New Arrivals in my Family Tree : Sepia Saturday

Sepia Saturday's November theme is "New Arrivals" and I am looking at "new arrivals" in my family tree - this time my newly discovered great grandmother Alice Ann English, her four sisters, Mary, Elizabeth, Isabella and Harriet, and my great great grandparents  Charles English and Mary Harrocks. This is Alice Ann's research story.

My last post here told the  story of my newly discovered grandmother Alice English (below)  who had been my major brick wall for many years until I traced recently her birth and the name of her mother - Alice Ann English.  

              My grandmother Alice English (1883-1945)  in 1916

So who was my great grandmother Alice Ann?

 My starting  Point - Alice Ann  was admitted to Liverpool Board of Guardians Workhouse on 11th   September 1883,  with the information  that she was a single woman  aged 30, pregnant  and born in Beverly,Yorkshire in 1851. She gave birth in the Workhouse to my   grandmother Alice on 23rd September 1883. 

It proved quite easy to trace Alice Ann's life through census returns and BMD records -  the most noticeable feature the fact that she was never traced living with her daughter.   

Alice Ann was the daughter of Charles English, and Mary Harrocks who married in 1851.  But the censuses listed two daughters born before that date, Mary in 1844 and Elizabeth in 1848.  This  prompted me to look for an earlier marriage for Charles.  His first wife was Elizabeth Barker and they married in 1842, but sadly Elizabeth died only six years later, aged just 23, shortly after the birth of their second daughter.

Charles and his second wife had a further three daughters – Alice Ann in September 1851, Isabella Caroline in 1854 and Harriet Elizabeth in 1858.   

In 1861  9 year old year old Alice Ann was living with her family   in the town of Barnard Castle, County Durham, with father Charles a platelayer with a railway company.

Ten years on in 1871 saw the  family at 6 Sutton Bank Railway Cottages, near Hull, Yorkshire.  Alice Ann aged 19 was working as a milliner - an occupation she does not appear to have followed in later life.  

 But the 1870s saw three tragedies in the family.  Alice Ann's mother  Mary died in 1872, her father  Charles three years later in 1875, and her youngest sister Harriet died in 1879  aged only 12.  

By the time of the 1881 census, Alice Ann  now aged 29  had made a major move away from home and was living with her sister Isabella and her husband Thomas Horrocks  at 22 Dickson Street, Liverpool - her occupation a domestic servant.  

Two years later in the 13th September 1883,  Alice Ann of 25 Sun Street,  Liverpool admitted herself to the Liverpool Board of Guardians Workhouse.   On the 23rd September she gave birth to her daughter Alice (my grandmother).  Interestingly on the birth certificate which I obtained from the General Register Office,  (GRO),   Alice Ann could only make her mark in registering the birth.

Mother and baby were discharged from the Workhouse 29th December   1883 but who to and where  to remains a mystery.   

However on 11th September  1890,  the  Workhouse records,  (available on findmypast.co.uk) noted that 7 year old   Alice was readmitted to the workhouse along with an 8 month old baby May English,   and discharged the next day to Kent Street.  But there was a worrying statement that the informant on their  admission was "The Police  Book"  - what did that mean?   Liverpool Archives was unable to help on this point.  Then on the 18th September their mother Alice Ann was readmitted, but discharged the next day to a different address at Alma Sreet. 

So many unanswered questions on this period in Alice Ann's life!  Could I assume that baby May was her second illegitimate child?  Could the baby's name perhaps be Mary   - the name of Alice Ann's mother and eldest sister?    So far I have been unable to trace May's birth. 

I tried to find out more about the streets,  named in the  Workhouse records relating to Alice Ann.     They all seemed  to be in the dockland area of LIverpool,  near to the  Royal Albert Dock. Might there be directories that could help - I must follow this up. 

