Robert Morpeth

Today’s photo is unusual in that Robert Morpeth was known by two names.

There were a few Robert Morpeths to choose from but after finding the right one, living at the same address as on the back of the photo, in the 1911 census, I followed him backwards to the earlier census. I found him living at 12 Murray St, Stanley, Durham in 1901 also and in Tanfield, Durham in 1891 & 1881.

In 1861 there was a Robert Morpeth of the right age living in Usworth, Durham & his parents were William & Elizabeth but after that I just could not find him in the 1851 when he should have been at home with them aged about 3. According to the age of his eldest child I ascertained that he had married his wife Jane in or about 1869 but there was no marriage registered for them either.

I kept getting mixed up with another Robert Morpeth who was about the same age but his parents were William & Mary so I needed to go back one or more generations to work it out.

I couldn’t find a marriage for Robert’s parents either which was very frustrating but I soldiered on! I found a William Morpeth of the right age (17) in the 1841 census living in Walker, Northumberland (where he said he’d been born in a later census) with a Mary Morpeth aged 37 and two other Morpeth children:- Jane aged 9 & Nicholas aged 4. Also living in the same house was a John Vest aged 32.

After further investigation I found five Morpeth baptisms for parents Robinson & Mary Morpeth at Longbenton, Northumberland, two of them being Jane & Nicholas, there was also Margaret, Sarah & Mary. If this was the right family where were the three other girls in 1841? Luckily the Longbenton parish records are available on FindMyPast so I was able to find two burials, for Margaret & Sarah, both on the same day, Margaret aged 1 and Sarah aged 5. Mary had been born/baptised in 1828 so she was probably old enough to have been living away from home as a servant.

So that left son William, but where was his baptism, nowhere that I could find!! After finding the marriage of Robinson Morpeth to Mary Vest at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1827 it all started falling into place – remember the John Vest living with Mary Morpeth and her three children in 1841? He was her brother and subsequently I found that husband Robinson had died in 1838.

When I noticed that William had been born about 1824, before his mother was married, I then looked for a William Vest baptism and found it on familysearch.org but strangely he was the son of John & Mary Vest instead of just Mary as I was expecting. Luckily, most of the original Durham & Northumberland parish registers are available to search on familysearch.org and this is what I found (Wallsend is where William said he was born in the 1861 census):-

This was the EXACT same baptism that was on familysearch.org except they had given him a father! How that happened I’ll never know because none of the father’s names on the baptisms on that page were John so the transcriber hadn’t made the mistake of looking at the wrong baptism when transcribing it.

So now I was able to find them all in the census plus marriages etc under the name of Vest when I couldn’t find them under Morpeth. I do know that children who were born illegitimately were more often known as the name they were baptised with, what I don’t understand is why they used both names variously throughout their lives, probably just to confuse us!

Here we have the baptism of Robert Vest son of William & Elizabeth Vest, baptised at Walker, on the same day as his cousin Sarah Morpeth the illegitimate daughter of William’s sister Mary Morpeth – or  half-sister as I don’t know if Robinson Morpeth was William’s father or not, I suspect not, but who knows as William did use both surnames during his married life:-

William Vest had married Elizabeth Parkinson in the 4qtr of 1845, and Robert married Jane Atkinson in the 4qtr of 1869, both at Newcastle upon Tyne, Robert was married as Robert Vest. Robert & Jane had four children, one of them also named Robert born in 1890 – which begs the question ‘which Robert is the one in the photo’? I think he’s the father but others may have a different opinion.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the VEST or MORPETH families please do contact me, I would love to pass the photo onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Ada Mary Fletcher 1870-1948

Today’s photo is one I picked up from TradeMe last year, it’s somewhat the worse for wear unfortunately, but if she was my ancestor I’d still love to have the photo if I didn’t already know what she looked like, wouldn’t you? I wondered why it had turned up in NZ when I realised the person selling it had said it came from the UK, she didn’t say why.

