It’s good to start the year by finishing one of my draft blogs, I have more waiting. If you’re a Family Historian you’ll know that it’s impossible to go too many days without doing any research, so I managed to sneak in a bit during Christmas and New Year, this family needed identifying!

This is a lovely group of old photos that my friend Diana sent to me back last summer, all belonging to one family. Although these two first postcards are not from a family member it would have been very difficult to confirm this family without them.

As always I started writing down all the relevant information in my notebook, the address above at 9 Queens Street and the names Mr and Mrs Jim Dawson proved to be crucial.

Starting a tree with James and/or Jim Dawson I had so many options, even with putting in the various names from the photos below as possible children, I also tried looking for the names on the photos individually, it was definitely not going to be easy, far too many variations to be sure even with Skipton or Yorkshire as an area. So I decided to go back and focus on the address between 1921 and 1927, so glad I did, as on the electoral rolls on Ancestry for 1924, 1925 and 1926 there was a James William Dawson and a George Dawson living at 9 Queen Street. So I still haven’t got any ages for these two but George may be a brother or a son of James (Jim) William Dawson. So I added William as a middle name for my tree and added two Georges, one as a brother and one as a son, I can delete one or both later when I find out more information.

I decided my best bet was to go to the 1921 census now on Find My Past, so I put in James William Dawson and Skipton, I just had 2 results, one born 1899 and one born 1868, so to keep the cost down I was just going to look at the transcription of the 1899 James in the possible hope that the 1868 chap was the younger one’s father and hovering the cursor over one of the 2 results it popped up with the same names in the household, so I only had to buy and look at one.

What a result! In the same household, I have James William Dawson Snr, a Storeman on here but previously I found that he had worked for the Midland Railway as a Coalman, also Albert, Fred and Freda (Twins) are children of James William Dawson Snr. Eric is a grandson and son of James William Jnr and Martha Ann (Miles). Plus I also have the adult females of the family, all their birth years and where they were born and lots more besides. Of course, you also get a map of the area with your purchase of the 1921 census, Transcription or Image, here’s the one for this Dawson family which shows how important the railway was to the area. Many of my family members on branches of this tree had jobs on the railway even some being engine drivers. While researching I came across this website, very handy for information if you are researching people who were engine drivers: steamindex.com Lots of others worked in the Mills.

Under the transcription was ‘other records with that name’ was the 1939 Register for the family too, which added birth dates for me to some of the people in the household that were still living. So I now had a couple of children for James William Jnr and his wife Martha and also identifying George Dawson as being James William Jnr’s brother born 25 November 1900. He was most likely to be the George on my initial find with James on the electoral registers for the 1920s, so I deleted the possibility of a son George from the tree.

Photos Identified

Our first photo above is of Eric Dawson he was born on 7 June 1921 in Skipton, Yorkshire, the son of James William Dawson Jnr born in 1899 and Martha Ann (Miles).

Second is Mary Margaret Dawson born in 1908 in Skipton, Yorkshire, a sister to James William Jnr, her father was James William Dawson Snr born in 1867 and her mother was Selina Jane (Moreland) Mary was with her family at 3 years old, the time of the 1911 census. But I found that Mary died when she was just ten years old, a very sad death, here’s the digital death certificate below:

Cause of Death: ‘Mis adventure, localised peritonitis from perforation of the small intestine from swallowing foreign bodies like wood, her hair and other things. P.M.’ She died 1 July 1918 at the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum. Age 10 years. Of 7 Emmanuel Street, Skipton was the daughter of James William Dawson (Snr born 1867) a Labourer. Inquest was held on 3 July 1918.

The fourth photo is of Robert Wilfred Dawson he was born in July 1905 in Skipton, Yorkshire, the son of J W Dawson Snr and Selina. He also died as a child in March 1907 before his second birthday.

The fifth photo is of James William Dawson Jnr born in 1899 (J Dawson on the back of the photo) and Albert Edward Dawson (Albert Dawson on the back of the photo) born in December 1910 in Skipton, Yorkshire.

Family Group Sheet

Here below are Twins Fred and Freda both born on 13 July 1912 they are with their Grandmother, Mary Margaret (Parrington) 1843-1922, she is Selina’s mother, James William Dawson’s mother Jane Hunter died in 1904 before the Twins were born.