 By the time of the 1891 census, Alice Ann, had moved away from Liverpool.  She was  aged 39 and still single,  and was working as  General Servant – Domestic  at The Eden Orphanage. Higher End, Sharples, Bolton, Lancashire which provided care and support to Bolton's destitute orphans.  But where were her daughters?   - I have been unable  to trace Alice or May.  in 1891. 

https://www.bolton.org.uk/edenhome.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1901 - Alice Ann was still working at the orphanage, now as a cook.   Her daughter is thought to be the 17 year old Alice English   working as a living in domestic servant in Stockport.

 By 1904 daughter Alice was in Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.   I was always told she had come to Poulton as a maid to the Potts family who were found to have Bolton connections. 

Three years later,  daughter Alice married my grandfather William Danson  at St. Chad's Church, Poulton.  Did her mother  Alice Ann  and other members of her  English family know about this event? We shall never know.   My mother never  gave any  indication of  any knowledge of her mother's relations.  The witnesses of the wedding were a local married couple, thought to be Danson family friends.

 St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde, known for its carpet of crocuses in the Spring  and where Dansons were

baptised, married and buried.
Photograph taken by my uncle - Harry Rawcliffe Danson 

 

By 1911 Alice Ann was living with her eldest sister Mary and brother-in-law Henry Bonner  at 12 Beverley Road, Bolton.

Daughter  Alice for the 1911 census gave her birthplace as Bolton - so did that indicate a link in the town with her mother?   It could also be to erase the fact she was born in at a Workhouse  - often regarded as a stigma.  Bolton  was also cited as her birthplace in the  1921 census,

Alice Ann  died  in October, buried 11^th October in Tonge Cemetery, Bolton aged 65, with her last address  12 Beverley Road,  the home of her sister Mary.   

1916 was also the year her daughter saw her husband conscripted to fight in the First World War.

 William and Alice in 1916

My grandmother Alice with her daughters Edith and my mother Kathleen, young Harry and baby Billy.  A son  George did not survive infancy, and  daughter Peggy was born after the First World War to complete the family.  Did Alice Ann ever know about her grandchildren?

It was gratifying to trace my great grandmother's life and discover the names of my great great grandparents  Charles English and Mary Harrocks, and my great great aunts, Mary, Elizabeth,  isabella and Harriet.  Even better I found that I had DNA matches with three descendants of Isabella; contacted them and they all replied quickly, but could not  give me any  more information on my great grandmother, Alice Ann.  

Family history never comes to an end  - and  so the search continues for the early life of my grandmother Alice  and that of her mother Alice Ann. It is stories like this that make family history so fascinating a hobby!

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

This post was written in response to Sepia Saturday's prompt of "New Arrivals". 

Click HERE to see posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

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Celebrating Success -Breaking hrough my Brick Wall!

DISCOVERING MY “ENGLISH“ ANCESTORS

 “How far back have you got?" is a standard question for family historians, and I am sorry to admit that the search for the early life of  my maternal grandmother Alice English (1883-1945) remained a puzzle over many decades and quickly hit the proverbial brick wall.   Read on my  research tale.

THE BACKGROUND Alice married my grandfather William Danson of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire in 1907 .  I had her marriage and death certificate with her age, so born around 1884.

 

1941 at a family wedding my mother's  Danson family - my aunt Edith, aunt Peggy, grandparents William  and Alice. my uncle Harry and my mother Kathleen.  

 Alice died when I was a baby, and my mother and aunt were surprisingly reticent about her early life.  I failed to ask the right questions at the right time, sensed a great reluctance to talk about her and I ended up with vague and conflicting information – was she born in Manchester, Bolton or Liverpool?   - a classic family history mistake!  It did occur to me that she might well have been illegitimate, but then  her father's name of Henry English (painter deceased)   was given on her marriage certificate.  Was this a fabrication for the purposes of respectability? 

Whatever the mystery about Alice's  past, the impression I gained from my Danson relatives was of a loving, loved wife and mother, and a respected member of the Poulton community. She became known locally as an unofficial midwife and her doctor wanted her to train professionally, but this was not possible.

Despite many years of hunting and using a professional researcher, I had been unable to trace a birth certificate for Alice to find out the name of her mother.  Queries on message boards, Facebook pages, and on my family history blog failed to elicit any positive response, and DNA provided no help.

