Great Grandmother's Eleven Sisters: Sepia Saturday

My great grandmother Maria Rawcliffe (left)  0f Hambleton , Lancashire  was one of eight sisters,  two half-sisters and two step-sisters -  twelve in all.  

 

Maria’s was a story of  eight daughters, born to my great great grandparents,  the early death of their mother;   a stepmother  who came to the marriage with two illegitimate daughters, and subsequently bore two half sisters.   

 

The life of the Rawcliffe  family illustrated the vicissitudes of Victorian society   with infant deaths, illegitimacy, early widowhood, remarriages, plus the discovery  of my first emigrant ancestor seeking a new life in the  USA.

My great great grandfather  Robert Rawcliffe lived 1821-1904, dying at the age of 83. He married Jane Carr in 1846, withe birth of Maria's sisters as follows:

1.  Anne (1847-1928) - was  the  first first of eight daughter. named after her paternal grandmother.  In the 1861 census  she was living   away from home as a 13 year old servant.   Aged about 25 she had an illegitimate daughter  Jane Alice,  and a year later married  gamekeeper Robert Roskell.  One of her three daughters was named Maria,  after her aunt. ). But burial records revealed early deaths in the family - infant twin son Matthew died at three weeks old in 1882 and eldest daughter Jane died in 1887, aged only fourteen;   with husband  Robert dying in 1894 at the young age of 42. 

 

By the time of  the 1901 Census, Anne, was  a grocer/shopkeeper  and had  moved from a small rural village of Thistleton  to the town of Fleetwood,  where she married her second husband John Jenkinson. She died   4 April 1928 and was buried, not in Fleetwood, but beside her first husband and young children at St. Anne's Church, Singleton.(right)   Her age on her gravestone was given as 79. 

2.  Jane (1850-1926) - was the second daughter, named after her mother and paternal grandmother.  She married Thomas Riley in 1873.  The photograph below came from an internet contact descendant and shows four generations of their  family. 

 Jane Riley, nee Rawcliffe with her son George (left) grandson (Jack) and Jack's baby son George Robert who did not survive infancy.

3.  Margaret (1852-1852)  -  third daughter was born 11th November 1852, but only lived for  three weeks, buried 4th December 1882. 

4. Alice (1853-1930)  - the fourth daughter was christened Alice Margaret, perhaps   in remembrance of the baby sister who had died a year earlier. In the 1871 census she was a domestic servant, and two years later married John Mason, a general labourer. Six children were born and then In 1886-87 they  took the momentous decision to leave the fishing port of Fleetwood for the teeming tenements of Brooklyn, New York. where they had a further five children.  Alice is my blog success story, as my third cousin, a descendant of Alice's youngest daughter Florence, found my blog and gave me a wonderful collection  of stories and photographs.  

 

 Alice (centre) with her husband John Mason, and their eight surviving children.  

5.  Jennet (1856-1902)  - in 1873 she was a witness at the marriage of her sister Jane to Thomas Riley, with the other witness Thomas's brother Richard.  Five years later, Jennet and Richard married.  But happiness was short lived for Richard died in 1891 aged just 33.  The census of that year saw Jennet a widow with son Thomas 9 years old. Daughter Jane was traced to the home of Jennet's sister.  Jennet remarried a seaman Edward Alexander Braham.  But again their marriage was cut short with the death of Jennet in 1902, aged 45 - the first of the five surviving Rawcliffe sisters to die.  

 

6.  (The birth of my grandmother - Maria (1859-1919). 

7.  Peggy (1861-1861)  - was the last of the Rawcliffe sisters to be traced. Her short life lasted only sixteen days. 

8. Martha (1863-1863) - the baptism entry for Martha was a puzzle, for she was given the middle name "Septima" meaning seventh daughter, - yet she was the eighth.  Also how did her parents, with Robert an agricultural labourer, and with Jane making their mark on their marriage certificate,  know about the Latin inspired name?  The third puzzle - why did my great grandmother Maria adopt the name Martha Maria for many official records, including her marriage certificate?  Maria could hardly have remembered her baby sister.     

So  Robert's wife, Jane, gave birth to eight  children in a sixteen year period.    Jane was aged 44 at the birth of her youngest daughter Martha and died two years later, buried on 4^th May 1865, leaving her five  young daughters motherless at the ages of 6, 8, 11, 14 and 17.  Jane and her baby daughters were all buried at the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Hambleton.  Unfortunately there are no gravestones, and no listings.

 

In 1875 Robert married his second wife Elizabeth Brekall, twenty years his junior and they had four children in six years, including two daughters - half sisters to my great grandmother.

9. Grace (1876-?) - perhaps named after Robert's sister,  Grace.  In the 1891 census she was a domestic servant in Wardley’s, a pub on the banks of the River Wyre , near Hambleton.

10,   Margaret (1881-?)  No baptism records were traced for this second group of Rawcliffe children and more research  needs to be done into their lives. 

