Busy, busy, busy!

Firstly, apologies for the break in blogging.  I knew I'd be taking a few weeks off because I went on holiday.  But what I didn't know was that something would happen while I was away that would throw my family history research well and truly into the spoltlight, bringing forward a mountain of information to sift through, some new friends, and even new relatives!

The catalyst for this was a devastating fire at a factory in Leicester, which one of my great great grandfathers had built for him in 1911.  The building has not belonged to any of the family for decades, but it still had my great great grandfather's name across the door way, albeit boarded over.  And going to see it was on my to do list. 

But while I was away, it went up in flames, and was so badly damaged that the ruins had to be taken down immediately.  It was a real shame, but I thought that there was an opportunity for a phoenix to arise from the flames, and so I contacted the local newspaper, the Leicester Mercury.

A combination of the fire being a huge story (many were evacuated from their homes) and it being the summer "silly season" meant that the story of mine and my cousin Sam's quest to find out more about that branch of the family made a full page, plus a follow-up story, and several contacted us as a result.One was relatives we didn't know existed - a great grandson of the original factory owner, and we have been exchanging emails, photos and stories with them.

Another was Jennifer Harris from the Thurmaston Heritage Group who, despite being busy, has been enormously helpful.  My great great grandfather lived in Thurmaston for some time, and various other members of our family tree are from there too.  Jennifer has given me so much information on my family tree, cleared up some questions, helped solve a mystery - I suspect that what she doesn't know about Thurmaston isn't worth knowing! 

I've also been in touch with experts in Leicester's footwear history (my great great grandfather was a wholesale boot and shoe manufacturer), a lovely old lady whose father worked as the general manager at the factory, and various other people.

And, on top of all this, my cousin Sam has also made contact with another family member we didn't know of, who lives in Australia.

So - there has been a LOT of information to process, and I am still working my way through it all.  I cannot believe how much more I know about my family than I did just a couple of months ago, it truly is amazing.  And now it is time to start sharing some of their stories with you again.  Watch this space, I'll be back in a day or two :)

Henry Womersley - father of 13, grandfather to dozens!

Henry Womersley 1847 - 1902 

Henry Womersley, circa 1900

I think it's fair to say that Henry Womersley, my gt gt gt uncle, made a pretty good contribution to the population of Yorkshire!  With just one exception, he has the largest family so far in my family tree, and definitely the largest number of children who lived to be adults.  And although I am still researching his descendants - there are a lot of them to research! - it seems he and his wife Eliza would have been grandparents to at least a couple of dozen children.  He also has the distinction of being the earliest relative to leave a will.

Henry was born in 1847 in Kirkburton, Yorkshire, to Ephraim and Ann Womersley, and was baptised at All Hallows Church, Kirkburton, on 3 October.

He was little more than a toddler when the census was taken in 1851, with an older sister Eliza, aged 9, and a younger one, Martha, aged 1.  The family were living in Newmill, home to Newmill brewery where his father Ephraim was working as a labourer.

Ten years on and his father has a more impressive title of brewer's agent, which was probably just as well given that his family had grown much larger!  Eliza seems to have left home, and I'm not sure where Martha was, but Henry is still there, together with Ann, 9; Ellen, 6; Ada, 4; Ephraim Jr, 3; and Sarah (my great great grandmother), aged just 1.  Henry was 13, and has not yet started work - no doubt he would have been starting within the next 12 months.

Six years later, in 1867, Henry married Eliza Stones, daughter of a fellmonger, at All Halllows Church in Kirkburton, and by 1871 the couple were living in Houghton Glass and had two children - George, 2, and Mary, 1.  Henry was working as a sinker in the coal mining business - this is a skilled position that involved excavating new shafts down to the coal seams. 

Twenty years later, Henry is working as a cutler and grinder.  I'm not sure if this is meant to read cutter and grinder, and relate to running cutting machines in the mines, or if he made a switch to the cutlery business.  I suspect the former, as he and his children all have strong links to the mines.  His eldest children have left home, but it is still a very full house - Henry, Eliza, and eight children!  These are Thomas, 18, a miner; Henry, 16, also a miner; Eliza, 14, not listed as doing anything but no doubt helping her mother and quite possibly working from home too; William, 11; Annie, 9; and David, 7, all scholars; plus three-year-old Albert and baby James.  

Believe it or not, there were still more additions to the family by the time the 1901 census rolled around!  In all Henry and Eliza had 13 children, all of whom, with the exception of one son who died in infancy, lived to be adults. By 1901 Henry was 53, and still working down the mines, as a hewer, as was his son Henry, 25 and David, 17.  Eliza was 50.  The other siblings still living at home were Ann, 19; Albert, 14; James, 10; Edward, 9; and Sophia, 6.

