Horses to Horse Power: Sepia Saturday

Each week, Sepia Saturday, provides an opportunity for genealogy bloggers to share their family history through photographs.  

Sepia Saturday's latest prompt photograph features a 1920s lorry. My mind turned immediately to my cousin's Oldham family of Blackpool, Lancashire, who were carters and coalmen down three generations. The business  went from  using horses to horsepower  - and below is their first lorry purchased in 1921. 

The business was founded around 1890, by Joseph Prince Oldham (1856-1921) and steadily became prosperous.  In  1905 it moved to near North Station, Blackpool, Lancashire in a house with a large yard, hay loft, tack room. and stabling for around 7 horses.

 

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In the 1901 census Joseph Prince Oldham (below), son of William Oldham and Sarah Prince,  was described as a self-employed carter and coal merchant. Also in the  household were Joseph's  wife Mary Alice, his 20 year old son John William and three  young daughters, Sarah Alice, Edith and Beatrice, plus also mother-in-law Mary Ann Knowles. 

 

The Oldham family c.1910 - Back: Sarah and John William 

Front:  Father Joseph,  Beatrice, Edith  and mother Mary Alice. 
 

Joseph Prince Oldham with his granddaughter Elsie 

who later took over the business.

An accident at the coal sidings in the railway station resulted in Joseph being blinded and he died in 1921, with his will, signed with his "mark".

 

 Son John William Oldham on one of the carriages

 in the family business.

 Joseph's son, John William Oldham (1880-1939)

Shortly before his death Joseph had purchased the first vehicle (at the top of this page)   which was used alongside the horses and carts until the 1930's when two new vehicles were bought. 

 

Lorry c. 1936



This vehicle  was requisitioned during the Second World War by Governmentfor use by  the Fire Service. It was never returned.

John William Oldham married Mary Jane Bailey (my grandfather's first cousin)   in 1905 at St. John's Church, Blackpool.  The photograph below shows them standing, with seated John's sister Sarah who went onto marry George Butler (front left) who also worked in the family business.   Look at those hats!!

 

 

 The couple  faced tragedy with  when their youngest daughter Hilda  died aged 6 in 1915.  

Family photograph c.1909 with baby Hilda 

and older daughter Elsie. 

On the death in 1939 of John William Oldham,  his daughter Elsie (below) took the helm with her husband Arthur Stuart Smith and saw the business through the difficult wartime years, combining it with her own hairdressing concern as "Elise"  run from the family home.  

 

 

    

Elsie Oldham (1906-1989)  - my mother's second cousin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The coal merchant business was eventually sold around 1948 to another local firm, thus ending over 50 years of the family concern.   

 

Elsie's daughter Gloria atop one of the last horses.

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 Click HERE to  read this week's blogs 

from other Sepia Saturday blogger.

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New Arrivals in America: Sepia Saturday

 For this week's Sepia Saturday, I focussed on the November theme of New Arrivals and relate the  story of my emigrant ancestors  who arrived  in the  USA in 1886-7  to make a new life for themselves.  

How I Discovered them 

I was browsing online  for the names of my great grandmother's sisters - she had four.  Up popped Alice Rawcliffe  who died in Jamesburg, County Middlesex, New Jersey in 1930.

The Rawclliffe family who married into my mother's Danson family,  had always seemed very firmly based in and around, Blackpool, Fleetwood and Poulton le Fylde, in Lancashire.  How had Alice   come to travel from the coastal small fishing town of Fleetwood, Lancashire  via Liverpool to the teeming hub of Brooklyn,  New York City and onto Jamesburg, New Jersey.

Who was Alice?  

 

Alice (1853-1930) was the  older sister of my great grandmother Maria Rawcliffe in a family of eight daughters - five surviving infancy,  In   1873 she married John Mason and over the next twelve years had six  children, their names reflecting those of close family members - Robert William, Jane Elizabeth, John Thomas, James Richard, Margaret Alice and George Rawcliffe.

But I failed to find the family in census returns from 1891

The American Discovery

 It  came as a complete surprise when  a casual browsing of Rawcliffe names  on Family Search resulted in an  entry for Alice Mason née Rawcliffe (1853-1930) with the statement that she had died  in  Jamesburg, Middlesex County, New Jersey - the first time I was aware of any potential American connection.  All the information fitted with "my Alice" - dates, names, places etc. 

