52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 8 - Courting

 This weeks #52ancestors challenge got me thinking  - where did my ancestors meet?

In the 20^th century, my parents met at the local dance halls, attending the weekly ‘shin-dig’ at the Hermitage Halls in Hitchin and The Icknield Halls and The Wilbury in Letchworth.   These were the main places for young people to meet in the 1930s and 1940s, with the added attraction of servicemen from nearby Bassingbourn and Chicksands.  There were also village halls that held dances and church events.  Other places to meet your future spouse were at work, or even earlier, at school.   The social parameters for meeting your future consort were usually a bike, bus, or train ride away from home, with further afield possible if someone owned a car.  When my parents were young, if a chap owned a car, it could be a magnet for the young ladies! 

In the early 20^th century, my Hertfordshire maternal family did not travel very far away from Hitchin when they chose their partners.  My Grandparents attended the same school, The British School, in Hitchin with their families living close to each other in the town. 

The Morgan family worshipped in the Congregational Church in Queen Street, alas now demolished, as did my Mum and her siblings.  They went to church every week. The Morgan’s (paternal) had been nonconformist since the early 1800s, which added a different dimension to my family research.  The Taylor’s (maternal) were Church of England, worshipping at St Mary’s in the town.  You attended the church of the male member of the marriage, hence my grandparents attending the Congregational church with their 6 children. 

Further back in time my Hertfordshire ancestors mostly lived within a 20-mile radius of Hitchin, so really haven’t moved very far at all in hundreds of years. Several siblings of my Great Grandmother Morgan, maiden name Moules, moved to Keighley in Yorkshire for work, and some of the sisters of my Great Grandmother Taylor, maiden name Cotton, moved away once they married.  But, on the whole, my family largely ‘stayed put’.  In north Hertfordshire, the county boundary with Bedfordshire is very close so I do have some Bedfordshire ancestry too. 

 

Lack of work in a largely rural county like Hertfordshire caused some people to move further away.  With the advent of the railway in Hitchin in the 1850s London was only a train ride away.  My grandfather Morgan worked on the railways as a plate layer, with this father-in-law, Arthur Taylor being a carpenter on the railways, both based at Hitchin station.  Economic forces were the main catalyst for people moving away from their family roots in my family, and also marriage, with females moving with their husbands to another part of the country.

My Suffolk Nickels family, my dad’s family, are a little more interesting.  As previously mentioned in these #52ancestors blogs, my dad was born in 1916 in the First Garden City of Letchworth in Hertfordshire.  His father moved to Hertfordshire in about 1910 to work on the building of Letchworth.  There are still examples of his creative leadwork at The Cloisters in Letchworth.  He also worked for the company who installed the plumbing at The Spirella in Letchworth, and at George Bernard Shaw’s home at Ayot St Lawrence. 

My Dad’s brothers and sisters, however, were born in different places. The 1911 Census helped me work out where the family were living between 1901 and 1911. My grandparents, Alf and Alice, met in London and were married in 1901. Their first child Alf was born in 1902, in Walworth, London.  Jim was born in 1903, with Violet appearing in 1907 whilst the family were living in Camberwell Green.  The next child, Dick, was born in Walsworth, Hertfordshire in 1911, with Nellie and Nick (Dad) born in Letchworth in 1914 and 1916.  Basil and Bella, from Grandad’s second marriage were also born at the family home, 76 Shott Lane, Letchworth, in 1919 and 1921.

My grandad Alf’s parents, Alfred John and Elizabeth were living in Hertfordshire by 1899 as he was Licensee of The Willian Arms pub in Willian, Hertfordshire, near the new Garden City site.  Their journey to Hertfordshire is more interesting.  Alf was born in Suffolk in 1850, with Elizabeth born in Dorset in 1838 – quite an age gap!   They met in London. I guess both had gone to the metropolis in search of work.  

From my research, Alfred John already had two brothers who had gone to live and work in London before he too moved there.  Elizabeth was working in service after she was widowed, initially in Dorset, so may have travelled to London with her employer and decided to settle there.  Her teenage daughter, Mary, who had been brought up by her grandmother and aunt whilst Elizabeth worked was living with her mother by 1871.  Alfred John and Elizabeth married in the early 1870s.

The Nickels family were from Suffolk.  They had lived in Orford, Wickham Market, Sutton, Badingham and the surrounding area since at least the 17^th century. My ancestors would have met their future partners in their towns, at the market, in the pub (most probably), at work or at church.  Most spouses came from the same town or village, or one a few miles away, certainly within walking distance on a market day.  My Nickels family have successive generations who were publicans, from Gt-Gt-Gt Grandfather William Nickels, who died in 1844, right up to my uncle Basil.  As ‘Mine Host’, they would have been well known in the town or village.  Strong ladies, such as William Nickels’ wife Elizabeth, would take over the licence of The Chequers at Wickham Market when William died, with her daughter Louisa taking over from her.  A supportive wife who was happy to ‘muck in’ was essential. Daughters and nieces are found to have worked as barmaids  -  another way of meeting young men.  Oh, how I’d love to do a ‘pub crawl’ of all the pubs my relations ran! 

With my main line of Dominey’s from Poole, Dorset, they seem to have met their spouses locally, most probably via the church.  The family worshipped at both St James’ and as Skinner Street Independent, now the United Reformed. 

One ancestor was Parish Clerk at Lytchett.  Occasionally with this family, I have found a spouse coming from elsewhere, usually when they are in the army or navy and posted to the area or town of my ancestral family.  It must be remembered that Poole was a port, so there would have been opportunities to meet people from different places.  One branch of the Dominey's had a connection with Newfoundland and Canada.