Henry died a year later on 15 January 1902, at Featherstone main colliery, Featherstone, Pontefract.  There is no record of any accident there then, so I assume that Henry probably just collapsed and died while at work.  

As well as having one of the largest families to date on my family tree, Henry also has the distinction of being my earliest ancestor, as far as I know, to leave a will - his effects were worth £34 (about £2000 in today's money), and were left to his widow.

52 Ancestors - Hannah Maria Spivey

Hannah Maria Spivey 1827 -  ?

Poor Hannah - she wasn't exactly what you might call lucky.  She never knew her father, she had an illegitimate boy who died young, and at least one of her other children led a troubled life too.

Hannah, my 4 x great aunt, was born to Amos and Sarah Spivey in Kirkburton, Yorkshire, in 1827.  Her father was buried in the village's parish church, All Hallows, exactly one month to the day before she was born.  Every time I come face to face with this fact, I can't help but feel desperately sorry for her mother, Sarah - eight months pregnant, with an eight year old daughter, and no way of supporting them.  She must have been worried sick.

By the time she was 14, Hannah was working in service as a domestic servant for shoemaker James Vouse of Howden in Yorkshire.  This must have been extremely hard work.  There were 12 people in that household, only three of whom were servants - and one of those was 70 years old and presumably the nanny for the four under-five year olds in the house.  It must have been non-stop drudgery from dawn to dusk, and quite possibly beyond.

Eight years later, aged just 22, she gave birth to Henry, an illegitimate son.  (He went on to become a coal miner and died of lung disease aged 23 - click here for his story.

In 1851, aged 24 and two respectively, Hannah and Henry were living back in Kirkburton with Hannha's mother Sarah, and Sarah's second husband John Eastwood.  Hannah doesn't appear to be working, although there is a good chance that like many women she was working from home to supplement the family income.

Hannah evidently married between 1851 and 1861, although I have been unable to find a record of it, as the 1861 census shows her as lodging in the Dives Inn in Huddersfield, with her husband Lochart Muir, a publican (but not the head publican, that was a Thomas W Newson). Little Henry is still in Kirkburton with his grandmother, as are Hannah and Lochart's two young daughters Sarah and Ella.

I get the impression that Hannah's husband was a bit of a rogue, and unable to settle in a job for long, and that the two of them probably had to travel around a fair bit as a result of this.  He'll get his own blog post sooner or later, but I mention it here as it can't have been easy on Hannah, traipsing around after him and not being able to be with her children.

In 1871 Hannah and Lochart are still living in Huddersfield, Lochart is apparently a draper now.  Their two daughters Sarah and Ella are living with them, as is Lochart's elder sister.

Two years later, Hannah's first-born, Henry, died.  He was followed four years later by Hannah's husband. 

Hannah re-married in 1882, to a James Sanderson, back in Kirkburton - and then seems to vanish from the records.  Maybe one day I will find out what happened to her.

52 Ancestors - medals, liquorice and shop-keeping

George Smart - 1887-1964

George Smart is one of my great great uncles, this time by marriage rather than by blood, although that never really matters that much to me. Family is family as much by what they do as how they are related, in my opinion.

Sadly I never knew him, he died ten months before I was born, but having learned more about him, and seen this wonderful photo below, I wish I had.  The photo shows him pushing my Mum, Maureen, and her younger brother, Michael, in a wheelbarrow.  To me, this shows he definitely had a sense of fun.

George was born in Netherton, Worcestershire, to John and Abigail Smart, in 1887.  He and his family had moved to Yorkshire by the 1891 census, presumably going where the work was to be found.  I think George must have been lucky to avoid working in the mines, as his father and both of his elder brothers were miners.

Instead, he began his working life as a shop assistant, and clearly the retail trade suited him well as he was still working in a grocery when he married my Great Great Aunt Elsie in 1911, and by 1916 he was the manager of a Co-operative store.

He joined the army reserve in 1916, and on 27 March 1918 he left England for France, where he was a driver for the Royal Field Artillery for almost a year.  His service records give nothing away about his time in France, but no doubt he saw and experienced plenty of the horrors of war during his relatively short time there.  He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.

