Z for Zeppelina & Zetland: A-Z April Challenge 2020

ZEPPILINA -  I have no Zebediah, Zadok  or Zaccariah, Zara, Zena, Zelda,  Zipporah or Zandra in my family.  However I have come across the name of Zeppilina in  "The Sunday Chronicle"  for  26th September 1937 (my husband's birthday),  
 
This quirky item bore  the intriguing headline    "Zeppelin was Her Stork" and told how Zeppelina, celebrating her 21st birthday, was named after a German Zeppelin which crashed near her her home in Essex on the day she was born in 1916

ZETLAND  -is the old name for the Shetland Isles, the northern most isles of Scotland, situated 110 miles from the mainland and closer  to Bergen in Norway than to Edinburgh. Shetland stretches around a hundred miles from north to south. with over 100 islands in the group, 15 of which are inhabited.  It is well known as the home of the Shetland ponies. I wrote about the most northerly of the island -  Unst,  under the letter U - the home of my cousin's  Smith ancestors.

Early Shetland was was occupied by Pictish peoples. They left no written history but ancient  towers called brochs, carved stones and beautiful silver objects. From about 800 AD, however, the Pictish peoples were either displaced by - or absorbed into - waves of immigration from Scandinavia as the Vikings expanded westwards.

Shetland remained under Norwegian control for around 600 years. Their rule ended as the result of a marriage treaty in 1468  when King Christian I of Norway mortgaged Shetland to the Scottish crown to raise part of the dowry for the marriage of his daughter Margaret to King James III of Scotland.  James went on to annex Shetland to the Scottish crown in 1472, though the Nordic influence remained strong on the islands. 

Image courtesy of Pixabay

 

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As  this 2020 Challenge comes to an end
with my shortest post of the series, I conclude: 

I have Zipped and Zoomed through the letters, had an occasional  Zany moment, but approached the challenge with Zest and Zeal to reach this Zenith. 

                                               A BIG THANK YOU  TO

All my fellow bloggers who took time to read (my often lengthy)  post"liked" my posts and specially those who wrote comments - these are very much appreciated.  As ever I was amazed at the different interpretation of the letters, especially the bugbear letters  of Q, X and Z;  fascinated by the varied tales of ancestors' lives - whether illustrious or ordinary; and learnt from the  writing of others in the process.  

My advice to anyone considering taking part - plan  and draft your posts well ahead, as the pace can get hectic.    I was very late signing up, largely because I was originally going  be away in April and was also heavily involved planning for a local history  exhibition - both cancelled of course in the current crisis.    Result was I was constantly catching up  and often drafting posts only a day ahead of the posting. 

I tried to read other genealogyentries- and there did not seem to be that many of us,  but I failed to broaden my reading,  by looking at other categories  in the challenge, - something I have managed to do in the past. 

At the end, I must admit I breathed a sigh of relief,  but then I am already thinking of possible themes for next year!   Onto 2021!

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Y for Yeoman Farmer, Henry Danson: A-Z April Challenge 2020

The  birth certificate of my great grandfather James Danson (1852-1906) first brought to light the names of his parents - mother Elizabeth Calvert and father Henr Danson, described as a "Yeoman Farmer" - with the address Trap Farm, Carleton near Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. 

But who/what was  a "Yeoman Farmer"? The Oxford English Dictionary defines a "yeoman" as "A man holding a small landed estate, a freeholder under the rank of gentleman....a countryman of rspectable standing, especially one who cultivates his own land."


The British Genealogy website defines it:  "A yeoman is generally used to mean a farmer who owns his own piece of land (however small) as opposed to being a tenant farmer. It may have been as simple as him wanting to sound a bit grander than his neighbours."  

Other websites  indicate it was a farmer of the middle classes, who cultivated his own land, often with the help of  family members i.e.  in the social structure of the times, above  a tenant farmer, but below the gentry and nobility. 