My Sutch’s from London, my paternal grandmother’s family, were more adventurous with their connections with the music hall stage and music in general, but, their choice of partner seems to be very much local to their family home even though London, offers possibilities for meeting people from all over the place.  There was the story that Grandad Sutch had married beneath him when he married Jane Woodman.  He was on the stage, and doing quite well, she was a butcher’s daughter, but there seem to have been some troubles within her family.  I wonder how they met?  Probably the pub, or maybe even the stage door.  Their families both lived in the same area of London, near to St Martin in the Fields and Bond Street.  After their marriage they moved to South London, Walworth, Kennington and Camberwell.

With my direct family lines, there are not any surprises with choices of spouses.  Most were living in the same place, or nearby.  Many families had lived in the same location for many years. 

I have connections with London with my paternal family who initially moved from Suffolk and Dorset to London and then to Hertfordshire, moving because of work opportunities with expansion in the metropolis and with the new Garden City in Hertfordshire.    

My Hertfordshire family didn’t move far.  They were mostly agricultural labourers, publicans (again) and working in trades in Hitchin like the railway and also diversifying to driving carts for businesses, laundresses, coalmen, and of course straw plaiters.  Hitchin is near to Luton in Bedfordshire, a centre for straw hat making.  I have found whole families of straw plaiters, wives and big families of children, supplementing the wage of the head of the household.  Not just the girls either, many small boys, my granddad included, learn how to straw plait.

As I have found with my family, there are be multiple connections with families who have long lived in the same location.  Cousins marrying, siblings marrying siblings and the intermarrying of families over many generations.  Many years ago whilst talking to some friends, family connections came into the conversation and my mum and a business colleague of my dad worked out that they were cousins through a marriage within their respective families.  Similarly, a work colleague and I found out that were both descended from Edward and Dinah Hunt from Orford, Suffolk¹.  It's a small world.

Notes

1.      Nickels, Jane ‘Was it Coincidence or Fate?’ in Suffolk Roots, Volume 20, No 4, February 1995.

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52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 7 - Landed

 

This week’s theme promptly took my thoughts off to the reference works available for those who have connections with or are researching the landed gentry.   These are those families that are not Peers, but slightly lower down in the social scale, but still significant in their locality.  The local squire living in the manor house, or the vicar, who was often of a good family, but not the eldest son.  There is the old saying that eldest son inherits, one son goes in the Army or Navy and another the Church.  Allied with the narrative genealogies contained in such tomes as Burke’s Landed Gentry, Walford’s County Families and Fox-Davies’ Armorial Families, there are also the older county histories which often give a narrative of the descent of a manor through inheritance, sale, or gift.  Allied with this is the monumental 19 century Owners of the Land volumes.  For the 16^th and 17^th centuries there are also the Heralds’ Visitations which record those people in a county who used coats of arms and in many cases also include a pedigree, sometimes on 3 generations, sometimes considerably more.

Although these tools are marvellous and so informative, it must be remembered that the information was often supplied by the person paying for the entry, so, sometimes people are left out, deliberately or otherwise.  Later editions of the same serial do not always contain such detail as earlier editions, especially with descents of younger children and daughters.  Some family members do not appear at all in later editions.   This is like the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage volumes published by Burke’s, Debrett’s and others since the 1700s.  In the case of Burke’s, they circulated a ‘questionnaire’ to family members to fill in, so the data is only as good as manuscripts the family may have in their possession and family memory.  Sometimes generations are muddled, left out entirely, or successive editions contradict.

Many of these works have now been digitised and are available online to browse, but there is nothing quite like browsing a real book.  Whilst to research an initial family, you will usually find notes and connections to other families listed in the volume, or in other books such as the Peerage.  I find that a hard copy is much easier to browse that a digital version.

If you live near to a Library with good genealogical or heraldic collections, it may be worth visiting and looking at a series of differently dated serial volumes to compare the information included.  If, like us, you love collecting books that will be useful for genealogical and heraldic research, keep your eyes peeled in antique fairs, bookshops, or online auction sites.  The books are heavy and can be huge, but think of all the information they contain.

The intertwining of the landed families with peers and even royalty is fascinating.  As has been shown on the popular TV programme, Who Do You Think You Are? if a family can prove its descent from a landed family, by going back a few more generations you may find a link to a younger child of a peer.  Once you get into peerage territory there is a possibility that an advantageous marriage will link the family you are tracing with a so called ‘gateway ancestor’, usually a female, who is your key person for pushing your family back to a possible royal descent.

An example:

On our bookshelves we have a short ‘run’ of Burke’s Landed Gentry volumes, dated 1879 (2 vols), 1906, 1937, 1952 and 1965 (3 vols).  The oldest one is the tattiest. We’ve also got a few Peerages too.

For example, the Corbet of Adderley Hall family appear in 3 of the books, in 1879, 1906 and 1937.  By looking at each entry, earliest first, a pedigree of the family can be constructed as well as further clues found as to their earlier lineage and marital connections.

1879

This entry shows that the family is connected to a Baronetage family and refers the reader to Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage for the earlier pedigree and armorial bearings.  Henry Corbet’s wife was the daughter of a Baronet and he himself the nephew of another Baronet.

1906

In this entry there is the addition of an illustration of the family coat of arms, taken form a seal.  There is also more information about their armorial bearings.  The eldest son of Henry Corbet, Reginald, is now heading the pedigree, with his younger brother Bertram’s issue also listed.