After returning to England, he went back to retail.  My Mum believes that he and Elsie used to run a small general purpose shop.  On his retirement from the shop, he worked in the gardens at the Wilkinsons sweet factory in Pontefract, where they grew liquorice for their Pontefract cakes.  (As a brief aside, Pontefract is one of the few places in the UK where liquorice can successfully be grown, and was renowned as a worldwide centre for liquorice!  Apparently Wilkinsons is now known as Monkhill Confectionary and they continue to preserve a small garden of liquorice plants.)

George, who is pictured here at my Mum and Dad's wedding in 1963, died in Ackton Hospital near Pontefract on 11 March 1964, aged 77.

52 Ancestors - Herbert Ward, WW1 hero

Herbert Matthew Ward 1893 - 1966

It is hard to feel confident when writing about my relatives and their roles in WW1.  Unlike some family historians, I have no letters from the front, or tales passed down through the generations to help guide me.  All I have are the somewhat stark service/pension records.  (I am lucky to have these given how few survived WW2.)

So I shall have to use a little journalistic licence when writing about my gt gt Uncle Herbert, who, as far as I can tell, was a WW1 hero who was lucky to escape the trenches with his life.

Overdramatic?  Maybe a little.  But his records clearly state that he was wounded in action in France in 1915.  He received gunshot wounds to his neck and right side, and they were serious enough for him to be sent back to Blighty just four days later, and to need six months recuperation.  He was awarded the 1914/15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal - the trio affectionately known as the Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.  Wounded, yet returned to battle, and the receipient of three medals - definitely a hero as far as I'm concerned.

To start at the beginning, Herbert was born in 1893 in Wakefield, the son of Matthew Ward and Sarah Womersley, and the brother of my gt grandmother Clara.

He joined the Kings' Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, a Territorial Force, when he was just 17, starting as a private and working his way up to sergeant.  This battalion was part of the 49th (West Riding) Division.  Apparently the units of this Division had just departed for annual summer camp in 1914 when emergency orders recalled them to home base.  All units were mobilised for full war time service on August 5 1914.  On 31 March 1915 the division was warned it would go on overseas service, and on 13th April Herbert embarked from Folkestone, headed for Boulogne.

Influenza must have done a round of the trenches in 1915, as in July Herbert spent two weeks in hospital with it.  Just 13 days after returning to the field, on August 7, Herbert was wounded in action.  He was sent back to England four days later.

Maybe his brush with death made him more appreciative of his loved ones, for three months later, on November 3, he married Nellie Green at the parish church of Darton.

Herbert returned to the trenches in February 1916, but only for two months. In April his five years with the army had come to an end, and so he was able to leave and return to his job as an electrician.

I don't know much about his life after this.  I know he had a daughter named Dorothy and a son named Geoffrey, and I also know that he was at my Mum and Dad's wedding.  A photo of Mum and Dad, surrounded by relatives, is the origin of this photo of Uncle Herbert, smiling as he peeks out from behind Mum's voluminous veil.  It's lovely to think that he will be remembered for his heroism and that happy smile.

52 Ancestors - It's never too late

Ada Womersley 1856-1943

I can't help but admire the pioneering spirit of my 3 x great aunt Ada Womersley.  At the age of 50, after living in pretty much the same place in Yorkshire, she took the courageous step of emigrating to Canada.

Just the start of her adventure must have been a hardship.  Saving for three tickets (for herself, her husband Richard and her son Alfred) from a meagre income.  Trying to decide what to take with them and what to leave behind, bearing in mind the tiny amount of baggage they would have been allowed.  Travelling on a noisy steam train, presumably for the first time, to Liverpool.  And worst of all, saying goodbye to the rest of her family, thinking she may never see them again.

Then there was the journey itself, aboard the SS Tunisian (pictured). Nine days stuck in dreadful conditions below decks.  An unimaginable smell of hundreds of unwashed people, many of whom were suffering from sea sickness.  The over-crowding, the enforced medical examinations and vaccinations, and almost certainly some questionable behaviour from travellers.  

"To me the most noticeable thing about the life was the ease with which the yoke of civilization was thrown off,"  says a first-hand report from a similar journey eight years earlier.   "If conditions be favorable, I opine that a large proportion of the steerage passengers throw back to their Darwinian ancestry about the third day out. Away from home, country, and religious influences, unrestrained by custom and conventionality, bound by no laws of action, and separated from all that force of opinion so strong in the world ashore, they let themselves go, and allow their baser natures to run riot. 

