SKELCY/SKELCHER Surname

[carol02]

Hi Morad  Deb is tracing Dumbleton. I don.t know if Edward Walker and Elizabeth are related, Mary was his second wife. Carol

[chris_49]

I'm new here. I'm researching our family tree and was puzzled by the Skelcher/Skelcey change too. There were plenty of Skelchers in Cubbington in the C18th but they seemed to have died out by the 1881 Census. OTOH the Skelseys (various spellings) proliferated. I found a lot of them at the Mormon site http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp. This is where I found William (Skelcher) Skelcey whose parents were Skelcher but whose children seemed to be all Skelcey.

My g-g-grandfather was a George Skelcey born in 1828, who married Ann Draper. I can't find any record of his birth, so I thought he might be a son of William. However, this seems unlikely if William had another son born in 1828 - there were other Skelceys George could have been a son of.

The only Skelceys (and Skelcys) listed in the 1901 Census were living within a few miles of Cubbington. Most of them were living at Regent Street - my g-grandparents James and Sarah and seven of their eleven children. Two of the others turn out to be their daughters (in service in Coventry and Leamington) leaving only the eldest daughters - one married, one dead by then. The rest seem not to be related, not even Elizabeth "on parish pay". James and Sarah have a great many descendants, though not all called Skelcey of course. I didn't investigate Skelseys then as there were many of them and I was told they were unrelated.

In the 1881 census all the SkelCeys on the Mormon site are unrelated to me - but in fact George and Ann SkelSey are living in Church Terrace with their youngest surviving children. James and Sarah SkelSey live nearby with their eldest children, while another adult son Thomas lodges on the same terrace. There is a tradition that my grandfather  - eldest son George - was born on this terrace, before his parents moved to Regent Street.

The spelling seems very variable, however. James seems to have followed his father in using the S spelling in 1881, but Sarah seems to have registered all her children as SkelCY (I have the birth records of 8 of them). Of course literacy standards were lower then. By 1901 the whole James branch of the family seems to have settled on SkelcEY, and that has stuck.

What I found puzzling is that in 1881, 1891 and 1901 SkelSeys were found in a variety of counties (Middlesex, Yorkshire, Durham, Wiltshire etc) whilst the Skelcey and Skelcy variants were confined to central Warwickshire. You'd think that the spelling confusion could arise anywhere. Could it be that the other Skelseys pronounce their name Skelzey (compare Wolsey, Halsey, Ramsey etc) and the pronunciation changed in Cubbington and district because of the Skelsey/Skelcher merger? Any Skelseys around with the "z" sound?

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who thinks they may be descended from George and Ann's other children - the boys were called William, John, Thomas, George, Henry/Harry and Frederick, though Frederick seems to have been dead by 1881 - at least, not living in his parents' house - and only Thomas of the others has so far been found as an adult. There were two daughters but, again, the younger was not at home in 1881. If you are descended from the George who married Harriet Harrop and had a lot of children, he seems to have had a different father, so not closely related. But any info on Cubbington Skelceys would be welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

[carol02]

Hi i have been tracing the Skelcy/ Skelcher for ages, I think your George Skelcy was christened at Ryton=on=Dunsmore 12 Sep 1825 to Thomas and Ann but the surname is Kelcy, There were two George Skelcey's living in Cubbington, My George Skelcey married Harriet Harrod, Your George Skelcey married Jane Whittle. Carol

[carol02]

Hi  Frederick only lived two weeks, he was buried 10 feb 1873. Cubbington. Carol

[chris_49]

Thanks Carol.

Have you any proof of these? I have George Skelcey senior as born in Cubbington in 1828 according to his marriage certificate and the 1881 census. Might the Ryton one be another George? I know it's not uncommon to get birth years wrong, but 3 years out and a different village seems unlikely. There is a tradition that my Skelceys had lived in Cubbington for generations. (My grandfather is sometimes given as born in 1874, the year he was christened, but he was actually born 29th Dec 1873, and given that his parents only married in the Sept the obfuscation is understandable. To complicate matters, there is another George Henry born in Cubbington in 1873, married there in the 90s and died there in 1949. My grandad was married in North Wales in the 1900s and died there in 1957).

Likewise with George marrying Jane Whittle. I'd like to believe it, but there are other Georges (born 1842 1858 and 1859 in Cubbington) who are also candidates. I only have the one child of theirs - young George died 1911 aged 23, apparently unmarried and childless. I have records of a Thomas (married Eliz. Haycock) and a Henry/Harry (married Mary Margaret Holmes) who both also had children in Cubbington at the time, but I don't know if they are the brothers of George and James.

I'm not surprised about Frederick, as he wasn't listed in the George/Ann household for 1881, and the same thing seems to have happened to Eliza Harriet. I have found another daughter, though - Emma, born 1857. She could well have been married by 1881. This makes George and Ann nearly as prolific as their son James - 10 known children.

Did you ever get to meet George and Harriet's last surviving child, Edith Harriet, died 1980 aged 95 or 96? My great aunt Mabel lived to a similar age, until the mid 1980s.

Thanks for all this. Any more info on Cubbington Skelceys gratefully received.

Chris

[carol02]

Hi Chris  the 1851 census George Skeley 24 farmers boy born Righton, William Skeley 10 born Cubbington, living with their sister Eliza and John Green in Cubbington. I got confused with the George.s (1859) died an infant (1858) parents John and Elizabeth my gt gt gtandparents (1842) not on 1851 census so may have died.   Thomas and Henry are brothers of George and James. I haven.t found anything about Emma (1857) Carol

[carol02]

Hi Chris  the 1891 census is on line if you want to check both Georges. Edith Harriet is at the home of her grandmother Eliza Draper, Jane's mother. Carol

[chris_49]

Thanks Carol. I had an Edith Skelcey living with her grandmother (presumably remarried, as Henry seems to young to be her grandad) Eliza Draper in Cubbington High Street in 1901. This is almost certainly Edith Harriet who is the right age - but she is a daughter of George and Harriet Harrod according to christening records, so is your relative not mine! I thought that since she died in Cubbington so recently you might find people that knew her. I don't know what relation Henry Draper is to Ann Draper, if any.

My relative is Eliza Harriet Skelcey but like her brother Fred she seems not to have been around by 1881, when she would have been 9 or 10. I know my James and George had brothers Thomas and Henry/Harry (and William and John) but I don't know how I can prove they were  the same ones who married and had children later on, unless I find the actual marriage certificates. In any case, unless some of their descendants come forward I'm never going to get a complete tree of George and Ann, though hopes are high for that of their son James and Sarah.

I know 1891 is on line through Ancestry but I swore I'd never deal with them again after they ripped me off (it's a long story). In any case I've got almost everything I need for that year, save the whereabouts of elusive Ellen Skelcey (1878-1896). I've even found her elder sister Hannah Elizabeth in service in Leamington that year on another site.

What I'd be really interested in is finding sources for say the 1851 Census, the year that George and Ann got married, or earlier years, or more birth and marriage certs. I'm still not convinced that he is George of Ryton - the age is wrong. George and Ann were married in September 1851 - was that after the census was taken? Their eldest William was christened in January 1852 so it seems a case of - like father, like son!


Chris



 

[chris_49]

Carol, I should have mentioned that Edith Harriet Skelcey married yet another Draper - Francis Edward - in 1907, and presumably that was the name she was using when she died in Cubbington in 1980.

Chris