1937

The family is still headed by Reginald Corbet and his issue, a daughter.  The younger brother Bertram’s issue is included, a son who died in 1918 and a daughter with the details of her marriage.

A family left with no male heirs.  Many other gentry families were in the same situation after the first world war, a time of change in the social order, a time that saw the abandonment of large family houses and estates for want of a male heir.  There are of course still the well to do families, but there is a blurring of the defining lines of the class structure.  There has always been the nouveau riche, the tradespeople who have risen up the social ladder with advantageous marriages, as well as the younger sons of well to do families who have had to work for a living as an apprentice in a trade, in the Army or Navy, in business, the Church or the Law.  You never know, with enough digging you may find that your family can link with a gentry family.  

You may find it interesting to research the families that they might have worked for, as a servant.  My own great grandmother was a cook for the Delme-Radcliffe family of Hitchin Priory in Hertfordshire UK.  Their family archive is held at the Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies (HALS) in Hertford, Hertfordshire UK.

52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 6 - Maps

 

Maps are fascinating and can be used to enhance the family story by looking at the wider location of your family.  Did your ancestor live in a village or a town?  When they lived there was there a transport network like a railway or regular coaches which could have taken them further afield.   In England, did they live near to a main travel route, such as the Great North Road, the Icknield Way or within a day’s travel of larger towns from which they could travel to different parts of the country. For example, how easy would it have been to travel from Dorset to London and Suffolk to London, as my Great Grandparents did?

Looking at my family in Hertfordshire, my main town of interest is Hitchin, but I have relatives who lived in other towns and villages which were within walking distance on a market day, such as Willian, Baldock, Norton, St Ippollitts and Kings Walden.  Slightly further afield we also find family in Stevenage (before the new town was built), Wheathampstead and Redbourn, still not too far away if you managed to hitch a lift on a cart.

With my London relations, maps have been useful in working out where the members of the family lived in relationship to each other to work out possible churches where baptism and marriage could have taken place.

Maps are tactile.  Poring over an old map if your locality you can visually see the changes in housing, roads, and development.

There are now several good websites where you can see the development of localities by comparing maps of different dates.

https://www.oldmapsonline.org/

https://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-england-and-wales/

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/about/history/historical-map-archives

But, although these are very useful, there is nothing like an actual map.   These can be in various formats – a flat sheet, folded, in an atlas or a smaller book. 

For family history, the older the better. One very useful book for family historians in the UK is the Phillimore Atlas and Index of Parish Registers.  This book is useful for working out which parishes your ancestor may have lived in, apart from the ones where you have already found their baptisms, marriages, and burials.  Plotting possible ways of travel can be helpful.  Tithe, Estate and Enclosure maps are especially useful. 

Ordnance Survey maps, in various scales, can be picked up at flea markets, charity shops, bookshops and via online auction sites such as Ebay.  The larger scale older maps are useful for finding specific named farms, houses, and fields.

One of my favourite books, which I inherited from my cousin, who found it at an antique fair, is Bartholomew’s Handy Reference Atlas of London & Suburbs which she paid the princely sum of £2 for. 

The 4^th edition is dated 1921, and has coloured maps, a useful index of streets, population figures and plans, railways, and postal districts.   So useful at this date with the 1921 Census just being released, and before much was bombed in the second world war.

52 Ancestors challenge - Week 5 - Branching out

 

As you gain confidence with your family history research branching out into tracing other families which are connected in some way is inevitable.  We first start with looking at our fathers’ and mothers’ families, two families, then when we go back to grandparents, two more families to research, and so it continues continually increasing the further back we go in our family story.

If your family have been resident in a small town or village for many generations, you may find that there are multiple connections with your family over several generations.  Small communities can offer little opportunity for marriage, so some people venture further away, for work, or adventure and then you get branches of your family who live in another part of the county or country, or even abroad. 

What I find fascinating is the kinship networks which can become apparent by studying your family.  The more you delve, the more connections can be found – marriage, work, church or chapel or social activities. 

Since the 1970s, and perhaps more so now that more datasets and digital records are available to view online, connections with my families have become clearer, and in some cases have given me more leads to chase up.    

From my paternal Nickels family in Hertfordshire, London and Suffolk, UK I have now researched in some way the Sutch, Israel, Woodman, New, Dominy, Baker, Hunt, Fairhead, Borrett, Kemp, Bigsby, Boulton/Bolton, Fiske/Fisk and Colby families.

From my maternal Morgan family, mostly in north Hertfordshire and south Bedfordshire, since the 17^th century, I have also researched, Taylor, Cotton, Moules/Moles, the families of my Gt Grandparents – then with their ancestors also done some research on the Day, Muncey, Brown, Pratt, Rook, Dilley and Darton families.  Not all direct relatives but connected by marriage. 

Then, when we married we also researched my husband’s families – Tunesi, we have a One-Name Study registered with the Guild of One-Name Studies (GOONS), Whenmouth, Thomas, Wild, and in Scotland, as he is half Scots, we have researched his mother’s family of Dodds, Muir, Gibson and Ewing in Wigtownshire.  

Branching out of the main line of research with genealogy is inevitable.  Going down rabbit holes of collateral interest you may find treasure, but also the odd brick. 

'Auntie Polly with the Wooden Crutch' - 52 ancestors challenge - Week 4

Whilst researching your family tree there is usually one or two aspects of the story that are curious to you. Why did they move to a different place?  How did they meet? Who was she?  Where does she fit in?  Tales told by elderly relatives of their wider kinship networks can be both fascinating and frustrating to research.  Are those stories true or do you need to take them with a pinch of salt?

