Wolverhampton-Smithyman

[Willow 4873]

Hiya Delboy

Stourbridge is pronounced locally as Stow-our-bridge all run into one word or say it slowly and it comes out with a Dudley accent (Willow now going in search of her tin hat incase any rootschatters are from Dudley lol)

Willow x

[ryan]

Hello all.
Thought I should chip in too for what it's worth: remember never to discount Smithyman as I surname, as I have a few in my tree too. My lot are from Kingswinford.

Good luck with your research DelBoy!!

Ryan.

[DGB001]

There's a few Smitheman's in my family's history and I believe that that was the more common spelling for this family - at least on the Kingswinford's branch.

[DelBoy]

Hi There,

This Smithyman has been a bit of a brickwall. There was a Kendrick Smithyman, who authored a book of poetry about his family, here in NZ, (quite well known in NZ) he was related - my Smithyman was mentioned in his book, but even he (author) didnt know how they were related to one another.

 

Del

[DGB001]

Delboy,

Correction to 1st post - my family tracks back as Smithyman too. .

As follows:

John Smithyman (b. 10 Sep 1773, d. )

     John Smithyman (b. 28 May 1797, d. ?)

          Edward Smithyman (b. 30 Mar 1806, d. ?)

              Jane Smithyman (b. 1840, d. 1917)

Most records are for Kingswinford, Staffordshire, England, but some for Saint Thomas Church, Dudley, Worcester, England. Remember that Worcester seems to have regional pockets inside what should be Staffordshire in early records

[DelBoy]

Hi there,

I have managed to find a little more about my JB Smithyman, only to find another JB Smithyman, being his father  .  (Thanks to the efforts of lookups via rootschat)

JB Smithyman snr married Harriet Pout 04 Sep 1808, St Phillips Birmingham, the first 2 children, christened there also. ( her dob 1791 c,  so I guess his dob be similar -give or take)

My JB Smithyman was named as the only son of his father, in the above marriage notice, yet it appears that 2 more children were born, (brussells, but BS) inclding a son. William.

The dob for this William and place of birth fits in perfectly with the grandfather of the author, who wrote the book Id mentioned. He had thought that maybe my JB and his grandfather were brothers. Apparently little was known about his grandfathers family and they were not spoken of alot through the generations, yet JB's line were referred to as cousins.

So I have to wonder now if JB Smithyman snr, died before 1851, as his wife is named as a widow in 1851 census, or did he run away from the family, as he is said to be from Wolverhampton in the marriage notice. So it could be taken as he was living or dead.

Now....was there a skeleton in the closet here, or just a simple chain of events, with nothing out of the ordinary.

Cheers
Del

[NOTYAL]

A bit late in the day, but perhaps of interest?
A very distant relative, Buxton Layton (1788-1866) RN commander, left a legacy of £150 "...to the widow of my friend the late Mr John Bailey Smithyman formerly of Brussels but now residing at 1 Victoria Place Compton Road Wolverhampton in the County of Safford..." The will was drawn up 28 Sept 1864 and proved 6 March 1867. 

Cheers,

Ian Layton

[chadwickcarpenter]

I have Smithyman in my family tree, again from Dudley and Kingswinford. It appears to be a very rare name with only 98 individuals recorded in the 1881 census, so anyone with the name in their tree is probably related. There are other variations in the West Midlands area such as Smitheman, Smythyman, but these are often down to the spelling of the recording clerk and you can find the same person with different spellings in a number of census returns and parish records.

Hope this helps, and hello to all my probable distant cousins.

[Nowecious]

I have just come into this conversation. In our Woodnorth/Woodnoth family, (Whptn & Stourbridge) there was a Skidmore Woodnorth born, 1846 in Stourbridge. We were trying to work out which couple of the family he belonged to, and we have only just got his b/c - surprise, surprise - his father's name is given as Thomas Smithyman. Looks as if he was illegitimate - a Thomas Smithyman got married in Dudley shortly after - but not to our Mary Ann   Mary Ann was the official Informant of the birth & she must have been either very bold or VERY angry to register the father's name officially.
  On the cert, she is listed as 'Mary Ann Woodnorth' not 'Mary Ann formerly Woodnorth' as they do for married women.
     Interestingly, since we requested the cert, the GRO has altered Skidmore's surname in FreeBMD, and his birth is now indexed as Smithyman.  However, his death the following year is still indexed as Woodnorth (so far).