[So not to be confused with  the  ceremonial Yeoman of the Guard at the Tower  of London in their Tudor costume] 

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Henry Danson, my g.g.grandfather (1806-1881) - Yeoman Farmer & Tollkeeper Research in the census returns and Parochial Records took me back to  the birth at Carleton of Henry Danson  on 25th July 1806 - baptised a day later in St. Chad's Church, Poulton.  He was the 7th child, born twenty years after his parent's marriage  when his mother must have been 40 years old.   This was the time of  of the Napoleonic Wars,   and nine  months after Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar 

Sole entry on a page in the Danson family bible   reads “January 4 1827 Henry Danson Son of Henry Danson,  Born 25 of July 1806”.  This entry was dated just after the death of Henry' s 15 year old brother James, 

 

 

Henry Danso) married 6th April 1831  at St. Chad's Church, Poulton Elizabeth Calvert of St. Michael's Over Wyre, daughter of Nathaniel and Grace Calvert.

A Growing Family

 It took research in the census records to establish that their  family was an extensive one, with  nine children born in 20-21 years - five girls, Elizabeth, Grace, Mary, Margaret, Ellen, followed by sons John, Henry, then another daughter Jane and finally my great grandfather James.  

With a population in Carleton of just 378, the family was easily traced in the 1841 census to Trap Farm (left)  and a household of 10 including Henry & Elizabeth and family, Henry's brother Peter and two servants. 

It was noticeable that the children were named after family members, with the two eldest daughters taking their grandmothers' names. All the children were baptised at St. Chad's Church, apart from second daughter Grace who was born in the picturesque village of Wrea Green - I have been unable to trace a baptism for her.  

The family were still at Trap Farm10 years later in 1851, with Henry described as a farmer of 31 acres in a household that had grown  to 13,  Grace had left home, but eldest daughter Elizabeth was there with her husband, Thomas Bailey, and Peter was described as unmarried brother and annuitant.

A New Home
With these details found so easily,  it was frustrating to "lose" the family from Trap Farm in 1861 (this was before census returns online).  What had happened to a seemingly prosperous farmer?  Had there been a downturn in agriculture?

Henry, Elizabeth and family were eventually traced to the parish of Layton with Warbreck, near Blackpool, where Henry was a carter.   There seemed to be a trend of married daughters returning to live at their family home with their husbands - this time living with her parents was third daughter  Mary, a laundress and her carrier husband William Henry Gaulter. 

A notice in "The Fleetwood Chronicle" 24th August 1860 stated that "Tuesday 28th August a sale would take place at Leys Farm, in occupation of Henry Danson of 5 acres of wheat, 2 acres of oats and 6 acres of bean and hay".

A New Occupation as Tollkeeper at Shard Bridge
The 1871 census revealed a complete change of occupation as Henry was now  toll keeper at Shard Bridge Toll Bar, Singleton, near Poulton.  The Shard Bridge opened in 1864 across the River Wyre to replace the ferry. 

A search of the newspapers online confirmed Henry's appointment there, wiht a brief report in "The  Preston Chronicle": Saturday 31st August 1867:

"On Saturday 1st the directors of the Shard Bridge Company appointed Mr Henry Danson of Poulton-le-Fylde toll collector, vacant by the demise of Mr Thomas Moore."

On a visit to nearby Marsh Mill, Thornton, now a visitor attraction, I came across a vintage poster  which featured The Shard  Bridge Act of 1862 and stipulated a  list of toll charges including:   

• For EVERY HORSE, OR other BEAST, drawing any coach, stagecoach, omnibus, van, caravan, berlin, landau, chariot, barouche, phaeton, chaise, marine galash,  curricle, chairm, gig, whiskey, hearse, litter, chaise or like  carriages - THREE PENCE
   
• For every ox, cow, bull or neat cattle - ONE PENNY EACH, 1/6 PER SCORE.
   
•  For every calf, sheep, pig or lamb - ONE FARTHING EACH OR FOUR PENCE PER SCORE.
• For every foot passenger, not being the driver, of or engaged in driving or leading any cart of carriage passing over the bridge - ONE PENNY

One can picture Henry having to count each animal crossing the bridge. - and what about that first lengthy listing of vehicles?    What was a "marine galash" or "a whiskey"  and how would you identify "neat" cattle?  Family history research can take you in strange directions!  More work called for here. 