American Research 

I boosted my Ancestry UK subscription for a short term, so I could access American records. The results:

The  New York Passenger Lists on Ancestry and Family Search  revealed  that John  Mason, aged 32 had emigrated from Liverpool in 1886 on the ship Aurania, to be joined a year later on the same vessel  by Alice, aged 34  and now with  six children aged from  11 to 10 months  (plus two pieces of baggage).  How on earth did  she cope on the seven-day voyage?  This was my first revelation too  of  son George Rawcliffe Mason, born in 1885 in Fleetwood.  

 

Google gave me information on the ship Aurania which was built in the Glasgow shipyard of J & G &Thomson  and launched in 1882.  In 1899 it was used as a troop ship, taking soldiers to South Africa to fight in the Boer War.

 The ships arrived at Castle Gardens, New York   - the more famous docking point of Ellis Island did not open until 1892.  

As with much of family history, we can find out the who, where  when  but the "why”is more of a challenge.  The prospect of economic success was a key motivator in making people uproot their lives for a new one,  There was a family story that John's brother , Richard was already in the USA, but I have yet to validate this.  

Life in America 

 The Mason family settled in Brooklyn, New York.  Between 1888 and 1898, Alice had a further five children,  - Arthur Valentine (born appropriately on 14th February 1888 - a reunion baby?) Harold Arthur Victor, Lillian Eveline, Bessie Irene and the youngest Florence Adelaide - their names in sharp contrast to the family names of their siblings, born in England.  Arthur, Bessie and Lillian sadly all died in infancy. Were  the crowded living conditions a factor here? 

The family took out US citizenship in 1895.  

The 1900 census for the City of New York, Brooklyn showed a large Mason household of ten living at 72 Hall Street in what was probably an apartment building with four other families at the same address.  John was described as an insurance agent

 

The 1910 census for New York still found the family on  Hall Street,  Brooklyn, with John working as a labourer at the Customs House. 

At some point the family moved  across the river to Jamesburg, New Jersey. The 1920 census saw a depleted household with John and Alice, now both 66, with their eldest and youngest daughters (Jane  and Florence), and widowed son Robert with  his baby son, also Robert.   

                       

For over 10 years I puzzled over  "Who is this striking family group?"   The photograph mounted on heavy dark card,  came to me from  my great aunt Jennie Danson,  of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire.    Unlike many of Jennie's photographs, she had not written anything on the back - perhaps because of the dark mount, and there was no photographer's name and address  to indicate where it had been taken.   But it  must surely be of one of of my great grandmother's sisters - Anne, Jane, Alice, or Jennet?  The composition of the family and ages of the children ruled out all but Alice.

 

I put enquiries on various message boards but with no response.

  

Then I set up my blog in 2010  and posted about my mystery photograph.   A year  later came SUCCESS!!  The granddaughter of Florence Mason (the young girl in the above photograph) was pointed to my blog by another relative.  

 

She got in touch and she had the very same photograph  as mine,  but mounted with the name of a photographer in Brooklyn, New York.  

 

We  exchanged e-mails, photographs and information of our ancestors down the generations and remained in touch until her death. Other descendants and I are Facebook friends.

 

Some photographs from the Mason collection.  

John  Mason (Alice's husband)  

with his youngest daughter, Florence

 

• Florence and her husband Charfes Urstadt.  They had six children including Curtis Rawcliffe Urstadt  - his middle name a reminder of his English ancestors.  
  
   
  

  
  
   
   
   It was special to receive a photograph of the Mason family with all eight surviving children. 
   

  Top - Robert, Jenny (Jane Elizabeth), Mother Alice, Father John, and Harold. 

   
  Bottom - Thomas (John Thomas), Alice (Margaret Alice), Florence, George and James .
  
  
  
   
  Alice died in Jamesburg in 1930;  her husband John in 1937.

So it is all thanks to the power of the Internet and of blogging, that my mystery photograph was eventually identified and I discovered the story of my first  emigrant ancestors. It pays to be patient in family history research.

The challenge remains as I aim to trace further my American cousins down the generations.

Adapted from posts first published in 2011-2013.  
 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share
their family history and memories through photographs.

 

 

 

Click HERE to see posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers

                                                                           

The Pleasure of Discovering Family Photographs: Sepia Saturday

I am marking Sepia Saturday’s 750th blog challenge by looking back at photographs  that I have received over the years.  They enhanced my family history and contribute to my enjoyment of 14 years of blogging, much of it on Sepia Saturday.

Reconnecting with Relatives

My initial blog posts were based on the shoebox collection of memorabilia at my grandfather  Danson's house which we visited weekly in Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire. 

 

  My aunt Edith Danson and my mother Kathleen Danson  are the two little girls at the front of this parade c.1912.

