Family Worth

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Ancestry. This is a bit different from my usual blog posts, but as I don’t know how many people actually read what I write, and as I mostly write for my own pleasure anyway, I thought I’d write about what’s been interesting to me over the past 6 weeks. Although hopefully I can make it interesting to people who don’t share my bloodline too!

I was born in Derby, Derbyshire in 1987 to parents who had been born and raised in Belper, Derbyshire. When I was just 10 days old we moved to Hereford, Herefordshire, which is where I grew up as an only child. Apart from a few stragglers in nearby counties pretty much all of my living family were born, raised and still reside in Derbyshire. We went to visit when I was a kid, I can’t tell you how many times a year but the visits dwindled until, as an adult, I barely go anymore. Because I grew up in Hereford I always felt separate and a bit different to the rest of my family. In fact when we were little my cousin once asked her parents which language I spoke because my accent was so different to hers! My family are lovely, warm and kind but I don’t really know them. It’s always just been me, Mum and Dad; A very small family unit. I don’t have any negative feelings about that, it’s just the way it worked out, but as I’ve gotten older I have started to question my ancestry and who I am a bit more…as in where did I come from. 

Anyway, although I was born in Derby and that’s where my close familial roots are, I wouldn’t say that I was from Derbyshire. Although I grew up in Hereford, I don’t feel any ties to the land. I’ve moved around and across the UK several times now and I’ve lived in a couple of different places in both Wales and Scotland. Nationality, ‘home’ and how you identify (as in Northern, Southern, Brummy etc…) comes up when you’re new somewhere because people are interested in where you come from and who you are. I’m English, that’s obvious, I think?! But what does that mean? What kind of English am I?!

When I went to see my parents recently I got into the old photo collection and started chatting to my Mum about family. In the collection there were some photos she wasn’t quite sure about. For example, Mum knew that a particular picture was my Great-Great-Grandmother but couldn’t tell me her name. So, I started to have a tinker on ancestry.com, and then I got addicted, and then I ended up paying for 6 months membership. I mean doing a PhD is surely the perfect timing to take on a big project like researching your family history!

I’ve been doing this for about a month and a half now and I wanted to share some of the interesting things I’ve found out about my family and the times they lived in. Maybe it’ll inspire you to do some of your own research!  

I read that it’s good to pick a side (maternal or paternal) and I decided to start with my maternal side, which is ‘Worth’, for lots of reasons. I’m interested in women’s history, my Grandad Worth has interesting parentage (although that’s his story to tell) and I found an old 1920s Christmas postcard addressed to a woman on this side of the tree called Hilda, and I wanted to know who she was. To begin with I went at the family tree a bit wildly just following lines here and there but I soon got lost! I mean they tell you to pick a side because it’s a big job, but I didn’t quite anticipate how big. So, I decided to go to the furthest right side of my family tree and start following each line down.

At that side of my tree is my Great-Grandma Dorothy Amy Wood née Bradshaw, my Grandma’s mother. I was actually named after her and my Grandad’s mother, May Worth née Butler. Anyway, so Dorothy was born in 1903 in Belper, Derbyshire. Edward VII was reigning at the time and the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was formed this year. They fought for the rights of women through arson, throwing stones, smashing windows, shouting at people and going on hunger strikes. Not that Dorothy would have known anything about that in her early years. As a child, Dorothy had Diphtheria, a serious bacterial infection you’re unlikely to come across now due to childhood vaccinations and she went deaf because of her infection. When she was 8 the 1911 census came round and although hers and her mother’s occupations were not listed, her two sisters, Hilde (or Hilda) and Ellen were listed as a ‘mender’ and a ‘lie maker’ (whatever that is) respectively. Her father, James, was a pottery worker. I LOVE the census records. They give the best hints, telling you who people were living with, who’s the head of the house, their ages and what their occupations are. Occupations are more commonly listed for men because…well…the patriarchy, so I get particularly excited about the nuggets of information I find about the women in my family. Much later, at 32 years old, Dorothy married William whose line I haven’t even begun to trace yet and they had several children. In 1939, at 36 years old, she was listed on the census as an unpaid domestic worker and her husband was listed as a colliery coal butting operator. I don’t know exactly what that is yet but I imagine it was hard and dirty work. My Mum remembers him coming home from work and telling the grandkids that he had been mining right below the house. The only other thing I know about my Great-Grandma Dorothy is that apparently, she didn’t like having her photo taken because she had bad legs with awful various veins. These were always wrapped up. She died in 1970 when she was 67.

