David’s Family History

Edwin Francis Pennell is my wife’s Great Grandfather.

Some incidents from his life made me think about age and, specifically, your date of birth. In the twenty first century we are regularly asked for our date of birth to help the hearer identify us. This may be at the doctor’s surgery, in the bank or online. In the supermarket you may even have a card to confirm you are ‘over 18’ to allow you to purchase certain restricted items. When Edwin was born the age of majority, when you were allowed to do many things without parental consent, was still twenty one. It was not reduced to eighteen until nineteen seventy.

The above copy of Edwin’s birth certificate shows that he was born on 22 October 1853, the son of Thomas and Louisa Pennell, formerly Louisa Eades, and was born at his parents home, 9 Mott Street in Birmingham. Edwin was the youngest of their six children.

The next certificate you can see below is that of his marriage to Emily Hepburn on 25 December 1872. Weddings on Christmas Day were quite common at that time as it was the easiest date to ensure that friends and family could be in attendance and were not having to work.

If we look at bit more closely it shows that marriage took place when Edwin was only nineteen although the certificate shows that he declared his age as twenty one, as did Emily. You will see from the next document that Emily was also likely to have been under twenty one. Both of their fathers were alive at this time and one of Edwin’s older brothers was a witness at the wedding, George Frederick Pennell. When they married Edwin was a Chandelier Maker and Emily a Jeweller’s Polisher.

Sadly their marriage only lasted just over one hundred days and Emily died on 13 April 1873. Emily died from Phthisis (pronounced TIE-sis) which is a Greek word simply meaning ‘wasted away’. It is likely to have been as a result of Tuberculosis.

The death certificate also shows Emily as aged twenty, rather than the twenty one on her marriage certificate just a few months earlier.

Sixteen months later Edwin married Mary Upton. This time he declares his age as twenty four when, in fact, he is still a couple of months away from his twenty first birthday.

We should note that his father, Thomas, is noted as ‘deceased’ on this certificate and Mary’s father is a Licensed Victualler. Although at this time Mary’s father, William, was living in Great Hampton Street in Birmingham, he had been the licensee at The Black Horse in Henley in Arden. Mary was born in Ullenhall near Henley in Arden.

Edwin and Mary went on to have six children between 1875 and 1884, starting and finishing their offspring with boys with four girls in between, Edwin, Beatrice, Rachel, Emily, Mary and Herbert.

Edwin died in 1935.

Emma was the seventh of the eight children of Thomas Thompson and Annie Ethel Watkinson. Emma was born on 3 December 1919 at 12 Glen View, Ynysddu in South Wales. Sadly just thirteen months earlier Thomas and Annie’s sixth child, Sheila, had died after just five weeks probably making the birth of Emma such a joy for the family. Emma was born at such a dangerous time for the world. Although it was a year after the First World War it was in the middle of the world influenza pandemic. More people died as a result of that pandemic than in the whole of the preceding war.

This is the earliest photograph I have have of Emma, she is on the right hand side of the picture, at the front. She is pictured with her brothers and sisters, her parents and her grandfather. The family had moved from South Yorkshire to South Wales a few years before Emma was born and her grandfather still lived there. As Emma had three older sisters she had lots of clothes that were ‘handed down’. There was one particular time Emma remembered her grandfather’s visit because she travelled back to South Yorkshire with him. Whilst in Barnsley he bought her a new coat, the only new coat she ever remembered receiving.

Emma married Gwyn Lowry on 5 July 1941 at Lyttleton Road Methodist Church in Birmingham. Although the family had been living in South Wales, they moved in Stechford in Birmingham in 1937. I am not sure whether Gwyn and Emma met while both working for the war effort. Gwyn was an Aircraft Parts Assembler and Emma was an Aircraft Parts Inspector. I think it more likely that they had already meet in South Wales as Gwyn was born at Nantyglo in Gwent which was only fourteen miles from Ynysddu.

Emma ran her own business for a number of years and here she is pictured in her haberdashery shop. Whatever your needs in that line Emma was ready to supply them. I always remember Emma having her own knitting machine, many years before anyone else had thought about such a thing.