But there was a second dimension to Robert's second marriage.  For  Elizabeth Brekall came to the marriage with three children of her own, ia son and two daughters:

10. Dorothy, born in 1861 in Stalmine, Lancashire. More research need here.  

11. Mary Ellen,  born in 1869 in Stalmine Lancashire.  By  the time of the 1901 census, she was married to John Walmsley Raby  and had two daughters.  Also with with the family was Mary's mother Elizabeth Rawcliffe, nee Brekall.  Was she just visiting on census  night, because her husband Robert did not die until 1904?   Elizabeth was still with the Raby family in the 1911 census.      

  

So at the age of 16, Maria acquired two new step sisters. I naturally assumed they were children of Elizabeth's first husband  - the  classic family history mistake  - do not assume!  For her wedding certificate to Robert identified Elizabeth as a spinster.  

One cannot help speculate on the circumstances that led Elizabeth to bear three illegitimate children over a thirteen year span. The children were all baptised,  but no father named on their record. The earlier census returns showed that Elizabeth and her children were living with her parents, with her father an agricultural labourer, so times must have been hard.  

The 1881 census showed a crowded Rawcliffe household with father Robert 61, a farmer of three acres,   Elizabeth 41 and  six children, ranging from two  months old to eleven years .  

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Maria (1859-1919)
Perhaps not surprisingly,  my great grandmother Maria  appears to have left home not long after her father's second marriage.   She married James Danson in 1877 at the age of 18, with the address on her marriage certificate that of her eldest married sister Anne.   

The sisters remained close, judging by the tradition of naming their daughters after their sisters, with Anne, Jane and Jennet all ending their lives in the town of Fleetwood. 

Maria is at the heart of my family history research and writing, featuring regularly on my blog. Ironically, as one of so many sisters, she went on to have ten sons (eight surviving infancy), and finally her only daughter Jennie. 

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Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity 

to share their family history

 

 

 

 Click HERE to read posts from other Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

 

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Families Together - Sepia Saturday

This week's prompt image from Sepia Saturday features a family group of father,  mother and baby daughter, probably taken, judging by the costume  and hairstyles,  around 1920.

I have an almost identical image, although in my instance the man was in the uniform of the First World War.  

This was one of the many photographs in the collection of my great aunt Jennie Danson of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.  In Jennie's photograph collection, besides family pictures,   were about 50 photographs of friends and I presume friends' children.  Very fortunately in most cases , she had written names on the reverse of the photographs. Many were taken at W. J. Gregson  & Co., W.P. Beck Proprietor, Photographers, 92 Talbot Road, Blackpool or the While-U-Wait Studio, Wellington Terrace,The Promenade, Blackpool.

Was it the custom to exchange such photographs?  Perhaps faced with a household as the only girl with seven  brothers,    the company of her female friends was an important one to Jennie. 

This photograph is simply identified  as "Billy Hopkins, Lizzie Riley  and son."  I have been unable to find anything about them.  Riley was a popular local surname and the Danson family had Riley connections,  though Lizzie was not  a Christian name I had come across. 

As soldiers went to war, this was a time when families arranged to have a photogaph taken  as important mementos. 

 

Here is one from my cousin;s family of his grandfather Edward Ingram Smith. and family with his wife and children Ella,  Edith and Arthur, with the family looking very serious. 

Leaving school, Edward jhad joined  the army as a  Gordon Highlander, but did not settle and was bought out by his parents.  IWe are so used to thinking it was just young  men who fought,  but in 1915,  as a previously serving soldier,  Edward at the age of 44 was called up to return to the army  and he joined   the Liverpool Scottish Regiment (reflecting his Scottish heritage).    He served  in France, but was gassed and injured at the Battle of the  Somme. After the Battle of Delville Wood, where he was wounded in action, he was invalided back to England and hospitalised.   His daughter Ella related how   he went to meet her  at the school gates and she did not recognize him, as his weight had dropped from 15 stone to nine stone.

 Family life proved unhappy following his discharge. One cannot  help reflect that having to return to active service at the age of 44 and face the harsh physical and mental conditions of the World War One battlefields took its toll on Edward, as on so many soldiers.   He died in 1923 aged 52.    His wife Lily survived him by a further 40 years and married for a second time. 

 

 

 Two of my favourite family photographs of my grandparents and family, taken 1916:  William Danson and Alice English and  below Alice with daughters Edith and Kathleen (my mother), young Harry and baby Billy.  Granddad was awarded the Military Medal for "gallantry in action".   

The happy Danson family 24 years on - my grandparents in the middle with daughters Edith, Peggy (born after WW1,  son Harry and my mother Kathleed. nly son Billy is missings erving in the Navy.  c.1941.

More famiies together 

 

 My cousin's Oldham family of Blackpool, Lancashire c.1900.  In the 1901 census, Joseph  Prince Oldham (in the front row) ,  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  two  young daughters Sarah Alice, and Edith,  plus also mother-in-law Mary Ann Knowles. 

