Big Decisions - Week 8 of "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks".

We can  generally find out the "who, where, and when" about our ancestors’ lives, but the "why" remains a mystery and we can only hazard a guess as to motives when making a Big Decision - the Week 8 theme in this year's challenge "52 Ancestors in 52 Days"".  

Why was 6 year old John Robert Donaldson left behind when his parents moved 350 miles south?

 

John, my husband's great grandfather,  was born in 1854, the son of Robert Donaldson, a shipwright, and Isabella Walton of South Shields, a town on the north east coast of England, dominated by the sea and maritime activity. An obvious next step in research was to find the family in the 1861 Census, but frustratingly, in the days before online records, this proved impossible to trace. Yet all the indications were that direct Donaldson descendants had remained in South Shields down the generations.

It was only much later the opportunity to do national searches online revealed that,  by 1861 Robert and Isabella were at Portsea in Portsmouth on the south coast of England. With them were two young sons Thomas, aged 4, born South Shields and one year old Frederick W. (Walton perhaps after Isabella's maiden name?) born at Portsea, indicating a move c.1857-1860. But there was no mention of their eldest son, John who would have been 6 years old. 

How had the family travelled 350 miles from South Shields to Portsea, by rail or more likely by sea? Was work the reason, with Robert now employed at Her Majesty's Dockyard as a shipwright? But why had Robert and Isabella taken the decision to leave their first born son John behind?  Why was John not with them?    Many questions!

Back in South Shields, I returned to the 1861 census and found John's maternal grandparents, John and Hannah Walton, with the household also including their grandson "John Robert Walton" aged 6. This must be "my" John Robert Donaldson, mistakenly recorded in the census with the wrong surname. An entry in the 1871 census gave further confirmation - a John Donaldson, aged 16, born c.1855 was living at the home of his maternal uncle Robert Walton. Death records showed that John must have lost his grandparents (and his home) in 1868.

Eight year later John married Jane Elizabeth Rushton. and they had four sons - John Robert, Henry, Thomas, Frederick and one daughter Isabella. Interestingly these names echoed those of his siblings in Portsmouth. For Robert and Isabella had more children - Thomas, Fredrick, Henry, Robert, Charles, Isabella and Alfred.

The fact that John retained the name of his father and mother for his eldest son and daughter suggests that the split had been amicable. One cannot help wonder did the two families ever meet again.

Why was Maria Rawcliffe, my great grandmother, recorded on her birth certificate as  Maria,  but  in later official records, called "Martha Maria"  - on her 1877 marriage certificate, her 1881 census entry , her burial record  and my grandfather's 1897 birth certificate?    

 

This was a puzzle, as Maria's granddaughters,  who were still alive,  referred to her as Granny Maria.

Further research established that Maria's sister (the youngest of eight daughters) was christened Martha, born  20th January 1863, and died 22nd May 1863.  Maria would have only been around 4 years old, so could have had little memory of her youngest sister.  Moreover their mother had died two years later so could not have kept  the memory of baby Martha alive for her other daughters.

 

So why did Maria take the decision to adopt Martha's name?    

 

Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe (1859-1919)
with her only daughter Jennie (after 8 surviving sons) 
and granddaughter Annie Maria

Why did Maria's sister Alice Rawcliffe  and family (husband John Mason, a general labourer,  and six children under 11 years old)  emigrate  from Fleetwood, a fishing town in Lancashire to Brooklyn, New York in 1886-7.  

No Rawcliffe of Mason family had connections with the USA.  No light was shed on the decision to persuade them to take the leap into a new life in America.  

Alice and John had a further five children in New York (three dying in infancy).   My big blog success story was a descendant making contact with me and contributing  stories and photographs on the family. 

Alice and John Mason and their eight surviving children c.1920's

These questions on how the families made their big decisions remain mysteries and I may never know the answers - another factor that makes family history so absorbing a hobby. 

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