Emma and Gwyn did not have any of their own children but Emma loved being around other children in the family. Here is a picture of Emma with her sister Ann and three of Ann’s grandchildren, I am not sure where the fourth child has come from. This picture is taken in the late 1960s.

Gwyn was a keen photographer and the photograph below is an example of one he took of Emma. He processed his own photographs and developed his own prints. Sadly Gwyn died in March 1985 when they had been married forty three years.

After Gwyn’s death Emma continued to live at the house they had shared for many years, 12 Redhill Road in West Heath. A few years before she died Emma suffered from Dementia and had to move to Sycamore House Care Home in Tyseley. Emma died a week after she had been eighty on 10 December 1999.

Thomas O’Hara is my father-in-law, although I never met him as he died some years before Irene and I were together.

Thomas was the youngest son of James and Ann O’Hara (nee Carrigan ), the eighth of their eight children and the only one of their children to be born in the twentieth century. James and Ann were both born in Ireland although it is not known exactly when they moved to Scotland. They were married on 15 April 1885 at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Glasgow, aged 30 and 24 respectively. According to their marriage certificate only James father, Michael O’Hara, was alive at the time they were married, all their other parents being noted as ‘deceased’.

Thomas was born on 8 December 1903 in Glasgow with five older sisters and two older brothers. When Thomas was just nineteen, in 1923, he travelled to New York from Glasgow to work, boarding the SS Columbia, pictured below. However we were made aware of something else Thomas did when we received his detailed World War II war record. When he joined up in 1941 the form states ‘Enlisted in Kings Own Scottish Borderers as a boy 21 years ago, army number not known. Discharged after only three weeks service – under age.” This would have been in 1920 when Thomas would have been 16.

The journey from Glasgow on 20 October 1923 took 21 days (almost one hundred years later the same sea journey would have been completed in 7 days) and the passenger list tells us that as Thomas left Scotland he had been working as a shop assistant.

Thomas did various work in America and there are various family stories, some which may be apocryphal. He worked as a ‘bell hop’ in an American hotel, we would call him a hotel porter. There was a story that he saw, or assisted, Al Capone whilst doing this work, we will never know for sure.

Thomas did work on the Great Lakes between the USA and Canada and below is a picture of him with some fellow workers, Thomas is third from the left. The vessel they are on is the S.S.W.D. Crawford. I have tried to find out what S.S.W.D stands for but without success. Do you have any idea?

I have been unable to establish exactly when Thomas returned to the UK but by 1939, when the World War II register was taken, he was in Birmingham living at 218 Charles Road and his occupation was recorded as a Dairy Worker. This was probably Slaters Dairy where he met his wife, Mary Pennell. Thomas and Mary were married on 20 July 1940.

Thomas and Mary eventually had four children but soon after the first was born in June 1941 he was enlisted in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (Army Number 10564401). Two years later Thomas was discharged from RAOC, on 7 December 1943, before moving to the Royal Navy the next day. In just under two years with the Royal Navy (Official Number JX696544) Thomas moved between HMS Triphibian, Eagle Brewery and HMS Europa before being discharged on 20 October 1945.

Tom and Mary were really only able to be together with their children after the end of the war and this is a picture from a trip to the seaside, taken around 1947 with their three older children.

After some years Thomas and Mary moved from Yew Tree Lane to live in Newbridge Road, still in Birmingham. Although most of the O’Hara family still lived in Scotland Thomas was in touch with them and below is a picture taken outside their Newbridge Road property. Here we have James, his older brother by thirteen years, Thomas and James, his nephew.

Below is a picture of Thomas accompanying one of his daughters on her wedding day in 1964. He does look very proud.

Sadly Thomas died in January 1969, aged just 65. His widow Mary survived him for another 48 years before she died in 2017 aged almost 101.

Richard is my two times Great Grandfather on my mother’s side of the family. Although I cannot confirm his exact date of birth I have located his christening at St Thomas Church in Dudley on 15th May 1814. Their record notes his parents as Thomas and Mary Corbitt. After them all the following generations have spelt their name with an e rather than an i. Thomas’s occupation is recorded as Limeman and we will return to that occupation when we look further at Richard.