Family photograph c.1909 of John  William Oldham, with his wife Mary Jane Bailey, my grandfather's first cousin, with baby Hilda 

and older daughter Elsie. The couple  faced tragedy when their youngest daughter Hilda  died aged 6 in 1915.  Elsie has been a familiar figure on my blog, later running the family business, on the death of her father,  and working as a hairdresser under the name of "Elise". 

 

Four generation's of the Riley family of Fleetwood, Lancashire.  At the centre Jane Riley, nee Rawcliffe, sister of my great grandmotehr Maria Rawcliffe.  Here with her son George (left) grandson (Jack) and Jack's baby son,  George Rober,t  who sadly did not survive infancy. 

 

 Another Rawcliffe sister - here Alice Mason, nee Rawcliffe with her husband John Mason, youngest child Florence,  and son Harold.

 

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,  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 Anne, Jane or Jennet. So was  this Alice and John  Mason and family?   This was a mystery.

 

Alice and John had six children born in England, before emigrating ot the USA, where she had a further five more children, three dying in infancy,   It was through my blog that a granddaughter of daughter Florence (above)  made contact - she was my third cousin  and had the very same photograph above.  My blog success story!

 

 

The Mason family with all eight surviving children - 

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

Bottom - Thomas,  Margaret Alice, Florence, George and James

Onto my immediate family

My parents on the left with my mother's sister and my father;s brother, 1938.  

 

  A typical 1950s family - Mum, Dad, myself and my brother . 

 

 

Relaxing in our garden in Edinburgh, 1960s. 

 

 

 

                                      My brother and I - 1948.  

 

 

Many years later c. 2015 

 

 

A family group taken in August 1965, before I set out for to work in the USA for a year on a library exchange scheme.  

My father with my brother and myself and our two daughters.  1998.  Mum was unfortunately in care and could not make the visit.

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photographs.

 

Click HERE to find out what other bloggers have

spotted in this week's prompt photograph.

 

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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

                                                                           

A-Z Challenge: Family Traits - W for WELL TRAVELLED

 Theme for the A-Z  Challenge 2023 

Family Traits, Quirks and Characteristics

 

W for WELL TRAVELLED

My great great aunt Alice Rawcliffe 

 

 

 

My great great aunt Alice Rawcliffe  of Hambleton, Lancashire  was my first emigrants ancestor who travelled 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 - 5 surviving infancy - born to Robert Rawcliffe and Jane Carr.   In 1873 she married John Mason and over the next eight years had five  children, their names reflecting those of close family members - Robert William, Jane Elizabeth, John Thomas, James Richard, Margaret Alice. 

All the research into my mother’s Danson and Rawcliffe families showed them to be very firmly based in The Fylde area of north west Lancashire around the settlements of Poulton-le-Fylde, Fleetwood and Blackpool. 

 

But  I had been unable to trace the family in the 1891 and 1901 censuses,

 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 Anne, Jane or Jennet. So was  this Alice and John  Mason and family?   This was a mystery.

The American Discovery 

It  came as a complete surprise when  a casual browsing of Rawcliffes 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. 

I was keen  to find out more about my first known WELL TRAVELLED emigrant ancestors.  

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 revealed  that John  Mason had emigrated from Liverpool in 1886, joined a year later by Alice, aged 34  and now with six  children aged from  13 to 1 year (plus two pieces of baggage).   How on earth did she cope on the eight day voyage4?  This was the first revelation too  of another son George Rawcliffe Mason, born in 1885 in Fleetwood.  
  

• Between 1888 and 1898, Alice had a further five children, born in the USA - Arthur Valentine (born appropriately 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.  

The  Search for my America Long-Lost Cousins
 
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 top 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.

 

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. 

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

Bottom - Thomas (John Thomas), Alice (Margaret Alice), Florence, George and James
 

Alice died in 1930 and John 7 years later, both buried in Fernwood Cemetery, Jamesburg, New Jersey.

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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 WELL TRAVELLED emigrant ancestors. It pays to be patient in family history research!  

If only I could discover why the Mason family  took this step of adventure from the small Lancashire coastal community of Fleetwood to the streets of New York, along with researching  the story of my other American cousins.    The challenge remains!

 

  

Adapted from posts first published in 2011-2013.  
  

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 Onto X for eXPERT

IN CASE YOU MISSED

A for ADVENTUROUS, B for BIGAMOUS, C for CRIMINAL,  D for DEVOUT

E for ENTERPRISING  & ESTEEMED,   F for FEISTY

  

G for GENIAL & GOOD LOOKING,  H for HEROIC    I  for INSOLVENT  

 J for "JOINER", K for KEEPER OF THE FAMILY ARCHIVES,

 

L for LONG LIVING,  M for MYSTERIOUS, N for NE'ER DO WELL 

 

O for ORPHANED, P for POETIC,    Q for QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOUR 

 

R for RESILIEN, S for STOIC  T for TRAGIC,  U FOR UNETHICAL 

 

V for VALIANT 

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