warehouseman.' Not having any personal knowledge of the industry, I wasn't sure exactly what these different jobs entailed, so I was delighted to find a book of memoirs written by a local author, Mark Ashfield, who was employed in the lace industry.

I found it a very enjoyable read, with detailed description of life in a Nottingham lace factory - the hours, conditions, skills and works outings. It's available here both in paperback and for Kindle.

Another book which I've found really useful is Sheila Mason's 'Nottingham Lace 1760s - 1950s', my Oldhams even get a small mention!  It's available both via Amazon and Abebooks unfortunately at quite a price.  There may be reprinted copies available at the Nottingham branch of Waterstones, where I found my copy, for £25.






I think genealogy can be so much more than just gathering a list of names and dates.  If you can fill in the background, where they lived, how they worked, it can give you a much fuller picture of their lives.

Walking in Aspley & Bilborough

I've recently spotted on Chris Matthews' excellent blog internetcurtains.blogspot.co.uk two new walking and cycling guides to Aspley and Bilborough; or should that be Aspleh & Bilbrah?

They are available for download from his website where you can also read a history of this area.  Well worth a look.

Fearless Females

Posted as part of Lisa Alzo's  '31 Blogging Prompts to Mark Women's History Month.'

11th March. Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family?

The Richardson side of my family has three generations of mothers who died at a young age.

My 3x Great Grandmother, Hannah Richardson died in 1857, in Staithes, North Yorkshire, at the age of 33, leaving behind four illegitimate children, three of whom ended up in Guisborough Workhouse for a time.

It must have been a frightening, unsettling time for the children, although they did have contact with their maternal grandfather, John Richardson. Whilst the two boys are in the workhouse in the 1861 census, Hannah's daughter was living with her grandfather.

Hannah's youngest son, Robert Richardson, married Sarah Percival in 1878.  Sarah was the widow of Frederick Farnsworth, a warehouseman from Manchester.  Frederick had died of typhoid and meningitis after only three months of marriage to Sarah.  Robert & Sarah settled in Nottingham, where they had five sons.  Sarah died in 1897, aged forty.

Both Hannah and Sarah died from consumption, or T.B.  This disease was one of the largest killers of its day; spread by coughing and sneezing it was rife amongst poorer communities where large families lived in small houses in very close proximity to their neighbours.

Robert remarried quite quickly following Sarah's death.  This wasn't unusual; Robert had five children to look after, was running his own joinery business and had no other family in the city to lend support.

Robert and Sarah's son, Ernest Richardson, married Alice Oldknow Oldham in 1909, in Nottingham.  Alice was one of twins, but her sister May had died at just six days of age.  I have been told that Alice & Ernest lost several babies, either soon after birth or during miscarriages, but they were fortunate with my grandfather, Fred Richardson, who arrived in 1915.  Sadly, Alice died at the age of forty, when Fred was just twelve.

Ernest remarried within two years, to Madeline Wheatley, who I remember quite well.  Unfortunately she was a woman who could be described as thrifty at best and avaricious at worst and my grandfather's life was made difficult because of this.

It is difficult to know whether the early deaths of three generations of mothers had a long-term effect on future generations, but it certainly had a devastating one on their immediate families.

Alice O Oldham & her son Fred Richardson

Workday Wednesday - Ted Richardson & The price of petrol....

A search through the card index at Nottingham's Angel Row library a while ago led me to a newspaper article about my 2x Great Uncle Edward (or Ted as he was known) and his garage in Radcliffe Road, West Bridgeford.

The article, which appeared on the 21st July 1983 was to mark his retirement, after 27 years of running this particular garage and a total of 60 years in the motor industry.

It's interesting to note Ted's comments on the price of petrol, the equivalent of 5p a gallon in 1923, and the fact that it had risen to 37 times that by 1983, to £1.34 a gallon.

I wonder what he would say about today's prices - currently around £6.31 per gallon!

If you have any memories of Ted and/or his garage, I'd love to hear from you.

Ted & his wife Margaret

Tombstone Tuesday - St Mary's in Clifton, Nottingham

St Mary's church in Clifton, Nottingham has a lovely setting.  Tucked away at the back of the old village it stands in front of Clifton Hall which itself overlooks the River Trent and Clifton Grove.

Whilst I was studying History at the Nottingham Trent University campus next door to the village, we had a class visit to the church to see the building and consider its development over the years, but I hadn't realised back then that I had ancestors buried in the church yard.

Spending time in the Nottinghamshire Archives this summer I had traced my Oldham family back to Clifton, so a couple of weeks ago I revisited the church to see if there were any family grave stones.  To my delight I found my 7x Great Grandparents Gervas & Mary Oldham just in front of the church door.

Gervas was born in Clifton, the son of John and Elizabeth, and had been baptised at St. Mary's on the 24 Oct 1731.  He married Mary Clarke in the same church on the 24 Dec 1751.

Going through the parish records in the archives I had found seven of their children; their second son William being my 6x Great Grandfather.  I also knew their eldest son Thomas had died in 1767.

Mary died in June 1793; Gervas died in October 1811 aged 82.

"Sacred to the memory of Jarvis Oldham who departed this life Oct 4th 1811 Aged 82 years.
Also
Mary his wife who died June 11th 1793 aged 61 years."

                                                   

But I was shocked when I read the inscription at the very bottom of the gravestone:

"Likewise Nine of their Children who died Early in Life."

The records in the archives had given me no idea that Gervas and Mary had had to bury so many of their children.  They can't have had an easy life.  My next step might be to find out a bit more about the social conditions of Clifton in this time, to see how they lived then.

Treasure Chest Thursday - Alice's Brooch

Over the years I have inherited a lot of family photos, which have taken some time to sort into some kind of logical order (Or what I see as a logical order!).

I have only two photos of my great-grandmother, Alice Oldknow Oldham.  She was born in Nottingham in December 1886 and died aged only 40 in June 1927.

I was delighted to receive this picture and even more so when I also inherited the brooch Alice is wearing at her throat in the picture.

The centre of the brooch holds two photos and can be turned round to show either picture.  You can see the photo of Alice's husband, Ernest Richardson above.

The other side of it has a photo of her son, my grandfather, Fred Richardson as a toddler.

It's lovely to have this brooch as it feels like a connection to the past & to ancestors that I never met.