The next thing we know about Richard is that he marries Maria Hollies, although the date of the marriage is shortly before 1837, the beginning of Births Marriages and Deaths records in the UK, and I have not been able to locate the actual marriage. They had two children Thomas, who was born in late 1836 or early 1837 and Richard who was born on 3 February 1839. Sadly Maria died in the second quarter of 1839, leaving Richard to bring up two very young children.

Richard married for a second time on 21 February 1841, this time to Mary Hodgetts. They were married in Kingswinford which at that time was in Staffordshire. Richard was 27 and Mary was 22. By the time we see the 1851 census record Richard and Mary are living in Dudley Port, Tipton with six children, two from Richard’s earlier marriage and four children from the marriage to Mary. Their children are James aged 8, George aged 6, Joseph aged 3 and David aged 1. You will notice that Richard now has six children from his two marriages, all boys. Later in the year of that census Richard’s second wife Mary also died.

Richard went on to marry for a third time, in the Spring of 1856, and this time he married Louisa Whitehouse in Dudley. Louisa was eighteen years younger than Richard and only a few years younger than Richard’s oldest son, Thomas. By the time of the 1861 census Richard’s two sons from his first marriage have moved out, as has one of his sons from his second marriage. However Richard and Louisa have four children of their own Jabez, Eliza, Mary and William. The youngest being just a month old and that takes the number of his children to ten, eight boys and two girls. The census record shows Richard as a shopkeeper at this time.

Ten years later Richard, whose occupation is now as a Lime Burner, is living with Louisa and ten children. However it is not the same ten children previously referred to as only David remains as a child from his second marriage. Louisa has had another five children, Robert, Abraham, Samuel, Sarah and Arthur, who is my Great Grand Father. Richard has now had fifteen children and Louisa and Richard have had nine children of their own. Richard now has enough boys for his own football team however the oldest is thirty four and the youngest is just five months old.

You may remember earlier that we noted that Richard’s father was a Limeman and he is recorded as a Lime Burner. This was quite a dangerous occupation.

I am afraid I don’t know if the above is an accurate image but it is about the right period as the etching is from 1871. The occupation involved burning Lime to a heat of 1,100 degrees centigrade to produce Lime Powder. The kiln had to be maintained at this heat for 48 hours and the powder fumes were often fatal for someone not taking great care.

By the time of the 1881 census we see that two more children were born to Richard and Louisa, Josiah and John. This means that Richard now has a total of seventeen children and Richard and Louisa had eleven of their own. At this time Richard and Louisa are living with eight of their own children and one grandchild in Gilbert Street, Tipton.

Ten years later Richard and Louisa are living with five of their children and a grandson, the same one as in 1881. They are still in Tipton but now living in Gate Street.

Richard died in 1896, aged 82, and his wife lived on until 1908 when she died aged 76. I don’t have any pictures of my 2xGreat Grandfather and the only picture I have of any of his children is of Arthur.

My dad’s mom had an amazing life. She was born in 1880, before the age of motor vehicles, and died in 1970, a year after Neil Armstrong had become the first man to walk on the moon. I struggle to believe that many other ninety year olds lived through such a time of change.

Annie Ethel Watkinson was the tenth of the twelve children of Joseph and Mary Watkinson, nee Rodgers. Born on 6 February 1880 she lived through the reigns of Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward VIII, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. Currently I have only known one monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. What a life!

Annie Ethel Watkinson was born on 6 February 1880 in Tankersley, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire. When she was born her oldest sibling, her sister Amy was a few days away from her nineteenth birthday. Had Annie Ethel been born in 1800 her surviving to her first birthday would have been in doubt with child mortality being 43% at that time but by 1880 child mortality had dropped to 3.5%.

When Annie Ethel was a year old she was living at 11 Pilley Colliery, Tankersley with her father, Joseph, who was an Overman in the local coal pit, Mary, her mother, and seven older siblings. One of her siblings, Harriet, was with her aunt and uncle, George and Martha Slater Martha being Mary’s sister. Her other sibling, Bertha, died soon after birth in 1865.

Ten years later the family had moved to 27 Sheffield Road, Worsborough. The 1891 census records that Annie Ethel, now aged 11 and a scholar, is living with her parents and six of her siblings including Thomas and Ann, children eleven and twelve for Joseph and Mary.

