strays on the canals

[mrs noah]

Hello Twigg.

  I have been trying to find some reference to your Twigg family and have had hardly any luck at all,they certainly knew how to avoid being documented.

   I found some of the Wolverhampton entries and would suggest that you went to Stafford Record Office and had a good look at the Census returns.

   Also I looked in the bmd records of Cheshire and found that a  lot of 'Twigg' people use Holy Trinity Church in Runcorn, and I found the entry for your William Twigg to Florance Ashley.
BUt
when I checked the marriage of John to Eliza in 1877 I found that John was the Smetham and that Eliza was the Twigg, in which case you need to go back and double check your findings.

  It seems most probable that the Twigg family like so many of the canal Boatmen and their families were shy of the law and did everything they could to hide from it, by not registering their babies or being on census or not getting married. You will probably spend the rest of your life walking the canal tow paths looking for them ......so join the club!! I have been a member now for 20 years!!!

 Good hunting
Mrs Noah. 

[cardiff]

Ok mrs noah
will wait to hear from you
cheers cardiff

[shelleyfamilyhist]

Hi guys

new to this,so you'll have to bear with me

i have 4 generations of boatmen in my family tree,by the name 'Wright', and all have links to Tipton, Toll End Road.

William Wright 1875-1918, Boatman, married Mary-Ann Bailey in 1892, Tipton
daur Bertha Wright (my great grandmother)
       
      -Son of-

John Wright 1845-abt 1918 Boatman, Married Elizabeth Ralph (father John Ralph, Boatman)
John was born in Stanton, Derbyshire. Censuses show him living in Toll End 1881-1901

     -son of-

William Wright 1823-1889 Boatman, Married Maria Currey Wagstaff in 1846, Tipton (Parents James Wagstaff and Mary Currey, Boatman)
William was born in Stourport in 1823, along with 5 other siblings,yet none are shown on familysearch.com- i have copies of baptisms.
Both are buried in Tipton Cemetery, Spent their later lives at Toll End again

   -son of-

Thomas Wright and Sarah.....

This is where i hit my dead end.All 6 children are baptised in Stourport
John Wright, 1821
William Wright, 1823
Benjamin Wright, 1825
Sarah Wright, 1827
Elizabeth Wright, 1829
Samuel Wright, 1834
All are extremely patchy on cesuses, but i cannot get the wright line in Stourport any further back.I know there are another 5 Wright families Baptised in Stourport, But none are Boatmen, and none seem related.Can you or anyone else help??

If not, i hope some of the info i have collected can help others.Other Boatman names i have linked to my Wrights are:
Ashley
Ralph
Diggory
Beresford
Nixon
Whitehouse
Broughton
Hope i can help someone, even if they cant help me

thanx

Stuart

[canal woman]

Hello Stuart.

  what an interesting messge, you have done so much research ...............

 Can i get back to you when I have really read what you have written and give it some thought.
 My family have connections with Lower Mitton as Stourport was called , and I know the frustration when you are looking for but cannot find a person.

 Let me just digest your email  and I will get back to you .

 Mrs Noah   or Canal Boatwoman....   not sure who I am anymore!!!

[canal woman]

Stuart Hello.

 I am not going to be much help to you i am afraid.

 I have read your email and digested all the names
 Nixon I have come across in Wolverhampton and Whitehouse is a very common Midland surname. as for Wright. There are quite a family living in Cheshire in the Middlewich area  but the other names are not familiar to me.

 I too have Canal Boatmen who lived and had babies in Lower Mitton in the 1800.s  I looked in the Parish Records that were/are held in the library there.  I also went to Worcester and looked in their Parish Registers.

 I think that the trouble with our Boatmen is that they some times worked the boats and some times had a job on dry land. Only the dedicated men stayed on the boats and it is them that you can follow up and down the system. Kidderminster is a good stopping off place to have babies and get married,, as is Compton using Tettenhall Church.

 If you follow the cut up from Stourport you can drop off at a number of Churches on the way to Wolverhampton. alternatively you can branch off into the Birmingham Navigation and then get to Dudley where your and my famillies collected. especially at The Coppice and again at Worsley basin .............

 I am sorry to say  this, but if you are really keen you will be spending the next .........years trying to find your family. I  have never used the internet for my research and did it all by foot and record office,   which is  very hard work but very interesting. The internet is a very isolated place to research people. useful as a tool but no more.