"No sooner has the seasickness left them than they growl and snarl over their food like dogs, scrambling for the choice pieces, and running off to their bunks with them; they grow quarrelsome; their talk is lewd and insulting; brute strength is in the ascendant; and, without shame, both sexes show the animal side of their natures. But most apparent and obnoxious are the filthy habits into which many of them fall."  *

It is worth pointing out that this account came from a single man who would have been staying in the single men's quarters; and that my 3 x great aunt would have been in the married quarters and hopefully older and wiser than a good many of the passengers! Even so, you can imagine people getting irritable and quarrelsome, and doing their utmost to get the best bits of food.

On her arrival at Quebec, there would have been more medical inspections, and potentially quarantine, before Ada, Richard and Alfred were able to travel to Winnipeg, where they then had to start another hard process - building new lives for themselves.

At least this was made a little easier by one thing.  I found out, after wondering what on earth would make Ada choose to emigrate to Canada at her age, that her eldest son John and his family had emigrated there two years earlier.  I'm guessing they must have written home to say just how much they loved it there!

Sadly, Ada's husband Richard didn't get long to enjoy his new life, he died just two years later.  Ada, however, was joined in Canada by all her children, and when she died in 1943, aged 86, had 14 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. There is no doubt she took a gamble when she left her home in Huddersfield, but it seems that it definitely paid off.

NB - for anyone trying to to keep track of which ancestor is related to which, Ada Womersley is the sister of Sarah Womersley, who was featured in last week's post.

* Steerage Conditions in 1898 - A First-Hand Account:   http://www.gjenvick.com/Steerage/1898-SteerageConditions-APersonalExperience.html#sthash.68JqiAoU.dpbs#ixzz35TGR6yki

52 Ancestors - the woman responsible for my genealogical obsession!

Sarah Womersley 1860 - 1942

Although I never met her, my great great grandmother Sarah Womersley is the one who is to blame for my obsession with family history.  I was given a photograph of her several years ago, so that I could include it in my scrapbooks.  But I didn't feel able to do a scrapbook layout about her without knowing something about her as well - and so the journey along my family tree began.

 Here is the photo, showing Sarah in what I assume is her backyard in Wakefield, Yorkshire.  Note the trellis and the flowers - it looks as if either Sarah or her husband enjoyed a little bit of gardening in their spare time.

Sarah, like so many of my ancestors in this particular branch of the family, was born in Kirkburton, which is about five miles south of Huddersfield.   The daughter of Ephraim and Ann Womersley, she was born on 28th March 1860, and was baptised on 28th December 1862 at All Hallows in Kirkburton.  You may remember her father from a previous blog post - he was the one who escaped death a couple of times.

The 1861 census shows Sarah’s family living at 3 New Mill, Fulstone.  She was the youngest of six.  Her siblings were Henry, Ann jr, Ellen, Ada and Ephraim Jr.

Ten years on the family had moved to 121 Bay Hale Lane, Huddersfield.  Henry had already left home.  Ann and Ellen were both working, and Ephraim Jr and Sarah were both at school.

In 1881 Sarah seems to have been the only one still living with her father.  Her mother had died, and Ephraim had re-married.  They were living in Brighouse, and Sarah was a dressmaker.

Four years later, on 13th August, Sarah married Matthew Ward, a groom, at the Holy Trinity church in Wakefield.  By 1891 they were living at 174 Mount Pleasant, Wakefield.  Matthew, aged 30, a was now a warehouseman for a chemist, and they had a daughter, Elsie.  Ten years on, the family was living at 39 John Street, Wakefield.  Matthew, 40, was now a maltster. Elsie was already at work, aged 14, as a woollen weaver.  The family had been joined by son Herbert M, 7, and daughter Clara, 5.

In 1911, they were still in John Street, Primrose Hill, Wakefield, but at number 17.  Matthew, 50, was a maltster's labourer.  Elsie, 24, was a worsted drawer, Herbert, 17, was an armature winder (probably also in the wool business), and Clara, 15, was a worsted spinner.  Also living with them was nephew Willie Sykes, 32, single, and a self-employed piano tuner and repairer.

As is so often the case, little is known about Sarah after 1911.  Family recollections tell of her being a demanding tyrant in her old age, although I suspect this may be partly, if not largely, due to the senility mentioned on her death certificate.  She used to live back to back to her daughter Clara, and would bang on the shared wall to summon her.  Each time poor Clara would have to go out of her house, down the road, round the side of the terrace, and back up the road to see what Sarah wanted.

Sarah died on 20th Sept 1942 at 61 Flanshaw Crescent, Wakefield.  The doctor gave causes of death as being cardiac failure, myocardial degeneration, senility and obesity.  She was buried two days later at Saint Paul's Church, Alverthorpe, Wakefield.

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