By nature, I’m nosy (or curious); traits which have helped me with my family history research.  I like to find out about those stories which are passed down by elderly relatives to see if there is any truth in them.  It is the thrill of the chase and trying to join the pieces of the family jigsaw together, the sense of achievement and in some cases the feeling of pride in the outcome.

For the #52ancestors challenge this week – meet my relative, ‘Auntie Polly with the Wooden Crutch’.

Whenever this particular lady came up in conversation amongst my Dad’s siblings there was curiosity about where she fitted in the family and also the inevitable snigger!  Whoever heard of a woman with a wooden crutch.  Rude children!

But what did we know about Auntie Polly? 

My Dad’s eldest sister Vi could remember her as the lady who came to help when her mother died in 1917.  There was some family relationship, but she didn’t really know where she fitted in.  She was called Auntie Polly and used a wooden crutch as a walking aid, hence her name recorded in family lore.  Vi was about 10 at the time.  

As my family history research got underway, I was introduced to my Dad’s cousins who were the children of his Auntie Gert.  Auntie Gert lived in Walsworth near Hitchin in Hertfordshire.  Gert was a younger sister of my grandfather.  My step-grandmother Meg evidently died at Auntie Gert’s house from a thrombosis.  She had been helping to peg out the washing and they were drinking a cup of tea together afterwards when she collapsed and passed away.   

I remember a lovely visit to speak with Cousin Ida when her eldest sister May was visiting from Australia.   May, being born in 1901, could remember more about my grandmother Alice, my great grandmother Elizabeth, and the mysterious Auntie Polly. I still have the handwritten notes I made after this visit, dated 24 July 1984, and have the photo I took of these elderly sisters, see below.

May candidly told me that she was born before her parents married.  Surely a taboo subject?

Once back in Australia she sent over a photocopy of her parents’ marriage certificate which she possessed. 

Gertrude Montjoy and Frank Pettengell were married by Licence at Willian in Hertfordshire on 2 March 1905.  May would have been 4 at the time.  On the certificate Gertrude stated that her father was called John Montjoy, a Master Mariner. 

May also remembered Auntie Polly from her visits to see the family and said that she was a companion to a Miss Stanton who was a schoolteacher in Bepton in Sussex, and said ‘Polly had a pointed nose, one eye which had a terrible squint and was very tiny’.  Not terribly flattering!

The surname Mountjoy however rang a bell.   

Great Grandmother Elizabeth was Elizabeth Mountjoy when she married my Great Grandfather Alfred John Nickels.  She was a widow and older than her new husband, although the age gap does differ from different census and certificates!  From further research she was 12 years older than Alfred John.  She had what is now known as a ‘toy-boy’.

Alfred John and Elizabeth had three children, Bessie, Kate, and Alfred Charles, all proudly inscribed in the family bible which I inherited from my Auntie Vi. 

The inscription in the Bible states ‘Elizabeth Mountjoy from Mrs Lach 30/8/72’ (or is it 3?) with the publication date of the Bible being 1870.  

It is clear then that the Bible had originally been owned by Great Grandmother Elizabeth, but the names of the children must have been added by Great Grandfather Alfred John, as the handwriting is different. Whether Elizabeth or Mrs Lach wrote the inscription is unclear.

Family lore also recited that Great Grandmother Elizabeth was originally an ‘Elizabeth Dominie’ from Poole in Dorset.  All well and good, but where did Auntie Polly fit in?  And where was Gert’s birth in the family bible? 

Auntie Polly evidently died in 1918 in the Union Infirmary, in other words the Workhouse, at Hitchin, Hertfordshire and was buried in the council cemetery.   When I extracted all the records for my family surnames from the burial books, in a very cold and damp cemetery chapel in the mid-1980s, not only did I check for my Mum’s family (Morgan, Moules, Cotton and Taylor), I also checked for Alfred John, Elizabeth and Polly who were all supposed to be buried there.  The Sexton showed me the actual plot for Elizabeth, alas just a patch of grass, a similar story for Alfred and Polly. 

Polly took some finding.  I had been told that she had died in 1918 so by searching through all the burials, I eventually found her buried as ‘Mary Mountjoy’.

Mountjoy again………

With the digitisation of census returns and parish registers available via www.ancestry.co.uk I have been able to track down where Auntie Polly fits in the family.

My great grandmother Elizabeth Mountjoy was a widow when she married my Great Grandfather Alfred John Nickels. They were married at St Stephen, Walworth on 3 May 1874.  Alfred John stated he was 25, a bachelor, a Plumber, living in Albany Road, his father being Charles Nickels, Publican.  Lizzie Mountjoy states she is aged 30, a widow, also living in Albany Road, her father being James Domney, deceased.  Both signed their names.¹  

From the 1881 Census return, the first one after they married, we find the family at 121 Hill Street, Newington, Surrey.

Alfred Nickels    Head  Mar  32       Plumber                           Suffolk   Orford

Lizzie Nickels     Wife   Mar       37                                          Dorset    Poole

Bessie Nickels    Dau                    6   Scholar                           Surrey    Newington

Kate Nickels        Dau                   5   Scholar                           Surrey    Newington

Alfred Nickels    Son              1                                                 Surrey    Newington

Mary Mountjoy Visitor              18   Dressmaker                      Dorset    Poole 

 

There she was, Mary Mountjoy, a visitor and born in Poole, Dorset, so I conjectured that she must be somehow connected with Elizabeth, who was also born in Poole.  

