Minimum info, but could use suggestions

[Gillg]

A relative of my mother was always called "Cousin Sarah", although it seems more likely that she was the cousin of someone in an earlier generation.  I know that Sarah was married to a Jack Kershaw and that they lived in Royton near Oldham in the 1940s, where Jack was manager of the Yorkshire Penny Bank.  I don't know Sarah's maiden name and of course Jack could be a shortened version of James, John or Jacob.  In addition, it was quite common for people in the  family to be given two forenames and then called by the second of these names.  Sarah was probably born in the 1870s in Newhey, Rochdale or Oldham.

How on earth do I proceed in finding out Sarah's maiden name?  I have tried FreeBMD for Kershaw marriages in the early 1900s, but it's a very common name in the area.  There is a possibility that she may be the daughter of Alice nee Wild, born c 1840, but I don't know who Alice married - there are far too many marriages of Alice Wild in the Rochdale/Oldham area to find the right one.

Can anyone suggest a way forward for me, please?

Gillg

[touchofmange]

hi try for kershaw births to the parents and see if you get any couples, try it on familysearch. If you can find some with the right parents then they probably got married before the first child.

when you say you checked freebmd, you know you can find the spouse or spouse with other entries by clicking on the end number?  if there are no sarah's it's not him.

i don't know if you have a county bmd but if you do, go back to the spouse names of alice wild, put the surname in and sarah for christian and see if you get wild as a maiden name.

you just have to try and be logical about the search, it takes some getting used to, but look on the bright side you have the information, you just have to do the ground work.

 

[SmallTownGirl]

If he was a bank manager, there might well have been an obituary for him in the local paper, or at least a notice of his death.  If so that might give details of his children and then you could try to find the births of those children, SN Kershaw and that would give you the mother's maiden name.

[aghadowey]

Previous thread: http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=355639.0

There was a (female) Kershaw in the Trustee Dept. of the bank-
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/41050/supplements/2452/page.pdf

[Gillg]

Thanks, everyone for your suggestions.  Sorry aghadowey, I should have referred to my earlier attempt to find this elusive lady. 

Sarah and Jack had no children, so can't trace back this way.
 
I believe Sarah would probably have been born in the mid to late 1870s and married in the early 1900s, maybe around 1910.

I have been right through the Lancashire Kershaw/Sarah marriages on FreeBMD and Lancs BMD - there are rather a lot of them in Rochdale and Oldham, the most likely places.
 
The idea of an obit for Jack sounds hopeful.  I'll see what local studies in Oldham can come up with.
 
Alice Wild was born around 1840 but there are even more Alice Wild marriages in the 1860s.  Obviously a popular name, and to be honest I am not absolutely sure that she was Sarah's mother.  Just a hunch because of a sampler by someone of that name which was left to us by our Sarah.

touchofmange - I will try to keep hopeful and logical, but I have been trying for years to solve this one.  If only I asked my mother more about this when she was alive!

Gillg

[SWar]

Hi,

A few thoughts -

Are you able to check the 1911 census by occupation - chances are that Jack would have already been working in a bank.

Have you checked probate records for Sarah.  This one caught my eye in that they may be related.
‘Sarah Alice Kershaw of 426 Barnsley Road Halifax (wife of Frederic Kershaw) died 4th Dec.1939. Probate Wakefield 21st March to the Yorkshire Penny Bank. Effects £808 4s.11d’
And this one.
‘John Ernest Kershaw of 341 Bowling Hall Road Bradford died 3rd March 1947 at St Lukes Hospital Bradford.  Probate Wakefield 2nd June to the Yorkshire Penny Bank Ltd.
Effects £2354 10s 3d’

Also found this marriage which may fit in somewhere
Dec. Q 1930 Rochdale
Frank Kershaw to Alice Wild/Southwell
8c 114

Both Sarah and Jack could have been married previously and therefore the marriage could be a lot later than you think.

Sue

[LizzieW]

Just slightly off topic -I'd never heard anyone in my family referred to as Cousin X, my mum and grandma always referred to female relatives as XY, Y being their maiden name whether married or not and mean as YY. (Which was very useful when researching the family tree)  However, my husband has a cousin who was always referred to as Cousin H.  I have no idea why they did that, there weren't any other Hs in the family.

[mazi]

A quick thought, when you were promoted to Bank Manager it was almost never in the same branch that you had worked in before, and might have been a fair distance away, often a house nearby went with the job, as the "keyholder" in emergencies you had to be nearby, although this mostly died out in the 1950's

[Gillg]

LizzieW
We had lots of these Cousins in my mother's family.  I suspect that the cousin relationship referred to my grandparents or gt-grandparents, and this title was handed down from one generation to the next, thus my grandfather's true cousin Annie, daughter of his mother's sister, had a daughter called Cousin Vera.  All three generations - my grandfather, my mother and my brother and I - always referred to them in this way and they would sign Christmas and birthday cards like that, too.  There were also two Cousin Gerties!  Maybe it's a northern thing or just a family quirk.

SWar
I don't believe Sarah, at least, was married before, but that's just a gut feeling.  Obviously she was getting on in age when I first knew her in the 1940s, though Jack was still at work in the Yorkshire Penny Bank.  They lived in a flat above the bank, which was just a tiny branch.  Actually, thinking about her age in the 1940s, maybe she was born a little later than I thought, in the 1880s, perhaps.  I have a rather formal photo of my grandparents with her and my mother, then aged about 4, which seems to indicate to me that she was still unmarried at that time (about 1905).

Thanks again, everyone.
Gillg