Richard Dobson 1869-1948

Further to the above photograph published here, I have further information on Uncle Dick & Aunt Sarah Ann. Uncle Dick was Richard Dobson, he was the brother of Millicent Dobson who was married to Thomas Watson Catlow, the parents of the ten Catlow girls featured in previous pages on this blog.

Richard & Millicent were the children of James Dobson of Halifax in Yorkshire and his wife Elizabeth Ashworth of Bacup in Lancashire. Richard was the youngest of five children, born about 1869 in Bacup. He married Sarah Annie Clegg in the Hyndburn Registry Office, Lancashire in 1895. Richard & Sarah Ann had two sons, Harry & Fred and they are the two young boys in the above photo.

                                     Sarah Annie Clegg

These two photos of Richard Dobson & his son Harry were in the Catlow Collection of photographs I found on eBay. In the course of my research I found Ruth, a Dobson descendant, who has in her possession a photograph of a family with no identification on it. After she saw the above group photograph she finally knew who they were – a younger version of Richard & Saran Ann Dobson & their two sons, along with an older woman, we can’t say for sure who she is yet but she is most probably the mother of either Richard or Sarah Ann. And yes that is a little boy! There is also another photo with Harry Dobson, aged about 21, in an army uniform, previously published here.

Richard Dobson died in 1948 aged 79 in Nelson, Lancashire, his wife Sarah Ann, died in 1954 aged 81, also in Nelson. Nothing more is known of their two sons.

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

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If anyone knows anything about or is connected to this DOBSON 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

Mary Elizabeth Catlow 1893-1919

The fourth daughter of Thomas Watson & Millicent Catlow was Mary Elizabeth, known as ‘Lizzie’. She was also born in Bacup, Lancashire, her birth was registered in the 3qtr of 1893. There are only two photographs of Lizzie as she died at the young age of 25 in the Spanish Influenza epidemic, her death is registered in the 1qtr of 1919.

A pretty young girl, seen here with her younger sister Millie with other relatives on what looks like either a ramble in the bush or perhaps a picnic nearby.

It is dated ‘prob 1913’ and in pencil is a calculation of what looks like someone’s birth date and how old they would be in 1913.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It doesn’t seem to be either Lizzie or Millie’s birthday though as their births were registered in 1893 & 1896.

The other photo of Lizzie is the one previously published on her sister Annie’s page, she’s in the middle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll post more on the group photo in a later article. Uncle Dick Dobson was the brother of their mother Millicent Dobson.

 

Next time it’s the turn of fifth daughter Millicent Catlow.