Jump 10 years to the 1891 Census, we find the family still living at 121 Hill Street, Newington, Surrey.

 

Alfred J. Nickels  Head  Mar  41          Plumber                                    Suffolk

Elizabeth   “         Wife   Mar         46                                                     Dorsetshire

Kate           “          Dau                    15                                                   London   Walworth

Alfred        “          Son             11                                                           London    Walworth

Mary Mountjoy   Visitor                25                                                     London    Walworth

Gertrude  “           Visitor                5                                                       London    Walworth

 

There is Mary Mountjoy, and a Gertrude Mountjoy, both visitors on census night.  Could this be Auntie Gert?

In 1901 we find the mysterious Mary Mountjoy living at 127 Lorrimore Road, Newington, Surrey.

Mary Mountjoy    Head   S      31      Linen Collar Maker                     Poole    Dorset

Alice Sutch             Visitor S      21      Linen Collar Maker                   London Newington

 

Interestingly, my grandmother Alice Sutch is visiting Mary on census night which implies that they were friends and from the census had the same job as a linen collar maker.     Alice would later in 1901 marry my grandfather, Alfred Charles Nickels.

‘Girty’ Nickels however is living with Alfred John and Elizabeth at The Fox pub in Willian, Hertfordshire.  She is described as a daughter, aged 15.  Alfred John is the publican.

In 1911 we find Mary Mountjoy in Bepton in Sussex.  

Rosa Standen    Head    51  Single    Elementary School Teacher    West Sussex County                             Council   Worker   Kent    Sydenham

Mary Elizabeth Mountjoy  Servant   49   Single    Housekeeper (Domestic)    Dorset    Poole

 

Bepton had come up before when talking with cousin’s Ida and May in 1984.     Mary was living with a Miss Standen in Bepton, as a housekeeper. 

Mary Elizabeth Mountjoy, born in Poole.  Elizabeth Nickels formerly Mountjoy also born in Poole.  There had to be a connection!

On a holiday in Dorset in the 1990s we visited the Dorset Record Office and located the first marriage of my Great Grandmother Elizabeth.  

She had married a John Mountjoy at St James, Poole on 29 December 1857.    John Mountjoy was aged 23, a mariner and lived in Lagland Street, Poole.  His father was John Mountjoy, a seaman.  His bride was Elizabeth Dominey, aged 20, a spinster, living in Baiter.  Her father was James Dominey, a Coal Metre. 

On 11 March 1859 their daughter Mary Elizabeth was baptised at St James, Poole. 

It now became clear that Mary Mountjoy and Polly Mountjoy were one and the same person.  Polly can be used as a diminutive of Mary.  She was the daughter of my Great Grandmother Elizabeth from her first marriage.  

But who was Gertrude?

On her marriage certificate of 2 March 1905 at Willian, Hertfordshire, Gertrude Montjoy was stated to be the daughter of John Montjoy, Master Mariner.   She is stated to have been 21 years old.   

After much searching in the registers of birth at St Catherine’s House we eventually found the right birth.  Ethel Gertrude Mountjoy was born on 2 July 1885 at 121 Hill Street, Walworth, the daughter of Mary Mountjoy, a Dressmaker.   No father noted on the certificate, so Gert was illegitimate.    She was registered on 12 August 1885 by her mother, Mary Mountjoy, living at 121 Hill Street.  121 Hill Street was the home of the Nickels family in the 1881 and 1891 census.

Gert was brought up as a sister to Bessie, Kate, and Alfred Charles, when she was in fact a step niece.  Because of the way she was brought up, she was always known as Auntie Gert by my dad and his siblings.  The generations were thrown out of sync when Elizabeth had her first child when she was 23 and her last when she was 46, with an illegitimate grandchild thrown into the mix.   It is good to know that Gert was not abandoned, but just added to the young Nickels family and brought up with them.  Even at her marriage her illegitimacy was masked by putting her grandfather's name in the place of a non existent father.

Subsequent research has revealed that Elizabeth Mountjoy nee Dominy was widowed soon after Mary Elizabeth (Polly) was born when her husband John Mountjoy was lost at sea. 

Two-year-old Mary Mountjoy is found living with her grandmother and her aunts and uncles in Pile Court, Poole in the 1861 census whilst her mother Elizabeth, a widow at 23, is at Murmor House, Lytchett Matravers, Dorset, a servant in the household of Edward Blunt, a clergyman and perpetual curate of Lytchett Minster.  As a servant Elizabeth would have been unable to have her daughter with her so left her with her mother.  

                                                    © https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/828

In the 1871 census, Mary is living with her aunt, Mary Ann Wills and her young family at Baiter, Poole. Mary Ann is Elizabeth’s younger sister.   Mary is 12 and described as a niece, a scholar.   Mother Elizabeth is by this time living elsewhere, I suspect if not in London, half-way there.    The identity of Mrs Lach, if it can be found, may provide a clue – the inscription in the Bible is dated 1872 or 73, she may have been Elizabeth’s employer.

One presumes that Elizabeth and Mary kept in touch and were reunited in London in the early 1870s. Gert was born at the family home and brought up within the family unit.  Perhaps Elizabeth regretted having to farm Mary out with relatives when young whilst she was working in Dorset and the subsequent move to London.  She did not have much choice in having to work as a young widow and must have been thankful for the support of her family, even if she had to pay them board and lodging for Mary.