Below  is one of the few photographs of Alice.  As she is wearing a corsage, could this have been taken on her wedding day?  A question I should have asked my mother, but didn't.

WHAT WERE THE FACTS?

• My starting point for research was the marriage certificate - Alice married my grandfather William Danson in April 1907, at St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire,   when Alice was 22 i.e. born around  1884. Her father's name was given as Henry, a painter (deceased).
   
•  I was always told Alice and I  shared the same birthday - September 23rd. 
• The family story was that Alice  had moved to Poulton as a nursemaid to the Potts family - prominent Methodists whose photographs featured in books on old Poulton, attending civic functions,  opening  fetes etc.
  
• Alice was confirmed at St. Chad's Church, Poulton in 1904 - I   have the prayer book presented to her on that occasion.
  
  
  
• Early census returns proved no help - I could  not trace her in 1891. In 1901  there was an Alice A. English, born Bolton aged 17, so born c.1884,  a living-in domestic servants at Stockport. This could well be my grandmother, but did  not help with any more information on her family.
  
• I had had to wait patiently for the release of the 1911 census to  find her entry  under her married name of Danson, with  her birthplace given as Bolton. Yet even that did not take me further forward as the GRO  (General Register Office)  and Bolton Registrar had no record of an Alice English with the details I had.  The release of the 1921 census confirmed the Bolton statement.
  
• The 1939 Register compiled to  facilitate  the issue of ID cards and ration cards in the Second  World War confirmed Alice’s birthdate as 23^rd September 1884.  I had hoped for more details on her birthplace but these did not feature.  
   
• Alice  died  5th July 1945 1945,  so I never knew her.   Her age of 60  on the  death certificate again confirmed her year of birth as c. 1884. 

 

FURTHER SEARCHES

 The Improved search facility for BMD and parochial records online  came up with a number of possibilities but none that tied in with my limited information. So more frustration!    I also have had no luck in tracing  a record for her father Henry English with very little to go on.  

I placed many queries on various websites  and message boards without  much success, though Lancashire Genealogy on Facebook gave me some useful pointers;  as did Curious Fox  the village by village contact site for anyone researching UK  family history.  The immediate response was gratifying in number, but not particularly helpful,  apart from one respondent who took on board my query with great enthusiasm and pointed me in certain directions   But these avenues came to nothing.

THE DISCOVERY   

In 2024 I put a query on The Facebook page of FindMyPast Family History Forum  - and SUCCESS when a contributor asked if I had seen the entry for an Alice English born in the Liverpool Board of Guardians Workhouse   in 1883, with the crucial fact her birthday was the same as mine – 23^rd September.  Even better I was given the links to the workhouse records at Liverpool Archives, available on Find My Past.   This surely  was “my” Alice?  So I took out a monthly subscription to FMP to access these records.   The images of the entries were  poor  and I contacted Liverpool Archives who were very helpful with transcriptions.

 Alice’s mother, Alice Ann, a pregnant single woman, aged 30, born Beverley, Yorkshire  was admitted  to the Workhouse from 25 Sun Street, Liverpool on  13^th September 1883 and gave birth to her daughter Alice on September 23^rd,   baptised there into the Church of England the following day.

I obtained Alice’s birth certificate in a digital format from the GRO. It indicated that  her mother could only make her mark. 

 Mother and baby were discharged from the Workhouse 29^th December 1883   but,  unhelpfully, without any comment   indicating where they had been discharged to. 

Young Alice  was re-admitted  on 11^th September 1890 with “May (8 months)”, but discharged the same day with the nearest relative noted as Kent Street.   On 18^th September their mother Alice Ann was readmitted and discharged the next day, with the nearest relative noted as Alma Street. 

There is no indication about the reasons for 7 year old Alice’s readmission but under the section ‘By whose order admitted’ .  it appears to say ”Police Book”   -  a worrying statement.

It was frustrating to see that under the heading “Nearest Relative” , the answer in all the cases was not a person’s  name or a relation  but a street  name.  I have tried to find out a bit more about Sun Street,  Kent Street and Alma Street  and gather they were in the Dockland areanear the Royal Albert Dock.  Can I assume this was a crowded, poor housing area? 

