Sarah Ann Botham 1859-1932

 

Sarah Ann Botham is the only S A Botham I can find living in (or near) Stockport in the 1901 census, as to whether this photo is her is anyone’s guess.

Sarah Ann was the eldest of the seven children of Charles Entwistle Botham and Elizabeth née Faulkner, she was born on 6 Jul 1859 and baptised 14 Aug 1859 in the Hazel Grove Non-Conformist Chapel:-

Sarah Ann is found living at home with her parents at various addresses in Hazel Grove cum Bramhall up until the 1911 census when she is living with her brother, Henry Brant Botham, at Bank Farm in Chapel en le Frith in Derbyshire. She was a spinster when she died on 22 Nov 1932 aged 73, she was living at Black Brook in Chapel en le Frith, probate of her will went to her younger brother Isaac Botham. Both of her parents had died in 1907 within a few months of each other.

References: ancestry.com.au; FreeBMD; familysearch.org

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the BOTHAM 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

First Intake of Post Women, Wellington 1942

John sent me another one of his family photos dated 1942, the first intake to train ‘postwomen’ at the GPO in Wellington.

To make up for the male labour shortage during WW2 legislation was passed to allow women to be trained, for the first time, as ‘postwomen’.

Apart from Joy Nelson we have no idea just which face belongs to which name:-
Joy Nelson - Whangarei - Front Row, 3rd in from right
M J Rolston - Levin
J E Oliver - Auckland
M K Green - Parangahau
B Sykes - Upper Hutt
H M Golley - Ormondville, Hawkes Bay
P W Seerup - Ohura
Evelyn McDonald - Te Puke
Helen McCaw - Waitahuna
Marcia Bacon - Wellington
P Barrow - Foxton
A Satherley - Seddon
D R Davies - Hastings
B Bird - Richmond
N Devoy - Thames
M Meehan - Ongarue
Betty Morrisey? – Greymouth

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If you are related to any of the women and would like a digital copy of the photo please contact me.

This is ALL we know about them, we have no other information sorry.

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

Edmund Alexander May 1850-1912

Edmund Alexander May was the Rector of Mudford in Somerset. I’m pretty sure that’s a dog collar he has on, what looks like a tie is just the inside of the collar of his coat.

Edmund was the first of fifteen children born to Edmund May and his wife Mary Elizabeth Waugh, Edmund was the Rector of St George’s Church in Stamford, Lincolnshire where Edmund Alexander was born in 1850, he was baptised there on the 2nd April.

Edmund Alexander married Frances Eleanor Shorland in 1878 and they had two sons, Alexander Douglas 1880-1889 and Arthur Edmund born in 1884. In 1911 Arthur was in the Asylum listed as a ‘lunatic’ since the age of 21, he was 27, I was unable to find out what happened to Arthur after that. Frances died aged 52 in 1901 and Edmund Alexander in 1912, it seems there won’t be any further descendants for them.

References: ancestry.com.au; FreeBMD; familysearch.org

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the MAY 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

AUCKLAND CITY COUNCIL ‘TRAFFIC OFFICERS’ - 1935

John sent me this wonderful photograph from his family collection, he thought there might be other descendants of the men who might not have seen it before. He has included the names that he knows and if you recognise any of the ‘unknown’ men please leave a comment.

Back row from the left:–
Unknown, Sgt Joe Blazey, Dave Ross, Bert Fleet, Darby Rhyme, Tom Rieman, Tom Bottrel, Ben Rutledge, Jim Walsh, Lou Midgley, Richard Hall, Jim Fish, Ned Scholes, George Orr, George Chandler.

Front row from left:–
Ted Finney, Walter Marshall, Don Guilford, Sgt Charlie Wooton, Sgt Don Macnaughtan, Sgt Jim MacDonald, Sgt Cecil Bland, Fred Heskith (Town Clerk), Don Shaw, Jim Scott, Unknown,  Arthur Stephenson, Unknown, Spud Murphy.

The first ‘Officer’s Warrants’ were issued in 1933.  Later, there was also the ‘George Hunter Warrant’.