So, Auntie Polly, you were the eldest daughter of my Great-Grandmother Elizabeth.  You were brought up with the families of a grandparent and aunt for the first dozen years of your life.  By 18 you are reunited with your mother in London, with her new husband and young family.  You had an illegitimate daughter, Gert, when you were in your early 20s who was brought up as a younger sibling of my Grandfather and his other two full sisters, Bessie and Kate (who died when she was 15).  You continued to work as a dressmaker, or linen collar maker, in London and eventually became a housekeeper to a schoolmistress is Sussex.  Your daughter Gert, living with the family in Hertfordshire, subsequently also had an illegitimate daughter, May, and seven other children who in turn had issue themselves.  You came to Letchworth to help your mother, Elizabeth, with her 6 young grandchildren when their mother, my grandmother Alice, died in 1917.  I suspect you were not well then but came to help anyway.  You died from cancer in 1918 and were buried in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

‘Auntie Polly with the wooden crutch’, you had a challenging life – I would have loved to have got to know you.

Notes

1.      1. London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P92/STE1/013 via Ancestry.com. London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. [last accessed 23/01/2022]

52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 3 - Favourite Photo

 

Now this is a difficult one! I have over the years been given many family photographs, some dating back to the late 1800s, so I have a gorgeous collection, so choosing my favourite is going to be a challenge.

 

Do I pick the photo because it is of a favourite relative, a special occasion, the fashions, or the story associated with it? A conundrum.

After thinking about the theme for this week I have decided to choose a photo of my Granddad Morgan, the only grandparent I knew. The photo was taken by my cousin’s husband on Granddad’s 88th birthday in 1977, coincidentally about the same time that I really got interested in recording my family tree. My Granddad had no teeth and I had been told that they had been shot out during the First World War.

My Granddad, William Henry Morgan, was born on 8 September 1889 in Charlton, a hamlet near Hitchin in Hertfordshire, UK.  He was the elder son of Harry and Emma / Emily Morgan. He was baptised on 24 June 1891 in Hitchin. His younger brother Ernest Arthur was born in 1892.

In the 1891 census William appears with his parents living in Charlton.  Harry is a Labourer and Emily a Housewife.  Little Will is aged 1.

Willie Morgan from Charlton attended the British School in Hitchin, which is now a unique museum - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Schools_Museum. 

In the 1901 census he is living with his parents, Harry & Emily in Charlton.  Harry was described as a Drayman (brewers).

After he left school at 12 Will was apprenticed to a butcher in Hitchin.  From other photographs I have inherited he was also a footballer in his spare time, playing for St Johns, 1911-12 and also H.W.F.C. 1912-13. 

 In the 1911 Census he is living with his parents at Charlton.  Father Harry was a Mineral Water Maker employed at a hotel, with William and Ernest both being Butcher Salesman at a Meat Purveyor.  Mother Emma has no occupation noted.  Will’s parents had been married for 22 years and had just the two children, Will aged 21 and Ernie aged 18.

Will married Sarah (Sally) Taylor on 29^th January 1912 at Hitchin Register Office, with their eldest daughter, Violet Winifred making her appearance on 16^th February!   She was closely followed by Dorothy May (always known as Cis) in 1913, Ernest Arthur (always known as Son) in 1915, Daisy Lillian (Babs) in 1919, Eva Joan (my Mum) in 1925 and Jean Elizabeth in 1928. 

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 – 15 saw younger brother Ernie volunteer for the front in the Bedfordshire Regiment before he was transferred to the East Surrey Regiment.  He was sadly shot by a sniper about 8 / 9 November 1915 and died of wounds at Poperinge shortly afterwards.  He is buried at Reninghelst New Military Cemetery, Poperinge in Belgium.  He was evidently a tall strapping lad, the opposite to my rather small Granddad.  But that is another story.

Will, as a married man with three children, was called up on 29 May 1915.  He first joined the 4^th Battalion the Bedfordshire Regiment before being transferred the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in 1916 and to the Manchester Regiment later the same year.  He was promoted to Corporal in 1917 and Sergeant in 1918.  He served in France and Italy and was eventually invalided out in 1919.   Granddad gave me his Manchester Regiment cap badge.

I have been lucky enough to locate via www.ancestry.co.uk his Service Records which made for very interesting reading and proved some of the stories I had been told about his time as a soldier.    

Granddad was called up on 29 May 1915 and joined the 4^th Battalion the Bedfordshire Regiment on 5^th June.  He was then transferred to the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment on 26^th June 1916 and posted to France.  He was transferred to the Manchester Regiment on 28 September 1916 and was promoted to Corporal on 16 October 1917 and Sergeant on 11 September 1918.  He served ‘at home’ from 19 May 1915 until 10 June 1916 and was then posted to Italy and France from 1 July 1917 until 13 October 1918 and Home again from 14 October 1918 until 5 April 1919 when he was deemed no longer fit for service.  He was discharged from the 10^th Battalion, The Manchester Regiment on 5 April 1919. The records state that he suffered a gun-shot wound to neck and face with a fracture to his jaw.  He was wounded on 4 or 5 May 1918.  The records also state that he had 50% disablement and was entitled to a War Pension of 16s 4d.  Regimental No 44421.  Will was living at 62 London Road, Hitchin at this time so had returned from hospital.

Granddad gave me his Silver War Badge and I inherited Granddad’s First World War medals, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal, from my cousin.

After the War Granddad did not go back to being a butcher.  Maybe it was too much after the horrors he had seen. Alternatively, there may have been a scarcity of work in Hitchin for Butchers. He inter-war years were difficult for those returning home from the War with lack of employment opportunities and the adjustment to home life.