 Continuing the Family Story
 In 1871, returning to the family at this time was youngest daughter Jane with her small daughter Ellen and husband Thomas Cardwell, a groom;  also Jane's sister Ellen with her illegitimate daughter May.  

By 1881 the Danson household was much depleted.  Mother Elizabeth had died in 1879, with daughter Margaret, widowed twice and childless,  returning to act  as housekeeper, with her brother  Henry  and niece May.

Henry Danson senior died a few months later on 27th October 1881 aged 75 years, with Poulton Monumental Inscriptions recording his burial on 1st November in St. Chad's Churchyard.  Sadly the family gravestone was one of many removed in later years.

St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde - A photograph taken by my uncle Harry Danson 

Postscript
Bailey, Cookson, Gaulter, Brownbill, Longshaw and Cardwell were all the surnames of Henry's sons in law.  

Then one edition of the Lancashire Family History & Heraldry Magazine gave, in the listings of members' interests, three separate entries for the surnames Cardwell, Cookson and Gaulter. I made contact and amazingly all proved to be connections, adding more information to my family story, with Henry Danson leaving a legacy of 37 known grandchildren. 
 
Ffurther evidence of the extended family came from a page in the Mannex Directory of 1851.  The list of professions and trades in Poulton included: 

Inns & Taverns
Golden Ball, Ball Street.  Wm Gaulter, King’s Arms, Market Pla.  Cornelius Cardwell,
 
Watchmakers

Brownbill, Jas., Market Place

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X for EXcitement, EXceeding EXpectations - and Much More: A-Z Challenge 2020 :

I have no Xenia or Xander in my family tree;  place names beginning with X abound in China and there are some in Wales and Greece  - but nobody I know comes from there;  and the last time I played the xylophone was on my daughter's toy instrument many years ago.  So here I am focusing on  some of the sidelines of my family history activity.

 

X is for:


EXcitement at finding ancestors who were unknown to me. After many years of appearing on message boards etc. with minimal success, my blog was discovered by three different third cousins and resulted in new photographs and new stories.  Below is Mary Jane Danson (my great grandfather's cousin), with her husband John Oldham, a coal merchant of Blackpool, and  their children Elsie and Hilda. 

EXceeding EXpectations: When I first started on my family history trail, I thought I would be lucky to trace my very ordinary Danson family back to the 1841 census. I have far exceeded that, discovering my great great great, great grandfather John Danson, born 1736, son of Peter, husbandman.  Here is his signature from his will found in Lancashire Record Office

 

EXchanging Information: In pre-Internet days this activity came from joining Family History Societies and studying their listings of Members Interests. Now the world is open to us. My first venture into Internet research on my Bryning connections resulted in more information in four weeks than I had unearthed in four years. A wonderful tool - as long as you check sources! 

   

Examining Records - the fascination and pleasure in touching documents,  written  a long time ago relating to my ancdestors' lives.   

The family bible of my paternal great grandfather John Matthews, 

recording the births of his ten children 1872 to 1892.  

 The will of my maternal gggg grandfather John Danson  who died in  1821

EXpressing the family stories: Research is an all absorbing task, but turning the facts, names and dates into a family story that people are interested in reading, whether through blog or book, is my favourite FH occupation, along with the detective work.


EXcursions into sidelines of family history - local, military, house and social history: occupations, travel,  leisure, lifestyles, names traditions, etc. etc. to add colour to a family story. This is something  I have tried to reflect  in this year's A-Z challenge, and the possibilities are endless, with local newspapers online a key source of information. 

                                    Earlston Parish Church Choir Outing, 1906 

                      Polish soldiers based in Earlston  in 1944, training for D Day 

                                         Entertainment in Earlston in 1892

                       [Earlston  images courtesy of the Auld Earlston Group]

EXpense: I have read comments about the expense of the hobby. I have been lucky in that I have not had to spend too much on obtaining BMD certificates. I can appreciate that people are on a tight budget, but it can be a question of being very focused in accessing paid internet sites - being sure you have done the background work through other means e.g.free sites of  Family Search and Free BMD,  and especially that you have found the "correct" person - admittedly not easy if you are researching a popular name. 