Why had I failed  for so long to find Alice’s birth and the name of her mother?

·  I had always worked on the basis that Alice  was born around 1884, given her age at marriage  and death which occurred before her September birthday of that year.  Though surely in my searches I had  worked on the basis of a wider range for my searches?   

OOnce I had  what I thought was confirmation of her birthplace as Bolton. I used this detail in all my searches and online queries and discounted further suggestions of Manchester and Liverpool – a mistake!    

I II doubt if, in many queries  I had used the fact that  we shared the same birthday  - a fact which proved crucial in finding Alice. 

But lots  of questions remained

• Why did Alice give the Bolton birthplace name on official records?  What was her connection with Bolton?   (Later  research into her mother's life answered this question).
  
  
•  What were the circumstances that brought 7 year old Alice back to the Workhouse in 1890 with a reference to the police? Liverpool Archives were unable to give any help on this point.
   
• Was 8 month old baby May her sister, admitted to the Workhouse with Alice in 1890,  born around January 1890.  A birth record has not yet been traced. 
   
• Alice could not be traced  in the 1891 census, but an Alice Ann English (her mother) born Beverley, Yorkshire  was  traced to Eden’ Orphanage. Higher End, Sharples, Bolton, where she was working as a domestic servant.  So here was the Bolton connection. But with no sign of her daughter  young Alice. 
   

The good news is I found some shared matched with Alice's mother  on my DNA results to confirm I was on the  right tracks beyond the coincidence of our birthdays. The story  of my great grandmother  is  for another  blog post.

So the story of Alice English  and her mother is still ongoing.  But it  was a Special Occasion,  when I  got some answers to my long search for my grandmother.

 

My grandparents William and Alice in 1916 

 

PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE PAID OFF!

 

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

This post was written in response to Sepia Saturday's prompt of "Special Occasions".

Click HERE to see how other Sepia Saturday bloggers are marking SPECIAL OCCASIONS

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Scottish Kirk Session Records - NOW ONLINE

With Scottish Kirk Session Records recently made available online  (for not all parishes)   at  Scotlandspeople. I thought it worth repeating an article I wrote some years ago on what they are, and what you may find there.

For local and family historians,  Scottish Kirk Session Records    provide us with a unique  social commentary on life  at the time - with the emphasis on chastisement and charity, as the church provided help to the poor and needy, but censure to those involved in what was regarded as moral turpitude.

The Kirk Session, made up of the Minister and the Elders of the parish,  was the local court of the Church of Scotland,  set up after the Reformation  of 1560 and the break with the Catholic Church of Rome.  Its duties were to maintain good order amongst its congregation, administer discipline and supervise the moral and religious condition of the parish. 
 
The Minute Books recorded:

• Detailed accounts of income and expenditure.
• Appointments of church officials,
• Reports on the parish relating to poor relief, and the parish school. 
• Proclamations of banns, communion rolls, seat rent books and the hire of the mortcloths which was used to cover the coffin prior to burial.

An illustration of the Parish Church, demolished in 1891.

From the collection of Auld Earlston.

Below  are some random entries from the Kirk Session Records (1820-1901) for  the village of  Earlston, Berwickshire, in the Scottish Borders. 

• 1st January 1843 - the Kirk Session agreed that:
  
  "The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper be dispensed on the second Sunday in February  and that the Thursday preceding shall be observed a day of humiliation but likewise as a day of thanksgiving  for the late abundant harvest".
  
  
  
• 17th January 1843 - "Paid three pounds, thirteen shillings and sixpence to William Scott, Saddler, for harness, and one pound, four shillings and seven pence for laying the gas pipe from the street to the church."
  
  

• 8th January 1861 -  the Session recorded the early history of the Parish School noting that it had opened the beginning of winter 1825. 
   

• 24th November 1856  - "Mr Daniel Aitkenhead , who was lately chosen to be schoolmaster of the parish, the Session unanimously appointed to the office of Session Clerk. At the same time they appointed Mr Robert Smith to the office of Treasurer and Mr Adam Shortreed to be precentor."
  