By 1901 Annie Ethel has moved along Sheffield Road and is now living at number 63 with her parents, her younger brother Tom and a domestic servant, Martha Ann Mayor. Joseph has now been promoted at the colliery and is a Colliery Deputy. On this census there is no occupation recorded for Annie Ethel.

Five years later Annie Ethel Watkinson marries Thomas Thompson on 11 August 1906 at Ebenezer Methodist Chapel in Barnsley. As was the normal process at that time the bride and groom and the family went to the local photographers studio for photographs of the occasion.

It would be really interesting to be able to identify all the nine people in this group photograph but I’m afraid I can’t. Who can we be sure about? Here goes then (left to right)

Unknown, child on lap unknown but probably a niece of the bride, Mary (Annie Ethel’s mother), lady possibly a sister of the bride, Thomas Thompson, the groom, Annie Ethel Watkinson, the bride, Joseph Watkinson (Annie Ethel’s father), lady possibly a sister of the bride and man unknown. Below is a scan of the original marriage certificate. The minister at the service was T Sheldon Willetts and the registrar was A E Ashworth. One of the witnesses was Emmanuel Thompson, Thomas’s younger brother and possibly his bestman. He might be the person in the above photograph on the extreme right.

Thomas and Annie Ethel had eight children, William born in 1908, Nellie born in 1910, Amy born in 1912, Joseph born in 1914, Ann born in 1916, Sheila born in 1918, Emma born in 1919 and Wilfred born in 1924. Their first four children were born in South Yorkshire and the latter four in South Wales where they lived at 12 Glen View, Ynysddu. Seven of the children lived into adulthood but sadly Sheila died when just five weeks old. Thomas and Annie Ethel had thirteen grandchildren.

Annie and Thomas moved to South Wales, during the First World War, so Thomas could continue his work as a Coal Miner, contributing to the war effort. Despite moving away from South Yorkshire Annie Ethel kept in touch with her father, her mother having died in 1909, and he made trips to South Wales to see them by train. Below is a picture of one of his last trips, taken around 1930. Annie is seated in the centre of the picture.

Eventually, in about 1937, Thomas and Annie Ethel moved to Birmingham and lived in Lyttleton Road, Stechford, firstly in larger house, number 107?, before moving to number 44. There are a number of pictures with Annie Ethel taken at number 44 which follow. Thomas and Annie Ethel were very involved in the life of Newbridge Baptist Church which Annie Ethel continued to attend until a few weeks before her death in November 1970.

Here is a picture of Thomas and Annie Ethel with two of their older grandchildren, Samuel and Bryan, taken around 1940.

This a photograph of the wedding of Annie Ethel’s youngest daughter, Emma, to Gwyn Lowry in July 1941. Annie Ethel is seated to the right side of the picture. The embarrassed boy at the front could be Samuel, referred to in the previous picture.

Here is Annie Ethel again, with the birds on her hat, in August 1949 at the wedding of her youngest son Wilfred. The bride, Marjorie Corbett, has been omitted from the group!

Here is Annie Ethel, aged about 80, probably at Christmas 1960. The two other ladies in the picture are Marjorie, the bride omitted from the previous picture, and Annie Ethel’s daughter, Amy, who lived with her until Annie Ethel died in 1970. The two grandchildren are children of Wilfred and Marjorie.

My final memory of Annie Ethel was her 90th birthday party, which took place in the hall of Newbridge Baptist Church and to the best of my knowledge was attended by her seven children and thirteen grandchildren.

My amazing grandmother who led an amazing life.

The above is a list of the ‘potted stories’ published to date and below is a list of how they are related to me.

CORBETT. My maternal grandfather’s line

JOLLY. My maternal grandmother’s line

PENNELL. My wife’s maternal grandfather’s line

THOMPSON. My paternal grandfather’s line

WATKINSON. My paternal grandmother’s line

How many children did your father have? Arthur’s father, Richard Corbett, was married three times, had seventeen children and Arthur was child number fifteen. When Arthur was born his two oldest brothers, Thomas and Richard, were both over thirty.

