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Messages - Jaxyfone

Pages: [1] 2 3 4 ... 8
1
Leicestershire / Re: 2a Lee Street in Leicester.
« on: Saturday 28 November 20 19:55 GMT (UK)  »
For what it's worth, the whole area was part of the post-war/1960s slum clearances. Part of Lee Street still exists but it leads into Lee Circle, which is now mostly a multi-storey car park. I believe there were a number of lodging houses in the surrounding streets.
John Merrick, aka the Elephant Man was born in Lee Street.

2
Leicestershire / Re: place in leicestershire
« on: Monday 13 July 20 15:33 BST (UK)  »
I've looked at the record and it definitely ends in --bury, so I doubt it's Frisby or Freeby unless it was dictated and misheard by the scribe. The first three letters aren't clear - one of those Fs that could be an S, T or even J. Even so, I study maps of Leicester and Leicestershire quite regularly at work and it's not like any place name I've ever heard of in the area.
It could be worth trying to find other records of residence for John and for other family members - that could give a clue.

3
The Common Room / Re: Headstone for Ripper hunt officer ~ how nice, but where is the family ???
« on: Tuesday 30 June 20 17:50 BST (UK)  »
Haven't been on here for too long but have just rediscovered it searching for information on an ancestor.
Martha Abberline was my 2nd cousin 4x removed Her great grandparents, Tobias Mackness and Sarah Broughton were my 5x great grandparents, her grandfather (also Tobias) and my 4x great grandfather, John being brothers. John was the first of the family to move to Leicester.
Martha was born around October 1847 at Elton. On 5th March 1868, at the age of 21 (not 25, as it incorrectly says in the marriage register) she married Frederick Abberline at Islington.
I don't know her exact date of death but it was in the Apr-Jun quarter of that year, cause of death tuberculosis. They had no children.
He later married Emma Beament/Beaumant (depending on the record) and as far as I'm aware he had no children with her either.
Frederick and Martha's marriage intrigues me. She was the daughter of a family of farm labourers and yet at the age of 21 we find her in London married to a Police Sergeant. I can only think that she either went into domestic service, went there with her employers and met her husband, or that she maybe ran away there for some reason, was somehow disgraced and Abberline, seeing her state of health, married her to save her from the workhouse or any further disgrace. At some point she clearly returned home to her family and died there (Oundle and Elton are very close).
I can find no other reference to her.
This is one of my ongoing genealogy quests.

4
Caernarvonshire / Re: Trefor stone quarry
« on: Tuesday 29 August 17 16:43 BST (UK)  »
Excuse me resurrecting a (very) old thread but I've been away from this site for some time and was reminded of it again after a Google search.
I'm currently researching the Newbold family of Mountsorrel/Rothley, Leicestershire and have found some in Trefor/Llanaelaiarn that I haven't got a family link to as yet but I'm pretty certain they are linked to my Newbolds, who also went to Dalbeattie at one point.
My Newbolds are also linked to the Antills of Mountsorrel. Charles Antill(bn 1826) lived with my GGG Grandmother, Sophia Ward(bn 1816), in Mountsorrel after my GGG Grandfather, Matthew Newbold(bn 1816) apparently left her and moved to Nottingham. He married Mary Ann Haywood around 1868. It seems Matthew and Charles had some sort of friendship before that because there are various newspaper reports of the two of them being up in court for their misdeamours, usually centred around them being drunk and/or being involved in poaching!
Charles later became a 'photographic artist' and I believe would travel around the country with fairs - effectively a street photographer. I'm sad to say, though, that I cannot think of him as the charming rogue he sounds because on one occasion he went to prison for severly beating his two-year-old stepdaughter whose back was described as 'a mass of bruises' in court.

5
The Common Room / Re: 14th great grandfather......
« on: Tuesday 19 August 14 22:43 BST (UK)  »
Not sure how many generations without checking, and again, needs verifying, but I'm back to 1460. A right lot of rogues they seem to have been over the centuries, too. At least two generations were involved in cattle rustling and were mentioned by a local landowner when defending himself in the Star Chamber court.

On the other hand, there are also hard-working wheelwrights in there, a marriage to a rather famous detective and another marriage to a family who claim to be able to trace their lineage back to Edward IV, so I guess I'm probably a 'collateral descendant' of Richard III - but then who isn't?  ;)

6
The Common Room / Re: sometimes finding things is not so good
« on: Tuesday 19 August 14 22:32 BST (UK)  »
My father in law was illegitimate and spent the first three years of his life - so we believe - in an institution. He was taken out of there when his mother married - again, we believe - his stepfather (who may have been his natural father - who knows?!). For some reason Dad was always called after his step-granddad and never learned his real name until he missed his initial WW2 call-up. He could barely read and because his call-up papers didn't show the name he recognised as his 'own', he naturally ignored them. Fortunately his mother put him right and the army were understanding enough to give him a second chance without it affecting his record.

We're still struggling to find out anything about him, though. He had a pretty rotten childhood by all accounts and would never talk about his family or his past up until he joined the army (he loved the army). I have his mother's/stepfather's marriage certificate, which names her father, but I simply cannot find the man at all, whatever version of the surname I use or however broadly I search. Both witnesses at the wedding were the husband's family. I can't even find her in the two census' that took place before her marriage.

What my husband thinks, on reflection, is that his nana had a somewhat broad concept of 'truth', maybe giving out names that weren't hers or even her family's (or maybe she felt ashamed,  although the family were a long way below 'respectable middle class', if you know what I mean) . There are cousins whom we plan to ask, but we somehow doubt we're going to get very much further.  :-\

7
The Lighter Side / Re: Never heard of this name before
« on: Wednesday 13 August 14 19:37 BST (UK)  »
Are there any links with the West Indies? I'm thinking of Anansi, the spider character in West Indian children's stories.

Seems like modern parents aren't the only ones to give their unfortunate offspring some awkward names. I have an Alvila in my tree.

8
Hertfordshire / Re: Two addresses for his mother.
« on: Wednesday 13 August 14 19:32 BST (UK)  »
That's not useless, Ray. It's actually quite useful. Thanks.

9
Hertfordshire / Re: Two addresses for his mother.
« on: Sunday 10 August 14 18:26 BST (UK)  »
Thank you for these answers. I'm currently waiting for Dad's mother's marriage certificate (she married when he was three years old) and hoping that it contains some details of her family members so that I can attempt to find out a little more. I may, at some point, need to pay a visit to the local record office and see of I can see an registers of either the workhouse or the London Orphan School, but I need a clearer idea of where he was placed during those three years. Roll on 2021 when the census may be able to help me a little more.

Think I'm going to have to read up on workhouses in general. Seems all we're told, for the most part, the very worst parts of some of the earlier workhouses - the 'Oliver Twist' stories. Jennifer Worth, in her 'Call the Midwife' books discusses some of the more humanitarian practices of the later workhouses and tells the stories of some people who actually got their start in life and a decent trade thanks to their workhouse childhood.

I have read that by the time Dad was born, Watford Workhouse had stopped putting the title 'workhouse' on birth certificates so as not to hinder its inmates in later life. Instead they just put '60 Vicarage Road', which seems like a very forward-thinking thing to have done.

Not an ideal way to start or end your life, I suppose, but marginally better than starving or freezing to death on the streets. :-\

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