 

• Mr Aitkenhead's signature appears at the end of many of the minutes.   He went on to serve Earlston in varied  roles, dying in 1922 aged 90. A memorial in the churchyard, erected by his pupils and friends noted that he was "a scholar for whom the ancient classics were his delight,  a teacher of rare merit and a man to all the country dear".

• 1st May 1864 - reflecting concern  for the poor, the young and the aged,   2/- was paid to a destitute family, 6/6 to a family for school fees, and 5/0 to Widow Watson.
  
  
  
• Bags of coal were regularly distributed to the poor, many of whom were listed as widows.  The local press reported on this gift  to around 50 poor of the parish who each received about 10-15cwt of fuel, supplied by William Gray, coal agent at Earlston Station. It was noted that this Kirk bounty would be very welcome in the severe winter.   Below a list of recipients in 1901.
  
  
  
• November 1862 saw a surprising entry which reflected the church's concern for a wider mission beyond the village,  with the decision that:

  "A collection be made in the church on Sunday, the 23rd instant  in aid of the distressed cotton weavers in Lancashire."

  This was at the time of the American Civil War when a blockade of ports in the Southern states meant that raw cotton supplies were not reaching Lancashire and workers at the mills were unemployed and facing hardship.

• 4th December 1859 - the Kirk Session discussed  a £200 legacy  from William  Rutherford, spirit merchant of Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh to be used "for the benefit of the poor".  £200 in 1859 is equivalent to about £19.000 today, so a huge sum. According to a newspaper report on the bequest, Mr Rutherford was "believed to be native of Earlston."

• Two pages of accounts for 1864 noted payments to Robert Shillinglaw  (a church official}, the salary to the precentor increased to £10 per annum, for communion wine, and  the  cleaning of the church yard walls, - and a rather unusual entry for the supply of cod liver oil.
  
  
• Income came from legacies, church collections, fees for proclamation of the banns, from fines,  and from the hiring of the hearse and mortcloth for burials. 
  
  It was customary for Kirk Sessions to hire out a mortcloth (funeral pall) to cover the coffin or corpse during the funeral service.  From the point of view of family historians, the Earlston records,  unfortunately, do not name  the deceased person.
  
  
  
  
  
• Many entries abound with the church's concern for what was termed "ante-nuptial fornication". The notable feature of these records is the fact it is the woman who bears the brunt of the  "rebukes".
  
  
• 7th May 1820 - it was confession time for Isabel Dunn - although she had had a child out of wedlock, she now wished to have her church privileges restored. Compassion was duly shown.
   
• As late as 14th October 1901,  a woman was brought before the Kirk Session  to be questioned on her "sin of fornication and having a child out of wedlock". 

"Having confessed  in sorrow for her sins and resolution to walk through grace in newness of life, the Moderator after solemn admonition did in the name of the Kirk Session absolve her from the scandal of her sin  and restore her to the privileges of the church."

How attitudes have changed!

Notes:  

• Parochial boards later took over responsibility for matters such as poor relief, with elected parish councils introduced in 1894.
   
• The records are not  indexed by individual names, so you do have a trawl ahead of you  to find note of an ancestor -  having a reasonable date frame helps. 
  

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A Woman's Age in the Census - 1891.

March 21st this year was Census Day in ** England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so I just had to share this article I came across in a local newspaper - "The Kelso Chronicle" of 15th April 1891. 

"As a rule, men do not mind their real age being known and therefore they can scarcely appreciate what an awful ordeal the recent Census was for certain members of the softer sex. 

Girls in their teens and married women do not mind it much.  Young servant girls overrate their ages, with a tendency in the opposite direction once they pass five and twenty.

The women, however who are mostly averse to telling their ages are widows who hope to marry again, and maidens who have passed the first bloom of womenhood, who are, in fact, what is called in polite parlance "old young ladies". 

If their consciences are tough, when the Bogie Man,   that is the Census Man, comes round, they boldly lop off ten or fifteen years. 