The cards my grandfather  sent home  from his time serving in the First World War  are among my top favourites. 

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Funerals can be a time when families  come  together and such was the cas,   when I chatted to my mother's cousin A.  who I had not seen since I was a child. I told her of my family history hobby.  She later kindly supplied me with memories of her father - my great uncle Bob, a postman  in Blackpool,  a 1928 press cutting of another cousin's wedding, and importantly contact details for other cousins, including P. now living in the English Midlands.

I decided to phone P. - given I was not aware of any sensitive family issue, I was happy to do this and introduced myself as "A voice from the past - I'm Kathleen Danson's daughter." 

 
What a wonderful reception I got  - P. outlined the family memorabilia she had up in the loft   and wondered what to do with it, offered to come up to Scotland to visit us,  and my husband I made a return visit the next year. The result of making contact, I received:

•  Memories of my grandparents William and Alice Danson - my grandmother died when I was a baby.  It was somehow funny in the nicest possible way to hear my grandparents referred to as  Uncle Billy and Aunt Alice.

• Memories of my great grandmother Maria Danson (1859-1919), nee Rawcliffe    passed down through her daughter, Jennie to Jennie's  two daughters.  I had not seen this photograph before and have found it quite difficult to date. 
   

• The only photograph I have  of my great grandfather James Danson (1852-1906), sitting merrily  in Poulton old stocks.

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• Memorabilia of the youngest Dansonson  George including a two letters written by him, just weeks before he was killed on the Somme in 1916 aged just 22. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
•  I touched and photographed  - Maria's tea-set, bought from collecting coupons in a "Daily Mail" offer;  and her jewellery including items brought back from Malta by her son Frank, who was hospitalized there in the First  World War.
  
  
   
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
• I was given a collection of some 50 postcard photographs  of Jennie's friends and their families, with many of the men in World War One uniform, so dated from c.1916.   It must have been the practice to exchange such cards between friends,  (the Facebook of the day!) and Jennie had thoughtfully  written their names on the  reverse.  
  
  
  
  
    Gerty Roskell - a popular surname in the Fylde area of Lancashire and one with connections to my Danson family
  
  
  
• Other  encounters with my  mother's cousins were less successful.  
  
  
  With one I received a friendly  chat, a memory of me as a child in pigtails,  a request to do research into  a sideline of the family, but nothing more in terms of memorabilia. Sadly the contact with Australian relatives petered out after initial e-mails. 
   
   Nevertheless a wonderful contribution to my Family Archive!  So the message here is do not dither and delay in reconnecting with relatives - you never know what might result to enhance your collection.
   
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  Other family photographs arrived on my computeras a  result of my blogging activity, with two unknown third cousins discovering it. 
   
   I found out about my first emigrant ancestor,  Alice  Mason nee Rawcliffe (1853-1930) - sister of Maria above. Alice emigrated to the USA with her husband John   and had a large family of 11 children - 3 dying in infancy.   The granddaughter of Alice's youngest child Florence got in touch  and we exchanged information and photographs. 
  

   

   

   

  John Mason (Alice's husband)  

  with his youngest daughter, Florence

  
  It was special to receive a later photograph of the Mason family (below)  with all eight surviving children. A number of descendants are listed as my DNA matches, /
  
  

   

   

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  My other big success was much nearer to home. Like me   Stuart was born in Blackpool, Lancashire and in fact we went to the  same junior school,   though not knowing one another.  We shared the same great great grandparents - Henry Danson and Elizabeth Calvert - Stuart from their eldest daughter Elizabeth (1831-1885) - me from their youngest son James (1852-1906) .
  

   

   Even better Stuart lived only 50 miles away  so we could  easily meet and spent afternoons,  sharing research, old photographs and memorabilia.  As a result I was given  a wonderful boost to my blogging activities in terms of family stories and images, just when I felt I was coming to a halt with my own material.  
   
  Stuart had done considerable research on many branches of his family.    His father's Smith family cane frin  the Scottish island of Unst  - the most northerly spot in the British Isles, 120 miles north of the Scottish mainland.  His grandmother married into the Oldham family  of Blackpool carters and coal merchants in Blackpool in a house with a large yard, hay loft, tack room. and stabling for around 7 horses.;   and his great grandfather was William Dower, a minister in the Presbytrian Church who became a missionary in South Africa. So rich material for blog posts. 
   
  
  
  

   Stuart's father  Arthur  Smith not looking too happy, as he perches on the chair, clad in a dress, as was the custom  for very young boys.  The tartan reflects the family's pride  in their Scottish links.    
  