Before Dorothy things get a little tougher as we’ve moved past living memory and my Mum can no longer feed me little titbits like the Diphtheria fact!

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Dorothy’s parents were James and Millicent Bradshaw née Webster. Like Dorothy’s husband I haven’t started to trace her father James’s line yet. My Great-Great-Grandma Millicent was born in 1864 in Leicester. At this time Victoria was on the throne, the American civil war was still happening and overarm bowling was legalised in cricket! Millicent’s parents are William Webster and Lydia Webster née Spencer. Millicent’s father, William Webster, whose side I haven’t investigated much was a nailer (nail-maker) for most of his life but was a drummer for the militia in his youth. In the 1871 census, when Millicent was just 7 years old, the family are registered as being in Rotheram, South Yorkshire. I can only see the part of the census document related to her and her sister (Emma, born in Belper) and they are both listed as scholars. I’d love to know what motivated the family to move from Belper to Rotheram through Leicester (where Millicent was born) and then back to Belper again. 10 years later, in Belper, the 1881 census shows that a 17 year old Millicent is working as an embroiderer. Her mother, Lydia, is married to a different man, as in not Millicent’s father. He is called Stephen Walker and he is a deaf, horse nail maker. Nail-making was a common profession at this time and in 1850 the poet, Thomas Crofts, wrote about Belper, “it has nailshops past my counting, where men and women toil, making Roundheads, Forties, Clinkers, for the tillers of the soil”. It’s thought that nail-making was associated with Belper since the Norman Conquest and Belper nails were exported all over the world. The folk (mostly men) who made nails, could famously make 1000 a week. Although, to be fair, if they didn’t make their quotas they would be fined, which I’m sure was a great incentive! Apparently Belper nailers were notorious in their unruliness. Although they were incredibly hard working they were also, in general, hard drinking, rebellious trouble makers. There’s an old anecdote, which I hope is a joke, that goes as follows; “An innocent stranger puts his head inside the window opening of a nailer’s shop and asks “What’s the time?” The nailer pauses from his work, and brings his hammer down hard on the stranger’s head, answering gleefully, “It’s just struck one!”. They did, however, have a reputation for violence so maybe it’s true! Another chap, a reverend, describes Belper as an “insignificant residence of uncivilised nailers” and describes it as the “rudest place”, bar one, that he knew! Charming, huh?! There are actually quite a few nailers in my tree and I love that so much of my ancestry relates to these outspoken folk, it sounds like anarchy!

Anyway, I digress, let’s get back to my Great-Great-Grandma Millicent. At 19, in 1883, she marries James Bradshaw who is listed in the 1891 census as a bottlemaker. Her occupation is not listed here, and her children are scholars or too young to be schooled. At this time her mother, Lydia, is living with her and working as a charwoman, so presumably she’s widowed again. Charwomen worked as domestics, but they didn’t have fixed schedules, working when and where they could. Millicent doesn’t have a listed occupation in 1901 or 1911 but her husband is now a potter. After that I lose Millicent in the censuses, but she dies in 1932 at 68 years old.