 If their consciences are tender - a rare occurence - they will quit the neighbourhood where they are known and hide themselves in some big town.  

The worst of all these precautions is that they are of little use if the proverb be true that " a man is as old as the feels, but a woman is as old as she looks". 

The article must have been written by a man! 

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 Notes: 

** Scotland has deferred the 2021 census until next year, because of the Covid pandemic.

Silhouette Signatures is an idea  I came across  on Facebook genealogy pages, with Timothy J. Barron and Dana of The Genealogy Girl  introducing this concept of creating an image to illustrate an ancestor,  where  a photograph is not available.  

 

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Henry Danson's Tragic Death in a Horse & Cart

It is never too late to discover new information on an ancestor,  as more and more Records come online.  Such was the case last week for me.  

I first wrote a  profile on my great great grandfather Henry Danson (1806-1881)  many years ago  in pre-Internet days. He lived near Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire  and the standard resources provided me with a good picture emerging of his life, his family (6 daughters and 3 sons) and his occupations as a farmer and later in life as a bridge toll collector.  at nearby Singleton.

I am a regular user of newspapers online**  and in a very casual browsing  of the Danson name,  I came across a wonderful find -  an obituary and a coroner’s report  on Henry's death - and discovered information on Henry that was completely new to me.

Blackpool & Gazette Herald:  11^th November 1881. 

" DEATH OF AN OLD INHABITANT. Few men were better known in the Fylde than Mr Henry Danson who died at Shard Bridge Tollhouse on the 29th ult. aged 75.    

He was born at Trapp Farm, Carleton, at which place he resided until he was nearly 6o years old. After leaving the Trapp he took a farm at Warbreck, but only occupied it for a few years.  Shortly after leaving Warbreck he was appointed toll-collector at Shard Bridge, which occupation he held up to the time of his death. 

He was brought up as a farmer. When a young man he had few equals at any kind of farm labour. At staking, thatching, mowing, or ploughing, he did his work in such a manner as made him noted for miles round as a first-class man. In the management of horse he was quite at home, and always had his team under perfect command. He was also a famous judge in horse flesh, and for many years possessed a breed of horses well known and much admired in the Fylde for their endurance and good constitution. They were known by the name of "Robin Hood's breed," and many of the old farmers at the present day think they are not excelled if equaled by the present breed of horses. He was a kind neighbour. His motto ever was "to do unto others as he would they do unto him."

What a lovely description of my great great grandfather  - and a wonderful find, as in Britain,  unlike  the USA,  it is not customary to write such tributes to a person, unless they have made their mark in some distinctive way in their community - as clearly Henry Danson had.  I  had no idea he was well known locally and had never heard of the breed of Robin Hood horses, as Robin Hood country was much further south around Nottingham.

But as I found later, there were some omissions in the obituary on the nature of Henry's death.  For another newspaper report  revealed the details.

Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser: Wednesday 02 November 1881

“FATAL FALL FROM A CART. On Monday evening Mr. Gilbertson held an inquest at Poulton-le-Fylde, on the body of Henry Danson, collector of the Shard Bridge tolls. The deceased, who was 75 years old, was riding in a cart with Mr. John  ? farmer, on the way to Poulton, when the horse took fright and jumped forward. Danson was standing in the cart leaning on his stick at the moment he  was jerked out upon the road. He was attended Mr. Winn, surgeon, but could never walk afterwards, his left thigh being injured, and he had an attack of pleurisy fortnight before his death, which occurred on Thursday night last. The jury returned verdict of Death  from the effects of injuries received, and resulting illness, through fall from a cart."

It is both sad and ironic that Henry,  noted for his skill with horses,  should have died,  whilst driving his horse and cart.   

Henry was buried in the graveyard of St. Chad's Church, Poulto-le-Fylde. 

A photograph taken by my uncle Harry Rawcliffe Danson, great grandson of Henry above. 

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Note – I would never have searched in a Manchester Paper for a report relating to Poulton – a lesson that a wider search by county, rather than by place or newspaper  can  be more productive.

** Sources

• Find My Past British Newspapers  
• British Newspaper Archive
  
  

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