   
  
  
   
   Stuart's Grandfather  - Edward Stewart Ingram Smith.  His early life was full of promise, but the impact of serving in the First World War at the age of 44 took its toll on him.  

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  Edward with his young family c.1916,  with son Arthur shorn of his curly locks.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  An elegant portrait of Sarah Alice Oldham on her wedding to George Butler in Blackpool, Lancashire  and what a showy outfit, magnificently decorated large hat, and a large posy set off by  long broad ribbons.  She was one of three daughters in the Oldham family of carters and coal merchants,
  

   

  Oldham grandaughter ~Elsie  Oldham   was my mother's second cousin. On the death of her  father in 1939  Elsie (left) took the helm with her husband Arthur Stuart Smith. She also ran her hairdressing concern her  as "Bobbing,   Shingling and Marcel Waves." This lovely evocative advertising blotter below is in the family memorabilia.

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Family history can take us in all kinds of directions and Stuart's family connections, although not my direct ancestors,  added a new dimension to my blog posts.  

•  How many people can claim to have a published poet amongst their ancestors? That was the case of my third cousin Stuart whose great great uncle was John Critchley Prince (1808-1866).  He became well known in his time as a writer of poetry in the Lancashire dialect. 
  
  
  
  
• A pioneering South African Missionary, a politician, a  test cricketer   - and one of the leading scientists of the  20th century - you can stumble across some amazing stories when you start to delve into sidelines of your family history. 
  
  
  Such was the experience of my cousin, Stuart who was researching the family of his Scottish great grandmother Isabel Edward from Banchory, Aberdeenshire. Isabel's  sister Jessie married William Dower  and in 1865 they set sail to South Africa  for William to take up an appointment as a Wesleyan  missionary.

 William and Jesse Dower

 

Their  children  and grandchildren made their mark in the world in a variety of key positions, amongst them

• Alan  Blumlein (1902-1942)  has been described as "the greatest electronic engineer of the 20th century", notable for his many inventions in  telecommunications, sound recordings, television and radar.  He died at the young age of 38 during a secret trial of an airborne radar system.
  
  

  

The commorative plaque in London.

 

Stuart's contact with me was my lucky day  - and I haven't even mentioned the war-time tales, the business bankruptcies,   the wealth of wedding photographs down the decades or the charming children's photographs that have found their way into my blog posts.  

 

So to finish - thank you to Sepia Saturday  for your 750 weeks of blogging challenges and the opportunity to feature so many photographs that have come my way from family connections.   

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share
their family history and memories through photographs. 

 

 

 

  Click HERE to see posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers

 

 

New Furry Friends Joined our Family - Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday's "New Arrivals" theme offers this week,  as a prompt, a basketful of puppies.  Cue for me to feature again the three pets that were part of our family over a period of twenty years. 

Our third family pet is amongst this trio of lovely puppies.

How it all  Began

 

Our daughter was 5 years old and Crufts Dog Championships Show was on television - how could we resist that combination.  The result by the summer was that Beauty a golden cocker spaniel became part of the family.  

 

 It was a sad time when we lost Beauty at the age of nine, and we said we would not go through that again. But surreptitiously we were all looking at adverts in the local papers, and within a month we had Colleen - a 2 year old gentle blue roan cocker spaniel. 

 

With my parents, taking a  break from a walk in the park.  

 

Colleen died suddenly at seven years old at a time when there were other stresses in the family. We could not imagine family life without a dog and that had to be a cocker spaniel.   So within a few months we had puppy Casmir (Cass) - an orange roan cocker - she had such a distinctive colouring, she became well known around our small town and lived to the grand age of 13.  A pet and great friend of all the family.

 

 

  Enjoying a good chew in the garden

 Pet Pleasures come in all times, whatever the weather! 

 

A wet and windy crossing to the Isle of Mull
with all other passengers sheltering below deck.  

   

Braving the elements on a windy day on the Isle of Iona. 

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I always thought of Cass as the "princess"   

if she was to star in a Disney animated film. 

 

 Our last photograph of Cass

 

Three much loved pets who are a part of our family memories.

But if you can't have the real thing, a favourite toy will do. 

 

Making do with a toy dog  for a studio photograph  -

 my brother-in-law with  a furry friend. 

 

 

Daughter with her little toddledog.

                    Granddaughter taking her little dog for a walk. 

 

 

As a child, my husband had a number of china animals,  but this this little dog  is the only one that has survived the 80 years plus  and sits on our window sill enjoying the sun. 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share
their family history and memories through photographs. 

    

    Click HERE to see posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers.

       

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