It gets harder and harder to trace the interesting details of people’s lives after Millicent and her mother Lydia (my Great-Great-Great Grandmother) and it’s just because as you leave the 1800s and enter the 1700s the censuses are far less available and marriage records stop listing the father’s occupation. In some ways it does become easier to log names and dates though. There’s less information to sift through and I guess fewer people on the planet the further you go back. It also helps massively if another ancestry searcher has already done some of the hard work of sifting through the records for you! Millicent’s ancestors mostly hail from the Midlands; Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire. But there is a moment in the mid-1600s where I think that there could be some aristocratic folk that moved to England from Prussia (Germany/Denmark area). The line is really confusing though. Essentially, I think there are 2 men with same name who marry 2 women with same name in the same area and I’m not confident that I’ve picked the right man and woman! I’d love to have some Prussian aristocracy in my bloodline but I think I need to sit down and have another go through all the online records and maybe even physically go to the records office (when I can). So, I’m not confident enough to go through that here, now. Exciting though!

One interesting story I’ve gleaned pre-1800s though, and one I’m far more confident on, is that of my 6^th Great-Grandfather John Mayer (that’s Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather!). He was born in 1738 in Wolstanton, Staffordshire. At this time George II was on the throne (wearing one of those super poncy wigs) and slavery was very much the ‘in thing’, but they had slowed down on the witch hunting, with some of the major witchcraft acts being repealed 2 years earlier. I would be so interested to find a witch amongst my ancestors…although I could assume if I did nothing good would have happened to her! Anyway, John Mayer. Beyond his birth record the first time I find him he’s 38 and a weaver, and he must be doing okay for himself because he has an apprentice called Samuel Robinson (you had to pay duties for having an apprentice).

Many years later in 1818 when John Mayer (also spelled Mare…spelling becomes a lot more loose and carefree the further you go back) is 80 years old he is listed as being a gentleman. I’m not totally sure what this means but I think essentially he’s a ‘free-man’ as in he didn’t have or need a job.

Three years later my 6^th Great-Grandfather is charged with uttering base coin! Essentially, he was trying to spend adulterated money. He didn’t ‘present’ at the trial and he was acquitted. Maybe they took mercy on him because of his age or status or maybe they thought he was innocent (although they don’t say he wasn’t guilty!). The chap above him in the criminal register committed the same crime and went to prison for 6 months. A few years earlier this crime was considered high treason and if you were caught 3 times you were hung! What a rebel?! He died just a couple of years after this at the lofty age of 85.

The furthest back I’ve traced in this line (the line of my Great-Grandma Dorothy and Great-Great Grandma Millicent) and earliest records I’ve come across so far are that of my 17^th great Grandparents John and Johanna Fardon (Vardon). That’s too many ‘greats’ to type out even to make a point! John was born in 1485 and died just 23 years later and Johanna was born in 1490 and massively outlived him reaching the lofty age of 72 years old. When they were both born in 1485/1490, the Tudor, Henry VII, gained the throne by killing King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth (the last battle in the Wars of the Roses). He was the last monarch to die in battle and he was the chap whose remains were found under a parking lot in Leicester. Johanna would have been alive to see the reign of Henry VIII and the mess that followed him with the young King Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Bloody Mary, Phillip and finally Elizabeth I, who I guess brought some royal stability. At this point the United Kingdom or Great Britain didn’t exist and these guys sat on the English throne (although, by this time the eldest son of the monarch was usually the Prince of Wales…it’s complicated). I can’t tell you much more about John and Johanna other than they were born and died in Broughton, Oxfordshire. The further you go back the simpler and more difficult to read the records get. I rely a lot on what other ancestry searchers have done before me and at some point to find out any more about these people I’d have to go to the place they lived and look at the physical records.

Obviously, I was always aware that I had ancestors, I mean, we all are…but having the constantly growing expanse of names make me more distinctly aware of it. Like, I’m actually related to people who were alive during the Norman Invasion, saw the arrival of potatoes and went through plagues (proper plagues with boils and ‘doctors’ wearing bird masks, not COVID19). Okay, they’re very distant relations at that point but I still think it’s cool.

I still have a lot more searching to do but from what I’ve seen so far I think it’s relatively clear that I am absolutely a Midlander! Ultimately it never really mattered to me where my known ancestors came from but I’m glad that I’m starting to find out.