Richard’s first two wives had borne him two and four children respectively. Richard then married Arthur’s mother, Louisa Whitehouse, in 1856 when Richard was in his early forties and Louisa was twenty three. Richard and Louisa were married in Dudley which at that time was in Worcestershire. Arthur was born on 10 October 1870 in Tipton, Staffordshire, the ninth of Louisa’s eleven children, and in the 1871 census the family were living at 13 Gilbert Street, Tipton, Arthur, his parents and nine siblings.

Arthur was my mother’s paternal grandfather and when he was born his father’s occupation is recorded as Lime Burner. This is an occupation that has been around since about 1400 and involves burning limestone to make lime.

By the time Arthur was ten he was still living in Gilbert Street with his parents and seven of his siblings aged between twenty four and six. Ten years later Arthur’s occupation is recorded as a compositor but I don’t know who he worked for, a newspaper, a printer, a publisher … ? Maybe we will never know.

Aged twenty five Arthur married Sarah Harper on Christmas Day 1895 at St Michaels in Tividale. I have come across quite a few ancestors who were married on Christmas Day. Holidays were rare in those days and December 25th was an occasion when most friends and family could be at the celebration.

Arthur and Sarah had two sons, Percy Harper Corbett, my grandfather, born in 1896 quarter 4 and his brother Eric Rowland Corbett who was born on 19 March 1901. When Eric was a month old and Percy was just four the family were living at 131 Himley Road with their servant Annie Fellows, aged 60. Arthur was now a printer and compositor and clearly paid well enough to employ Annie.

Ten years later the family had moved from Dudley to 55 Westbourne Road, Handsworth and Percy, aged 14, was working with his father, Percy as a compositor (apprentice). It looks as though the family stayed in this area for a number of years as the pre-World War II register in 1939 shows Arthur, Sarah and Eric living at that 75 Westbourne Road, Arthur now being a printer roader, or should that be reader?

Arthur and Sarah were married for more than fifty years when Sarah died in 1948. Arthur lived for another seven years and although he died before I was three, I have memories of visiting him in a residential home in Birmingham.

In the middle of the twentieth century it was quite common to send out cards to let friends and family know that someone had died, years before emails and, for most people, it was easier than going to the red phone box at the end of the road, even if the people you were trying to contact had a phone.

Arthur died on 14th February 1955.

John Watkinson is my 3 x Great Grandfather, Joseph Watkinson’s Grandfather (who is written about elsewhere on this blog). John was the son of John Watkinson and Sarah Green and was born in Nottinghamshire in 1764 and was the fifth of their five children.

John was married twice, firstly to Sarah Nixon. This wedding took place on 5 November 1787 in Strelley, Nottingham. They had three children Elizabeth, born 27 November 1788, Charles Nixon born 7 January 1790 and John born 23 October 1791. I have however been unable to trace a record of Sarah’s death.

A couple of years after the probable death of his first wife John married Hannah Smith on 24 November 1795 at the same church in Strelley. Interestingly one of the witnesses at this wedding was Charles Nixon, possibly a relative of his first wife Sarah Nixon.

On 24 November 1995 I was able to visit the church on the two hundredth anniversary of John’s second marriage. I was able to locate someone with a key to the church so I could see the interior. The interior was probably the same in appearance as two hundred years before. The screen is from 15th century and Family Tomb is dated approximately 1405.

John and Hannah had seven children Joseph, in 1797, Henry my 2 x Great Grandfather in 1800, Sarah in 1802 who died in 1819, William in 1804 who died in 1812, Isaac in 1806, Hannah in 1807 and Ann in 1809.

John’s second wife Hannah died in November 1833 and by the time of the 1841 census John, aged 75, was living with his son Henry, Henry’s wife Amy and their three children Ann, aged 3, Mary, aged 2 and William, aged 1.

Both John and Henry’s occupations are noted as bricklayers on the census and my grandmother, who was not born until 1880, always remembers the family talking about them both as being involved in the construction of the very substantial walls at Wollaton Hall, Nottingham. They would have been working for Lord Middleton’s estate as the family owned the property for many years until the 11th Lord Middleton sold the property to the City of Nottingham in 1924. Today (March 2019) there is work going on to restore some of the walls at Wollaton Hall.

