After our very long ten week wander in the Motorhome its taken a couple of weeks to catch up with things. I did actually manage to find a few old photos on our travels, but there’s nothing like rooting them out at a car boot sale ! So we were up early on Saturday and I was very lucky and found eight, probably all belonging to the same family the seller told me.

When I had a good look at them I realized several had writing on the back and names ! hooray !
My favourite is this one..on the back is written ‘Betsy Dansby, Granny Hogg’s companion’ what information, a brilliant find.

Betsy Dansby was born in late 1850 in Waddington, Lincolnshire. The first child of William and Margaret Dansby, she had two sisters, Fanny and Ann and one brother Joe Edward.
Her father was a 23 year old farm labourer when she was born, also from Waddington, Lincolnshire.
I haven’t found a marriage for William and Margaret yet, but the most likely record seems to be a William Deansby marrying a Margaret Nelson in Lincoln 1850, 2nd Quarter, Vol 14, page 877.
 Betsy was most likely born in December 1850.
William is living next to his widowed mother in 1851 Census still in Lincolnshire, and there is a Margret Daraby, Ag labs wife and child Betsy Daraby 3 months as visitors to a family Nelson (her parents ?) in Thorpe on the Hill, Lincolnshire in the 1851 Census also…so it all seems to fit nicely, although the spellings are all wrong !
In 1871 William and Margaret are living together in Dodworth, Lincolnshire with their family, Betsy 10, Fanny 2 and Ann just one month old. William is still a farm labourer.
Betsy’s mum Margaret died in 1868, the youngest child, a boy Joe Edward was just 3.
By 1871 Census Betsy was now in the employ of a Thomas Wagstaffe, widower, surveyor and valuer in Glossop, Derbyshire as a domestic servant. And his daughter was also still living at home…and look at her name..Hannah !

Yes… Hannah Wagstaffe married a William Hogg on the 30th September 1875 in Glossop, Derbyshire and Betsy went with her to her new married home in Skipton.
In the 1881 Census she was with the family Hogg, listed as Betty Dansby, now living in Skipton, Yorkshire.
William Hogg aged 38 was a cabinet maker, wife Hannah aged 34 and they had two young daughters Bertha and Minnie.
In the 1891 Census Betsy is still with the same family, but now William Hogg is a Fish merchant and they are living at the Fish Shop in Skipton. The family Hogg has another daughter Jessie now too.

1891 census

1901 finds the Hogg family still in Skipton, but in the High Street now, William listed as a Fish and Game merchant.Minnie is a school governess, and Betsy is still with them listed as a general domestic servant.
1911 the family William and Hannah Hogg have moved to 58 Promenade, Southport, Williams occupation ‘Private Means’.
Their daughter Jessie still a governess,and Betsy is still with them, domestic servant, she was now 59, although the Census says 56. I wonder if she had the photo taken when she reached the age of 60, as it looks about the right time for the photo.
I have been unable to find Hannah or William Hogg’s death dates, but obviously we know after 1911.
I wonder how long Betsy stayed with them? on the photo it says ‘companion’ so I would think maybe until Hannah passed away ?
I do know that in 1929 she was living at the home of her sister Fanny and husband Herbert Horatio Bailey, at Dodworth, Yorkshire……
On March 3rd 1929 Fanny died and the following day March 4th Betsy died….they were buried together in St John’s Church, Dodsworth, Yorkshire, and a few years later Herbert joined them, he had been a coal miner and him and Fanny had been married for 52 years. Betsy Dansby, spinster, left £166 in her will to be shared between Jessie Jessop wife of George and Annie Cragg wife of Samuel, I think that maybe they could have been nieces, maybe two of Fanny and Herbert’s daughters?
As Betsy and Fanny died together I do wonder if they were victims of severe flu ? or something else similar? or even Betsy of shock after her sister died
NOTE..There are various pictures on Ancestry family trees of the Dansby family if you have a connection?

 

Now we turn to the Hogg Family, and we know already that William and Hannah had daughters the name of Jessie and Minnie. The first one of these two photos above it says on the back ‘Jessy and Minnie with Fred’ and I think the second lady with the hat looks more like Jessy/ie on the left, don’t you think….

 Now this chap is a mystery, I thought at first his name may be Fred Ash..but no there was a photographer in Blackpool at the time by the name of Fred Ash…so that is obviously his pencil writing.
BUT on the back is written ‘Robert McKinnon-m-Jessie Hogg. Of Dunoon. Clan McKinnon’ WOW fabulous ! Could this be Robert McKinnon ? or more likely, is it William Hogg? as they lived close to Blackpool.
The last info I had on Jessie in the 1911 census, was that she was 28 and still a governess and living with her parents.

I found a marriage in the third quarter of 1930 of a Robert McKinnon and Jessie Hogg in Lancashire. Jessie would have been 47 now. 
Wonder what happened to them both…I found a death for a Jessie McKinnon in 1968, age 83, Crosby, Lancashire, just a couple of years out, seems the most likely. But nothing conclusive for a Robert McKinnon. There do seem to be a lot of McKinnons in the records, maybe someone out there knows what happened to them ??
McKinnon is a highland Scottish clan associated mostly with the Islands of Mull and Skye in the inner Hebrides.
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The next two old photos are lovely cabinet cards from a London Photographers studios in the Edgware Road…pencilled on the back of the younger lady is ‘Cousin Hilda’ ….personally I think they are both the same young lady..the facial features seem to match for me, what do you think ?

Now assuming the person who wrote the notes on the back of these old photos is a lady, who is she? and from which side of the family does ‘Cousin Hilda’ come? I have no idea, I have looked with the various surnames, but no luck, I think you would have to do a large family tree to narrow it down ! 
The last two old photos in this group are mysteries too !

 

Which branch of the family do they come from I wonder…I have a hankering for the lovely lady in the gorgeous dress to be Hannah Hogg (Wagstaffe)..as she was born in 1847 and this picture dates from probably the later half of the 1860’s it would fit.
I looked up the address where the Hogg family were in 1911 and looks like no 58 Promenade, Southport is still there, I believe its the white building to the right of this image, looks great !
 Google image of 58 Promenade, Southport

Till next time then………………………………………………