After I had checked FreeBMD I groaned inwardly when I saw there were a total of 22 people with that name whose births were registered in England between 1845 & 1907! However, seeing that the photo was taken in Maidstone (Kent) I searched again just in Kent and luckily there was only one:-

Births Dec 1870
Fletcher     Ada Mary   N. Aylesford  2a  403

There was also only one marriage between an Ada Mary Fletcher and someone named Watson and it was in Kent:-

Marriages Mar 1903
Fletcher     Ada Mary   Malling     2a  937
Watson     Ernest William   Malling  2a  937

In the photo Ada is wearing what looks like a sort of nurses uniform and when I found Ada in the 1891 census she was listed as a ‘housemaid domestic’ servant which didn’t quite fit until I saw she was living in the same house as two ‘registered General Medical Practitioners’, so perhaps she was their assistant around ‘The Surgery’ (the name of the house).

Ada Mary was born in Cobham, Kent in 1870 and baptised at Wrotham on 18 Dec 1870, daughter of Frederick & Lydia Fletcher of Sole St in Cobham. Frederick was a wheelwright & carpenter born in Ash next Ridley who married Lydia Bennett from Wrotham in 1870, they had seven children including Ada.

Ada & Ernest Watson had four children, one daughter Florence Elizabeth 1903-1983, and three sons – Ernest Robert 1905-1985, Charles Henry 1908-1976 and Harold Theodore 1912-1994.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the FLETCHER or WATSON families please do contact me, I would love to pass the photo onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

The Woodroffe Girls

Today’s photo I picked up on eBay a few months ago, three pretty ladies who lived in Birmingham in the later part of the 19th century with the younger one being born soon after the turn of the 20th century.

The mother was Elizabeth Scriven, better known as Bessie, she was born in Foxley, Wiltshire abt 1864, the second wife of James Woodroffe who was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire about 1866. His first wife, Emily Lawrence, was the mother of the older girl in the photo, she was Bessie Emilie Woodroffe born 1895, her birth name was registered as Bessie. The younger girl is the daughter of James’ second wife, she was Dorothy Helen Woodroffe born 19 Oct 1904 in Kings Heath, Worcestershire.

So we have Bessie the mother with Bessie her step-daughter and Dorothy her daughter:-

There were also two other children to James & first wife Emily, they were Eveline Jessie born 1892 and Lawrence Ernest born 1893. As the Woodroffe family were living in Hartshill, Atherstone, Warwickshire in the 1911 census I presume they moved to Beaumont Rd in Bournville soon after that, the reason they moved became obvious when I noticed that James was listed as a ‘missionary with the Society of Friends’ in the census.

Bournville was founded by the Cadbury brothers of Cadbury Chocolate & Bournville Cocoa fame, they were Quakers and interestingly Dorothy Helen Woodroffe was married in the Bournville Quaker Meeting House in 1930 to Ronald Gower Salter.

I would say the above photo was taken about 1916 give or take a few years. I’ve had a look in Google Maps and here is what Beaumont Rd looks like today, #63 is the second house from the right:-

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the WOODROFFE family please do contact me, I would love to pass the photo onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz

Albert Tunner & his mother Alice Whatmough

Today’s photos are of two people with quite unusual surnames, one of which I had originally mistaken for a rather more common name. First we have Bert Tunner:-

On turning to FreeBMD for help I found there were only ever THREE births registered in the whole of England & Wales from 1837 for an Albert Tunner:-

Births Dec 1870
Tunner     Albert                   Bury 8c 467
Births Jun 1894
Tunner     Albert John           W. Ham 4a 291
Births Sep 1909
Tunner     Albert Edward      Birkenhead 8a 456

Only one of them being in Lancashire, so I went with Albert born 1870 and found him in the 1891 census with the birthplace of Radcliffe, which was in the Bury registration district. But, was he the right one? Luckily there was another photo that came with Bert’s and this one had written on the back ‘mother of Alice Tunner’:-

This photo was taken in London but to me the writing was in the same hand as the one on Bert’s photo. So did Bert have a sister named Alice – I searched earlier census and found he did, she was born about 1862 & was at home with her parents & other siblings including Bert in 1871 & 1881.

Their mother turned out to be Alice Whatmough, born 26 Dec 1828 (bap 8 Nov 1829), daughter of Robert & Alice Whatmough of Pilkington near Radcliffe. She married James Tunner (Tunnah) at St Mary’s Church, Prestwich on 20 Dec 1846, a week before her 18th birthday. So far I’ve found 8 children for them but there may be more.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the TUNNER/TUNNAH or WHATMOUGH families please do contact me, I would love to pass the photos onto a family member, even a distant one. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

Dawn Scotting
pandora[at]kc.net.nz