‘Grandmar‘ I believe was Mary Margaret Parrington, who was born in 1843 in Dent, Yorkshire. She had married George Moreland in 1870 after having illegitimate Twin sons James (1866-1947) and William Parrington (1866-1939), so it seems that having Twins likely came from the Parrington side of the family. Mary and George Moreland (1835-1907) had five further children together. The 1921 census shows Mary living with her widowed daughter Susannah Davison, her husband Gilbert had died in 1918, she had also lost her only child Mary Elizabeth in 1902 at just one year old, and one of James William Jnr‘s sons George Benjamin Dawson aged 20.

Grandmar Mary died in July 1922 in Skipton, Yorkshire. The twins lived a long life Fred 1912-1998 and Freda 1912-2006.

This is the 1939 register below with James William Dawson Jnr born in 1899, he was a Metal Sorter here and also worked previously as a General Labourer, and his wife Martha Ann (Miles) They had four children Eric 1921-2006, Fred born in 1925, an invalid with heart trouble and then Marjorie who was born in 1927 and married Harold Bachelor in 1948 and Audrey 1927-2009 she married Brian W Coulbeck in 1952.

Going back to Selina Jane (Moreland) James William Dawson’s first wife and the mother of all of his children. She was born in 1872 in Kirkby Malham, Yorkshire, her father was George Moreland 1835-1907, he is the next photo, George was a Cotton Operative working in a Mill, and her mother was Mary Margaret (Parrington) 1843-1922. Selina Jane married James William Dawson Snr in October 1898 in Skipton, Yorkshire. She had 11 children in 16 years. Selina Jane died on 3 December 1915 in Skipton, Yorkshire, at the age of just 43. So I had to know why, and this is the digital death certificate.

The cause of death was Placenta previa and Uraemia and Mania, 7 days, what an awful awful death. There was no child registered born or died at this time so she/he likely was stillborn and died with Selina Jane. Previous to this she had lost three of her children as babies, I think we forget sometimes when we are researching people from such a long way back what everyday life was like back then, we live so well now in comparison to these large families who didn’t have access to the medication and care that we have access to nowadays.

Boothman Family

Then I had these three photos written on the backs of the Boothman Family, so who were they? I carried on adding marriage partners to the people on the family tree. Then hooray I found that Mary Ann Moreland one of Selina Jane Moreland‘s sisters had married Joseph Boothman in 1892, so the puzzle was solved as they had nine children, six surviving into adulthood. Joseph Boothman was first a Railway Engine Stoker then an Engine Driver, once a little boy’s dream job, two of his sons also became Engine Drivers, one was Sam, more later, on the 1939 register it says ‘Locomotive Fireman, passed for Driver’. The other son was Ernest Boothman (no photo) born in 1901, on the 1939 Register he was already an Engine Driver for the LMS Railway, London Midland and Scottish Railway Ltd formed in 1923.

Mary Ann and her husband Joseph, like her sister Selina Jane and many other families, had lost three of their very young children before the 1911 census, Mary Jane, Thomas and William, times must have been so tough back then. Skipton was not a good place to live, as I’ve read that half the deaths that occurred were children under the age of five.

I believe the L.Boothman in the first photo may have been Liz/Lizzie short for Elizabeth Boothman, she married Alfred G. Ideson in 1936 in Skipton, Yorkshire. The second photo is of Mary Ellen Boothman born in 1894 just a year after her elder sister Mary Jane had been born, Mary Jane had died at just a few weeks old and as often happened couples named their next child after the one that had died sometimes with a variation of the middle name. Mary Ellen Boothman married Tom Dale Sadler in 1924. Sam in the last photo is Samuel Boothman born in 1896, he married Florence Cowgill in 1922, lovely wedding photo.

There is an amazing photo collection of Skipton that you can view online, it includes photos of Skipton Station, “The Rowley Ellwood Collection is an online gallery of over 500 historic old photos of Skipton, fully indexed and searchable. This site is a tribute to Dr Geoffrey Rowley and Mr Ken Ellwood who gathered together these fascinating prints. These photos are available for viewing on CD or DVD at Skipton Reference Library“. Here’s the link: The Rowley Collection

This last photo above from the collection is a gem and I just know it’s connected to this family but I haven’t found the link yet, but I am working on it, I have the surname and the child’s name so all I have to do is to find where they fit in! I will update you all when and if I find the connection.

Till next time then……..