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.

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