Granddad was employed by the Great Northern Railway (1921 census) and London, North Eastern Railway (1939 register) as a Plate Layer until retirement.  He lived in the family home in Hitchin Hill Path until the last few years of his life, when he spent time with each of his children on a rota basis.

The house at Hitchin Hill Path had a scullery with a copper, a kitchen with a range and a front room. There was also a cellar where I used to venture with Granddad to get a little ‘nor’ carrot from the veg kept there which he peeled especially for me.  Granddad had an allotment in Charlton where he grew veg to feed his family. On the first floor, accessed by a narrow staircase, there was the room where Granddad slept and another room which was the one used by Uncle Son, all the 5 girls were on the top floor, accessed by a further staircase, in one large room with several beds.  Goodness knows how they all ate at the one table in the front room – I guess in sittings!  Bathing was done once a week in a tin bath in front of the range with the toilet being outside in the yard, next to another one for the family next door.

I fondly remember sitting in front of the coal fire at Hill Path, on a hassock, the covering of which had been made for one of my Mum’s hats.  Here Granddad told me the stories of what he had done in the War, how he was blown up and came round in a shell hole crater, eating bully beef and sleeping standing up.  My Granddad had no teeth and did not or could not wear dentures - I expect the nerve endings were still in his jaws where his teeth had been shot out. He could never eat ice cream without ‘warming it up’ first.  I used to love my chats with him by the fire and eating the lemon puff biscuits from the biscuit tin that was brought out when Mum and I visited him.  Happy times.

Old habits die hard, and Granddad always had boots that he polished until he could see his face in them.  He always said goodbye to me by palming me a 5p piece and shaking my left hand with his as well as a kiss which tickled as he had a moustache.  He always smelt of Wright’s Coal Tar soap, a very reminiscent smell for me.

My Granddad died on 1^st March 1978 at the age of 88 at my Auntie Vi’s house and is buried at the council cemetery in Hitchin in the same grave as my grandmother, Sally, who died in 1967.

52 Ancestors Challenge - Week 2 - Favourite Find

 

When it comes to family history, finding that elusive marriage or finally locating your relatives in a census or parish register can be exhilarating and worthy of a ‘high five’ but sometimes it is something else that is a favourite find.  It could be a postcard of a town high street with your relative’s shop in full view, finding a photograph of a relative attached to an online family tree, or finding a mention in a newspaper.  Or it could be something more tangible, like my own favourite find.

When I started to research my family history, way back in the 1980s, one of the ancestors that caught my imagination was one of my great-grandfather’s on my paternal side of the family, Henry Alfred (Harry) Sutch¹ born in London (UK) in 1857.  I had always been told that he was a music hall performer and also composed music.

Some of my Dad’s Sutch relatives were musicians and performers, both amateur and professional. His Aunts Nellie and Rose played the piano for the silent films, Ada was a dancer, while Uncle Fred was a whistler, Uncle Harry jnr was a composer (Forgive and Forget and Don’t Bid Me Goodbye) and cousin Dolly ran The Robert Layton Agency.  There was also another cousin, Lee Sutton, who was a drag artiste, who died of a heart attack at Danny La Rue’s Walton Hall Hotel.   Such are the tales I was told from a young age.

In the 1980s some of the Aunties were still alive.  My parents and I met Auntie Ada, who still regularly played the piano for the ‘old folks’ at a community centre near her home in Camberwell.  Auntie Ada gave me one of my most treasured family possessions, the band parts of the songs which she performed, many of which were written by her father and brother. Through Auntie Ada, my Dad also met for the first time cousin Dolly and renewed contact with cousin Florrie, who had been a nurse. 

Cousin Dolly owned a scrapbook, which she very kindly let me photocopy, which is full of family information about  Dolly’s brother, Leslie, who was a blind pianist and composer (Ninette and Holiday of the Toys) and her cousin, Lily Sutch, who was in Tod Slaughter’s theatre company.  There are also many newspaper cuttings about her Granddad, Harry. 

The scrapbook gives tantalising clues about his career on the halls as a double act with his brother and later as a well-respected pianist for charity events, playing for residents at Brinsworth House in Twickenham, Middlesex, the home for retired variety artistes, and for other clubs and societies in the South London area.  There is also a tiny real, very faded, photo of Prince, the champion soldier dog, who was an integral part of the Sutch Brothers N****r Minstrel and Performing Dog Act.

Amongst other family papers given to me by cousin Florrie there was an undated programme from the Brighton Aquarium with Harry Sutch in the ‘Celebrated IDK Minstrels’, a photo of a minstrel troupe, and a programme from a Theatrical Garden Party in 1913 at which Harry Sutch was the pianist. 

The music halls and artistes intrigued me and became a topic of interest, research and eventually performance.  I joined the British Music Hall Society and attended their music hall weekends, taking part in the ‘Members Music Hall’ performances.  I also performed locally raising funds for charities and in London, at the CAA and Hoxton Hall, singing the songs of Marie Lloyd, Vesta Victoria and my speciality siffleuse song, The Whistling Bowery Boy.  

I have found over 100 references to Henry A. Sutch / Harry Sutch in The South London Press, The Era, The Stage and The Daily Herald by using the British Newspaper Archive via www.findmypast.org.uk.  Some are advertisements, for example, ‘Mr Henry Sutch, Quadrille pianist and accompanist, acknowledged as one of the best pianists in South London……’, whilst others are reports of performances he was involved in from the 1870s to 1930s.