Below I’ve enlarged portions so you can see their faces clearly, starting at the left.

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If you are related to any of the men and would like a digital copy of the photo please contact me.

This is ALL we know about the men, we have no other information sorry.

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

Lily Matthews of Staindrop, Durham

This photo is another one that I found in the Hawera Antique shop, the names on the back are written in the same tiny handwriting as the other photos, mainly of the Spence family posted in a previous post.

I found the following Lily Matthews who had a sister named Ethel living in Staindrop, Durham in the 1911 census, she is just a few years older than Eric Marmaduke Spence’s wife Sarah Lillian (née Alderson), so I think if they aren’t related they were probably friends in Durham before the Spence’s emigrated to NZ. The message is why I thought Sarah Lillian might have been known as Lily.

Lily Matthews was born 1892 in New Raby, Staindrop, Durham, the daughter of James Matthews and Mary Ann née Hugill. She is living with her parents in New Raby in the 1901 & 1911 census, that’s all I know about her because with such a common surname it’s hard to know for sure if any of the marriages and/or deaths after that are hers.

Lily had nine siblings all born between 1879 & 1898, they are:- George, Sarah Ann, Edith, Mary, Rose, Jim, Maggie, Minnie & Ethel.

As to whether the Lily Matthews I found is the right one remains to be seen!

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the MATTHEWS family 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

The SPENCE Family of Cockfield in Durham

The next group of photos I picked up from the Hawera Antique shop all come from the same family.

The Spence family originated in Cockfield and son Eric Marmaduke emigrated to NZ sometime before 1969 when I found him & his wife living in Whakatane, he had married Sarah Lillian Pearl Alderson in 1920 in Durham.

Eric Marmaduke Spence was born on the 9 Oct 1896 in Cockfield, Durham to parents John Spence and Hannah née Dent, he had ten siblings with wonderful names like Methuna May, Osbourne Wycliffe, Mena Leucadia & Eldred John, a dream for anyone researching them. Unfortunately there wasn’t a photo of Eric but there was one of his three daughters & possibly his wife Sarah, she may have been known as Lily:-

   

Eric & Lily’s three daughters were – Catherine Lillian Pearl, Elsie & Ivy. I presume the names on the back were written by one of them which means Mam is Lily. So far I’ve had no luck in pinning down Mary Mandell, still working on her.

There were also three other photos of the girls taken at various times, two perhaps on the same day and all by the same photographer – Pictorial Studios in Redcar and Whitby.  

   

  

Ivy is the one holding the chair, it is dated 6 Aug 1937 on the back, the other two don’t have names on them although there is a date stamp which is faded but looks like 17 Aug 1936 or 1938. According to a few trees on ancestry Catherine died in Brisbane, Australia in 2003, she had married three times and had two children, Patricia Lillian Cody 1944-1997 and Peter Eric Cody 1947-2005.

Elsie married John Newton in 1947 in Durham, they have one living son, she died in NZ in 1989 & John in 2013. I think these photos may have been hers because it seems Ivy stayed in Durham.

Ivy married John G ____ in 1948 in Darlington, Durham, she died in the Memorial Hospital there on 16 Dec 1996, no death found for John so he may still be living.

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The three other photos from the Spence family are three of Eric’s siblings:-

It took me awhile to realise the address was ‘Cockfield’ and not any of the other obvious spellings as they were not in the same place as the photographers were. Once I had that it was easy to find them in the 1911 census and earlier from there.

Eldred John 1899-1982 married Hilda Stevens; Osbourne Wycliffe 1905-1996 married 1st Jane Thompson 2nd Marjorie Young; Eunice Selina 1912-1995 married Harold Crombie. The woman with Osbourne is unknown, possibly either his first wife as he looks quite young in the photo or maybe one of his other five sisters.

The other Spence siblings are:- Ernest George, Frederick, Eva Lavinia, Cassandra Jane, Methuna May, Ida Muriel and Mena Leucadia.

References: ancestry.com.au; FreeBMD; familysearch.org

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the SPENCE family 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