John died on 2 June 1846, aged 81.

Edwin Pennell was the oldest child of Edwin and Mary Pennell who were married on 6 August 1874 in Birmingham. His father is noted as a Chandelier Maker on his marriage certificate and on also on the 1881 census. By the time of that census Edwin had three sisters, Beatrice Meleta, aged 4, Rachel Amena Elizabeth, aged 3, and Emily Maria Harriet, aged 1. At this time the family were living at 2 Back 161 Devonshire Street, Birmingham.

Edwin is my wife’s grandfather. Ten years later in 1891, Edwin had two more siblings, Mary Louisa Ada, born 30 March 1882, and Herbert Francis, born 31 July 1884. By this time Edwin Snr. and Edwin Jnr are both working as Brass Finishers.

Edwin married Minnie Elizabeth Bullock on 27 August 1898 at St George’s Parish Church in Birmingham. I don’t have a picture from their wedding but below is a picture of Minnie, probably a couple of years before the wedding.

Edwin and Minnie had five children Edwin Francis H, born 20 February 1899 and known as Ted, Minnie Elizabeth born 24 September 1900, Herbert C born 22 October 1901 and known as Bert, Arnold Samuel born 25 October 1906 known as Arne. My mother-in-law, Mary Beatrice, the youngest, was born on 17 June 1916.

Edwin and Minnie obviously enjoyed getting out and about, including travel on their motorcycle and sidecar. I sent the photo below to the National Motorcycle Museum and they kindly identified the bike as a Triumph 4hp 550cc which when new cost £49.85. The museum also supplied the link below which gives more details about the machine

http://www.go-faster.com/1914Triumph.html

Mary remembers going with her father to Snow Hill railway station, on his shoulders, to meet her brother Ted coming back from the First World War. Mary also remembered the family home in Yew Tree Lane, Yardley, when it really was a lane, and this is confirmed by the 1939 World War II register when Edwin and Minnie were living at 23 Yew Tree Lane.

We have already seen Minnie with a banjo (above) and it was obviously a family skill. Below are pictures of Edwin and his son Bert at different times in their lives with their instruments. Birmingham was the home of the world renown banjo makers “Windsors” and it would appear, from pictures available on the internet that Bert is pictured with a Windsor modele de luxe.

Below is a picture of Edwin and Minnie but we don’t know where, we don’t know when or who they are pictured with. Minnie died in 1945 when she was in her late sixties.

Edwin died in 1960 aged 85.

Richard was the oldest son of William Watkinson and Edith Talboys, born in 1895. His grandfather was Joseph Watkinson (1842 – 1931) who is mentioned earlier on this blog.

In 1901 the family lived at 50 Queen Street, Darfield, Barnsley when William was a Colliery Deputy Below Ground and Richard’s younger brother David had been born towards the end of 1900.

Ten years later at the time of the 1911 census the family have moved to 16 Garden City, Turnsco, Nr Rotherham and Richard is now working with his father as a Colliery Underground Pony Driver, aged 15. His siblings are now Donald aged 6 and Louis aged 1.

The certificate above sadly records that Richard only lived another five years and died on the first day of the battle of the Somme along with almost twenty thousand soldiers on that one day. I cannot imagine how hard it would have been for his parents William and Ellen when they were notified of his death. They were now living at 93 Fairacres Road, Oxford, the city were Ellen was born.

In 2016, as part of the hundredth anniversary commemorations of the Battle of the Somme, there was an art installation at the National Memorial Arboretum in which the twenty thousand who died on that first day, which including Richard, were remembered with these twenty thousand, individually decorated, soldiers which were laid in waves across the grass. It was especially poignant to remember that one of those was my father’s first cousin.

Thank you Richard for your sacrifice. Richard is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France.

In 2016 I was also able to buy a special commemorative ‘poppy’ specifically to remember the battle of the Somme.

This Somme Centenary Pin was made from metal from 1916 shell fuses recovered from the Somme Battlefields of France. The central red enamel contains finely ground earth recovered from the Somme. The essence of the battlefield and very ground the soldiers of 1916 fought upon, died upon, and many still lie at peace beneath.