Canal Boatmen and Women

[janet smith]

Hi Tony phoned uncle Bill and yes he knows who you are Emily your mum right.. Oh and I would love a copy of any photo's you have, I have Thomas my ggrandad and his first wife Drucilla, Joshua and Samuel his brothers and their wife as they married the same woman, also Eliza ann Williams there mum, I also have a photo of Elizabeth and her husband William Price and two of their daughters Elsie and Bertha.. let me know if they are of any use, are you on ancestry? Kind regards Janet

[lindarhead]

Hi Janet( & anyone else researching the Fradley family)...Linda here...well to say I'm confused is an understatement, so confused in fact that I'm thinking of deleting everyone after Solomon & Benjamin as I'm no longer sure of their parentage, and starting again. Most folk on Ancestry.co.uk have, like us, their parents as William Fradley & Anne Podmore, but on the birth records for both Solomon & Benjamin parents are given as William Fradley & Margaret ( no maiden name given)...they're also given as parents to Hannah Fradley ( b1803 if memory serves without checking my tree) Now the only marriage record I can find for a Wm F and a Margaret is years before Benjamin's and Solomon's birth which is not to say that that isn't possible, but if it's right then we have completely the wrong William as their father.

Anyone with any helpful information please do get in touch.

Regards,

Linda

[tony1439]

To Kerry1212
Hi Kerry, what a great website you have created! You have my Fradley side( I will give you one or two additions later) My grandmother's side lists the following so far--Barnet, Grange, Brooks, Brereton, Egerton Doughand Palin( The last five from Middlewich records)
Assuming that you are not already aware of it, I would like draw   your attention ( and everyone else) to a  superb book called A Canal People by Sonia Rolt of the photographs of Robert Longden. Taken in the early 1950s a collection of first class photos of working life  mainly around the Coventry and Oxford canals. The people including children belong to families with following names--Collins, Grantham, Berrill, Carter, Humphries, Humphreys, Skinner, Stokes, Bray, Ward, Wilson, Nixon, Monk, Hone, Taylor, Slater, Newbold, Beechey, Smith, Gibbons, Littlemore, Hanbridge, Lane, Lapworth, Whitlock, Wilson, Tonks, Beauchamp, Griffiths, Peasland, Harrison, McDonald, Anderson, Rogers, Jackson, Tom Rolt, Best, Merchant, Higgins, Boswell, Rice, Hough and others many of which will still be alive. The boats of Samuel Barlow Coal Co Ltd of Birmingham feature but there are others like Fellows Morton and Clayton and British Waterways. I would consider it a must for everyone interested in the history of families on the canals. It depicts what all our familes did. Published 1997, Paperback 1998 by Sutton Publishing Limited, Phoenix Mill, Thrupp, Gloucester, GL5 2BU. Paperback £12.99.  Contains a list of books from 1878 to 1996 about Canals. I got my copy from Borders but I'm sure it could be bought through any bookshop.  I'll be in touch later, Regards Tony1439
  P.S. I dont have shares in shops or publishing.

[tony1439]

To Kerry1212,
Hi, I just saw that I had misspelled a name . Instead of Dough read Doughty. sorry.
Tony1439

[tony1439]

to Lindarhead.
Hi Linda, I spent a long time on the film of the parish records of Stone which shows that the records were in a poor state when filmed. Apart from some of the scribble( much of it was in a variety of legible scripts)many pages were either bleached out or indecypherable. Working from the most recent to the earliest I recorded the Fradleys as they appeared.Benjamin s/o Ben and Eliz Fradley was born4.11.1838, there were nine other births inccluding Benjamin born 2.1.1818 who had, I believed, died. I found no record of his burial. I have seen in many families the death recorded of one child and later another is given the same name.  Benjamin (who maried Elizabeth) was born the son ofWilliam and Margaret Fradley. I recorded the births of their children as follows-William 10.1.1781 bt 13.1.1781.--Samuel 29.12.1783--Sarah 15.5.1786 bt22.5.1786---Thomas 4.9.1789. bt19.9.1789--John  9.6.1791  bt19.6.1791--Benjamin 8.10.1795 bt13.10.1795--Solomon 26.9.1797 bt 5.11. 1797. I also found a Solomon born 29.1.1800  and no record of death of the first Solomon. If William is working as a boatman the child could have been buried elsewhere, this could also account for the delay between birth and babtism of Benjamin.
I found that William married Margaret Bloor on 1.11.1778. she was christened Peggy on 26.61762 the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Bloor. There were no Margarets recorded. At that time it seemed to be common practice to christen girls with a diminutive form of the name like Polly and Peggy. In the records I noted that there were other Fradleys who were probably cousins and as I said in an earlier note they came from the parishs just north of Stafford. I noted that a William was buried on16.6.1830. Does that help?
 Regards, Tony1439

[tony1439]

To Lindarhead.
 Hi Linda, I have just read what I typed late last night and realised that I had made a mistake.
Benjamin s/o Benjaminand Elizabeth Fradley born 2.1.1818 at Stone died and was buried on 28.1.1818. I was working from  rough notes I made at the time and I was tired. Sorry.
 Regards. tony1439

[lindarhead]

Thanks Tony, that's excellent, absolutely brilliant!!...

I shall alter my family tree accordingly.

I sent you a PM with my email address in case there is any other Fradley info we can share.

Thanks again, Linda....

[Scragg]

I've read with great interest the information collected on this site about the Fradley family.My great grandfather was William Fradley,son of Benjamin Fradley and Ann Stanworth.He married Ellen Firkins in 1892 in Congleton ,Cheshire and they went on to have John(my grandfather),Florence, Rebecca, Ellen, Emily, Violet and William.I would be pleased to see any photos anyone has of Benjamin and Ann's children as the ones my family had and there  were many as I can recall from my childhood days were sadly destroyed.My grandfather John worked on the canal boats as a young man and
married my grandmother Harriet Wall whose father was a lockkeeper at Shelton Locks.
Regards
Joan

[Scragg]

 Hello Janet, Thank you for the photo of William's sister Elizabeth.I can see the family resemblance to the photos that I remember seeing as a child of the Fradley males.They were probably of William and his brothers,but I do recall that they looked like my grandfather,John. I will try and contact other members of the family to see if they can help and will then be back in touch.Thanks again, Joan.