Take advantage of discount offers on the  subscription sites or consider a 14 day sub for concentrated searches - as long as you remember  to cancel at the end of your session.

But it is worth remembering so many leisure activities come at some cost, whether it be sport, music, art and crafts, collecting etc.  

And finally after all of this - EXhaustion!

My father enjoying a snooze in our garden in Edinburgh c.1960's 

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W for War Memorials and an Unexpected Discovery: A-Z Challenge 2020

War Memorials give no more than a name, yet they are one of the most powerful, poignant and emotive of family history resources, recording the loss of often young lives under harrowing circumstances. War Memorials are not only significant features for the family of individuals they commemorate but also for the local community who bear witness to the sacrifice of their people in war. 

So many local historians are now takiong on board projects to research and publish accounts of the men behind the war memorial names.   My archive centre also holds a large collection of postcards c.1920 featuring the unveiling of war memorials in towns and small villages across the region.  So it is always worth contacting your relevant  centre to see what has been done at a local level to record and remember those who gave their lives in war.  

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My great  uncle George Danson (1894-1916) of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire has featured in a number  of my blog posts.  He was a stretcher bearer in the First World War and was killed on the Somme, a week after his 22nd birthday. He was buried in the Guards Cemetery, Les Boeufs,  France and also remembered on the war memorial of his home town (below the name of his brother John) and on the Memorial Plaque St. Chad's Church where he sang in the choir.

 

But  it is thanks to a reader of my blog, that I learned the existence of another War Memorial that lists George’s name - in Todmorden,  a cotton mill town in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, where George was working at the time of his enlistment.

The Todmorden Connection
1916 saw Conscription introduced in Britain. George was working as a  W.H. Smith bookstall manager at Todmorden Station.   I was lucky enough to find  on Ancestry his service record, as many were destroyed in bombing in the Second World War. This 

At his enlistment, George's address was given as 17 Barker Street, Harley Bank, Todmorden.  His medical report stated he was 5'3" tall, weighed 109 lbs. (under 8 stone), with size 34 1/2 chest and he wore glasses - a slight figure to be a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.  

I turned to the 1911 census online  and found the Dodd family living at  17 Barker Street, Harley Bank,  Todmorden, with head of household Elizabeth Dodd (occupation choring) and three daughters Amy aged 15 (a cotton weaver), Edna 12 (a fustian sewer)  and Lavinia  aged 9.  The photograph below  was found amongst the collection of George's sister Jennie, who wrote the inscription on the back.

 

 I was sent the cutting from the local Todmorden press reporting on George's death.

                                               

The article noted that George had worked at Todmorden for 12 months, lodging at Harley Street.  

 "He was well known and highly esteemed by his wide circle of friends in Todmorden and was a fairly regular attender at Todmorden Parish Church" 

 His corporal wrote:

"He was one of my stretcher bearers and gallantly doing his duty over open and dangerous ground, which became subject to severe enemy shellfire. He continued steadily bearing his burden, and was only stopped by a shell which took his life and that of his comrade beside him".

The Todmorden Garden of Remembrance in Cenre Vale Park
Approx. 670 names  are listed on the large war memorial. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately George's name has been  wrongly engraved as "Dawson", but there is no question that it is George Danson,  my great uncle.   I have found this confusion in transcription in other records.

Other Memorials to George 

 

This photograph marks George's resting place and was sent to his widowed mother Martha Maria Danson.  It is a stark image and contrasts sharply with the sad beauty of the later gravestone at the Commonwealth War Graves sites across the world.

The War Memorial in the Square at Poulton-le-Fylde, George's birthplace, with St. Chad's church in the background. 

 

George's name below that of his brother John 

George remains one of my favourite ancestors.   I must admit it had never occurred to me to look  to Todmorden for any information on him  and I was delighted to receive this contribution from my Todmorden contact. 

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V is for Verses: A-Z April Challenge 2020 :

V is for Verses - poems and songs that resonate with people and places in my family history. 

My great grandmother Maria Rawcliffe (1859-1919) was born in Hambleton one of the network of small villages north of the River Wyre, near Poulton-le-Fylde and Fleetwood, Lancashire.   In a local history publication, I came across this witty little verse referring to the different villages in the  area. I  like to think that Maria  was a "bonnie lass"!   