Harry’s family lived in Avery Row, Westminster in a house of multiple occupation in the census returns of 1861 and 1871, and in Marylebone in 1841 and 1851.

In the 1870s, he and his brother George were successful as The Brothers Sutch, appearing in music halls in London and the provinces as this advertisement from The Era of 17 Jan 1875, illustrates. There is a similar one is Cousin Dolly’s scrapbook. 

 Henry Alfred Sutch and Jane Matilda Woodman were married in 1877² and they had 10 children all of whom lived to adulthood.   After his marriage Harry and Jane moved to Lambeth and Newington in South London where they raised their large family.

Harry must have ‘settled down’ after his marriage and with his ever-increasing family needed to have a regular income, so a piano tuner by day and tickling the ivories all over South London by night!

In the 1880s-1900s, he was a pianist / accompanist at the popular concerts at The Horns in Kennington, concerts for The Queen’s Regiment, and for many other events in the South London, and for the ‘Old Folks’ dinners at Brinsworth House.   A report in The Era of 11 January 1928 states that ‘Mr Harry Sutch, for the twenty-first time, acted as an efficient accompanist’.  

In the South London Press, 3 March 1895 an article states that ‘Mr Henry A. Sutch has resided in South London for 18 years.  His popularity shows no signs of easing, for he has over 100 engagements this season. Mr Sutch has had the usual ‘ups and downs’ of the profession.  He made a start in life as a pianist at the old Temperance Hall in Dudley Street, Seven Dials, and he could a tale unfold of the early days of many stars of to-day’.  I will have to find out more about the Temperance Hall in Dudley Street.  

Harry was a composer of some published, many unpublished, tunes and songs, some of which are in the band parts given to me by Auntie Ada dating from when she was a ‘Serio and Dancer’³.  Most of the music is handwritten.

I have recordings of all the music, but I wish I had the words too!  Unfortunately, Auntie Ada could not remember many of the words but still remembered parts of some of the tunes and proudly stated she played the cornet at the beginning of ‘Terry, my Territorial’.

But the most interesting item I have discovered in a newspaper so far is an article from The Daily Herald, 9 January 1939. 

Harry died in April 1939, shortly after this newspaper article appeared.  My Dad and his sister Nellie could remember when the newspaper came out and how proud they were of seeing Granddad Sutch’s picture.  You get a flavour of the man from that opening quote.  What a character!  I do wish I had met him. 

But what of my favourite find, apart from finding a wealth of information from newspapers about my ancestor? 

You may remember that Harry was a composer, with some of his musical compositions actually being published.

On looking on the popular auction site Ebay I was delighted to find an original copy of Harry’s music called the The Queen’s Barn Dance (Francis, Day & Hunter, 1897), dedicated to Col. F. W. Haddan V.D. 4^th Vol^r Battⁿ “The Queen’s” (Royal West Surrey Regiment).

From my research he also seems to have had published three other compositions, La Cygne - Valse (c.1894), Our Little Darlings – Schottische (c1892) and The Cricket Bat Polka (c.1892) which was dedicated to W.G. Grace.  I wonder if I will find any more.

A copy of the ‘dots’ of The Cricket Bat Polka has so far proved elusive.  There is an illustration of the front cover in A Song for Cricket by David Rayven Allen (Pelham Books, 1981) but I have so far been unsuccessful in tracking a copy down for my family archive. 

 

Notes

1.       GRO Birth. 1857, Sep Qtr  Sutch, Henry Alfred  St Geo Hanover Sq, 1a 181.  [Copy Birth Certificate. 13 June 1857 at 13 Avery Row, New Bond Street, Henry Alfred, Boy, son of Henry Sutch & Eliza Sutch formerly Israel. Journeyman Shoemaker.  Informant: Eliza Sutch, Mother, 13 Avery Row, Bond Street, Twenty fifth July 1857].

2.       1877, July 15.  Henry Alfred Sutch, a bachelor, of full age, a Musician, living at 10 Avery Row, son of Henry Sutch, a Bootmaker.  Jane Matilda Woodman, a spinster, of full age, also of 10 Avery Row, daughter of Henry Woodman, a Butcher.  Both signed their names.  The witnesses were a Henry Sutch and Jane Woodman. 

3.       I have the Band parts for Pianoforte, 1^st Violin, 2^nd Violin, Bass, Trombone, Cornet, Euphonium, Flute, Clarinet & Drums.  The songs are titled ‘Maudie’ the Flower Girl (by Henry A. Sutch), Oh you are a Saucy Girl – Romp Song (by Henry A. Sutch), Go’way from Idaho (Music Henry A. Sutch, Words H. S. Sutch), The Darktown Cakewalk (by Edward Hesse), ‘Frisco’ -  Dance,  2 step (by Frank Brockett), Go’way Mr Jackson Please (by Henry A. Sutch), Hope for the Best or There Yet May Be Sunshine (by Henry A. Sutch), Don’t Bid me Goodbye (by H. S. Sutch), I’m Your Little Girlie, I am (by H.S. Sutch), You’re a Nice sort of Fellow (by H. S. Sutch), We’ll Stick to the Ship, Dad (By H.S. Sutch), Will You ever learn to love me? (by H. S. Sutch), Judy’s Wedding (by Bert Wilkes), My Drummer Boy, ‘Terry’, my Territorial (by H.A. Sutch).  There is also a list of the songs sung by Fred Garrick, Ada’s brother, who was a whistler.