  I am sorry that I cannot be of more use to you.

 Mrs Noah  /canal woman

[Catsclaws]

I have a Smith family That Im researching and I think I may have found a connection to another branch of the family but I am very unsure .
Can anyone help please ?
My gran was Sarah Smith  Shown here . Can anyone tell me what boat they were on please ? Or what is really stumping me is The mothers Maiden name .  My gran died in 1964 when I was little so I have no birth certificate and nearly all her children are dead .. Also is there a record of a Soloman dying youn drowning in a canla Lock ? That was the tale told in the family .
There may be a branch off one of the other siblings leading to Thomas  Henry Smith and his family of boatmen  We are trying to make a link . I am very short of money as I only work a 3 day week so its very difficult to do research atm
Here is the census with my gran on
Thanks Jean

Name:Sarah Smith
Age:9
Estimated Birth Year:abt 1892
Relation Daughter
Father's Name:Thomas
Mother's Name:Elizabeth
Gender:Female
Where born:Satley, Warwickshire,
Civil Parish:Soulbury
Ecclesiastical parish:Soulbury All Saints
Town:Soulbury
Count Buckinghamshire
Street address:Boats at three locks
Father's Occupation:Boatman on barge
Registration district:Leighton Buzzard
Members:Name Age
Annie Smith 22 born Bromley staffs
Edward Smith 13 born wednesbury staffs
Eliza Smith 7 born Birmingham Warwickshire
Elizabeth Smith 42 born Brentford Middlesex
Elizabeth Smith 5 born Birmingham Warwickshire
Lily Smith 2 bnorn Brentford middlesex
Mary A Smith 17 born Birmingham Warwickshire
Sarah Smith 9 born Saltley warwickshire
Solomon Smith 11 born Leighton Beds



Marriage registered for Sarah Smith and John W. Payton in Aston, 3rd quarter 1915 vol 6d page 1006

[Catsclaws]

Mrs Noah
My nanny Sarah Payton ne Smith had settled on land by the time I came into the world .. but I was her fav grandchild probably because I was a Smith in looks and ways . Well she brought me up . Shed have me sleep in her bed when I was tiny ,she used to sleep in her clothes .She used to swear loads and so did I as a 5 year old . But it wasnt wrong swearing it was her natural way . My memories of her taking me to bedworth to see the family are are sketchy but I really loved her and missed her even now . When she was 70 and I was 5 she used to live in Nechells brum .. she used to set off for a pub crawl taking me as a 5 year old and her little dog round the pubs she was a character but a bloody hard worker .
Thats why id love to find her family .
regards
jean xxxxx

[canal woman]

Hello Jean

 I would love to help you if i could, but i am more familiar with the canal Boatmen in Cheshire .
 Never the less.have you tried looking in the Parish Registers of  Bromley   for the marriage of Thomas and Elizabeth??? I say this because usually the first child is christened where the parents marry.

 I know with Boatmen this is not always the case because they are up and down the cut  but it might be a pointer for you.
 Parish registers are available in record Offices and they will also have canal Boat registers if you are lucky. They don't cost money to join and are a wonderful source of information.

  Have you looked in the free B/m/d registers here on the net? there might be your Grandmother s birth recorded and you could get a birth certificate,  a copy would only coat you £7 and it would give you here mothers maiden name. [also if the child was born on a canal Boat it would give the name of it ,as place of birth ]
Research does not have to cost a fortune,, more it is time that costs the money. research well and you can keep your overheads quite reasonable.

Canal boatwoman/mrs Noah

[canal woman]

Jean. Thanks for the reply.

 Cannot get the hang of this programme so am starting from scratch again!
 I don't think you are soppy at all.and I hope that you are writing down everything that you can remember from when you were little and with your gran.

 I have been researching my Canal Boatmen for over 20 years and I have taken ages to find just one birth or marriage............. so keep on going.
 for instance
my Grand dad was born in 1877 on valentines day. I had no idea then just where he was placed in the family as I only found him on the 1881 census and there was no indication as to how many children had gone before him..........................5 years later   yes 5 years   i found his parents marriage ................1851   it has taken lots of research and leg work  but i got there in the end. I just love my Canal Boatmen   would have been thrilled to go back in time and meet them and ask them all about their work and how they became Boatmen in the first place. So many questions.................  you are lucky you have a few answers.

Sallie///canal boat woman/mrs noah