"Pilling for paters [potatoes]

Presall for pluck

Hamblton for bonnie lasses

Stalmine for much!"

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I am a Blackpudlian  born in the north west seaside  resort  of Blackpool, Lancashire, noted for its golden beaches and Tower, which was built in 1894, modelled on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  It rises to 520 feet - facts drummed into us at school.   

 

Blackpool Tower  was the entertainment complex of its day, with its  Ballroom (where my parents met),  circus ring, aquarium and zoo. We used to go there about once a year as a treat.   

But the memory of the old Blackpool Zoo reminded me of a poem which we read at school "Albert and the Lion" by Mariot Edgar  which opens with the verses:

 

There's a famous seaside place called Blackpool

That's noted for fresh air and fun

nd Mr and Mrs Ramsbottom

Went there with young Albert, their son. 

 A grand little lad was young Albert,

All dressed in his best, quite a swell

With a stick with an'orse's 'ead 'andle, 

The finest Woolworth's could sell." 

                                       

The next 16 entertaining verses tell of a visit to the Zoo with disastrous consequences as young Albert encounters the lion.   

The most famous  recording of the poem, told in a broad Lancashire accent  is by music hall entertainer Stanley Holloway (he also played Eliza's  father in the classic film "My Fair lady" - with a Cockney accent).  

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My father in this 80's could still recite poems that he learned at school.  He enjoyed the dramatic tones of his favourites: The Border ballad "O young Lochinvar", "The "Charge of  the Light Brigade", "The Boy stood on the Burning Deck",  and  "The High Tide on the Coast of Lincolnshire".

"O young Lochinvar has come out of the west ,
Through out the wide Borders, his steed was the best.
And save his good broadsword, his weapons were none
He rode all unarmed and throde all alone
So faithful in lvoe and so dauntless in war
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar"

The first verse of the poem written by Borders writer Sir Walter Scott(1771-1832) and one of many Border Ballads that told tales of daring deeds and family feuds.  Scott  became fascinated with Borders history and Borders culture, culminating in the compilation and publication of his "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders",  a three-volume set of collected Scottish ballads,

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Dad was not to know that 50 years later I would be living in the Borders, initally in Hawick, Roxxburghshire where the focal point of the local calendar is the annual Common Riding.    It is both a symbolic riding of the town's boundaries, made in the past to safeguard burgh rights and also a commemoration of the callants, young lads of Hawick, who in 1514, raided a body of English troops  and captured their flag - the "banner blue".

                 The Cornet carrying "The Banner Blue" leads Hawick Common Riding
                            Photograph by Lesley Fraser, www.ilfimaging.co.uk


It is a time for local pride and passion when exiles return to their home town to renew friendships and join in the celebrations - in ceremonies and processions, picnics and horse-racing, and  in songs, ballads  and music, such as one of my favourites below:

"Where Slitrig dances doon the dell

To join the Teviot Water

There dwells auld Hawick's honest men

and Hawick's bright-eyed daughters."

The verse depicts the meeting of the two rivers in Hawick - the Slitrig and the much bigger Teviot.  (below)

                                                   

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Earlston in Berwickshire is now my home. a village  noted for being the birthplace of 13th century poet and prophet Thomas the Rhymer.  Ercildoune is its old name.  The Earlston song below was written by T. Graham. 

"There's a fine wee town in the Borders

It stands on the Leader's banks,

 Where its famed for thomas the Rhymer

It's the place  of his auld haunts. 

Where the banties cry in he mornin'

And the smell o'the whins and the broom,

st another gem of the Borders

And that gem is Ercildoune.

 You can sing your praise of the Highlands

Its lofty peaks are braw

but just let me gaze on the Black Hill

when you're round by Purveshaugh.

Let me stroll through Mellerstain entries

Or  don by Stan'in Stane

Earlstonians stand, be united,

And be proud to sing its name."

The ruins of Rhymer's Tower, reputed to be the home of Thomas the Rhymer

Craigsford Bridge, built c.1737,  over the Leader Water. 

The Black Hill, Earlston


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