Birtley,Co.Durham

[stevejb]

My memory is bad. Elizabeth Potter is shown on FreeBMD in births for Chester-le-Street (April Jun 81)
Steve

[stevejb]

The Telfers are on FreeBMD in Chester-le-street. They are Under "Telfords" and there seems to be an extra "Robert" birth. I guess the next thing is to look at parish records if I want to know. Nobody readily has access do they? Pity the listings are not broken down by Parish.

Steve

[pick]

Hi Steve - the Pick family I am married into come from Gloucestershire, interesting though, because William and John are both recurring names in the family, even back to the 1700s. My family, McKie / Luther, lived in Birtley and surrounding areas from the mid 19th century.
Have you tried the IGI for parish records?
Best wishes
Kathleen

[stevejb]

Hi Kathleen, The IGI listings for Birtley just go to 1861. I need 1881.
My Picks go back to Thirsk where John was born in 1720. Christopher was born there in 1789 but moved the family to Northallerton sometime between 1789 and 1824. John Pick was born in Northallerton in 1828, but was living in Chester-le-Street in 1861. His son William, was born Chester-le-street. John, my grandfather, was born in the NE before he moved to Barrow-in-Furness, where my dad and I were born.
Funnily enough, although I have lived in six countries, and I have found strong ties to Chester-le-Street and surrounds, the closest I have been to that area was a 6 month stint working in Darlington in 1962. It is a pity I didn't know then, what I know now.

Steve Pick
Dallas Texas

[pick]

Hi Steve,
Robert Telfer and his family, including grandchildren, are still in Harraton on the 1891 census. An Isabella Telfer, age 33, is recorded as being his daughter.
By 1901 The family are in Chester le Street. Presumably Robert has died. Isabella is head of the family, Roberts grandchildren,Robert age 23, John, Walter, Jane Ann and Thomas, age 6, are recorded as Isabella's children.
Her status is "widow".
I'll do a bit more digging to see if I can find anything else. Apologies if you already have this info.
Kathleen

[pick]

just looked - a Robert Telfer died aged 79 in Chester le Street in 1893. This would fit with his 1814 birth.
Still can't track down an actual record of the grandchildren's father though.
Kathleen

[stevejb]

Hi Kathleen,
I appreciate your help. Yes I agree on Robert's death in 1893 but can't see him yet on the 1911 census. Due to the Birtley mix up  in my mind bewtween Durham and Northumberland I haven't straightened out the child born around 1880. ie Elizabeth Potter, Elizabeth Pick or Elizabeth Telford.
Also I have given up on the other children, born in Birtley, shown on the 1881 census.
I think I traced Elizabeth ? 1879/81 to following her mother's footsteps and had a child Elspeth Telford in 1899. Looks like she married William Ventress shortly after. Elspeth Ventress (Telford) married George Burch in 1922 and they had a child Joyce in 1927. All this happened under Chester le Street records. Of course my conclusions do have a bit of guess work but they look reasonable.
I took a look yesterday at the Durham records site but came up with nothing.
For now I am moving on to other parts of my tree. If you are interested I have my tree on pickfamily but I haven't updated it for about a year and this latest stuff doesn't show.
Steve

[stevejb]

Hi again Kathleen,
I recently took out a subscription to findmypast and had only used the census records up to now. They do have parish records for Robert Telfer 1878 and Robert (1872). The 1878 one has Isabella as the mother and no father. The 1872 one has Elspeth as the mother and Robert as the father. Looks a bit incestuous! Sarah Jane (1975) and Elizabeth (1880/1) not found yet.

steve

[pick]

Good luck with the rest of your search Steve! I'd love to hear how you get on.
Regards
Kathleen