Yay, the postman’s arrived! 3 more additions to my collection and all with writing.

Last month I spotted this first old photo (below)on eBay, from a favourite seller, isn’t it lovely? On the back, it just says George M???? & Elsie, so I put a watch on it and looked through the seller’s other pictures and found another large photo of a lady, and when I looked closer, I recognised her as being the same lady as in the first picture. But the difference with this one was that someone had written lots more information on the back. So I put a watch on that one too. Carried on looking through and found another unconnected but really nice one with writing on the back. So I bought all three.

This blog is about the two larger connected photos; I’ll tackle the other one another time.  

As you can see there are just three names here.

This one, of the lady on her own, is different, though.

There is much more interesting family history information here, including photographer details, once again from Linton, Cambridgeshire. Did two sisters marry two brothers?

I started a family tree with Lydia King, married to Herbert Cottage. I also added a brother for Herbert called George and a daughter for George called Elsie.

As I built up the tree, I found that George Cottage had married Mercy King. Now, I knew what the mystery name was, beginning with M. She was born Mercy Sarah King on 22 February 1874. Mercy had twelve siblings, one of whom was Lydia. So two brothers did marry two sisters.

Starting with Mercy and Lydia Kings’s family.

Their father was Henry King, who was born on 8 November 1834 in Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, the son of Sarah and William. He died on December 1, 1920, in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; he was 86 years old.

Their mother was Lydia Dixon, who I initially thought was also born in the Cambridge area about 1838, although one census record stated Hampshire; more about her later. Lydia married Henry King on 4 October 1858 in Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire. The couple had thirteen children that I have found so far. Lydia died in October 1921; she was 83 years old.

A little Diversion

I am forever curious and often end up adding much more to a family tree than is necessary for my blog. Hence my long blogs. I also like to be sure I have the correct mother to the children in a family because, as we know, women died and men remarried and sometimes even to someone who had the same first name.

To be sure of this couple’s children, I checked out the thirteen on the GRO website.

With the surname King, they married in 1858, with Lydia registered as Lydia Dixon. The most likely births of ten of the children on GRO were with the maiden name as Barton(one was Burton, spelling error?) Then one a Dixon, but where are the other two, and why the changes of name? I had to know, was she a widow when she married Henry?

I looked for the most likely matches of their children using all sources and got close or exact dates of birth for them, and then matched them to the GRO entries, yes, my ten were correct, the ones below with the green tick.

The firstborn, Alice, had the maiden name of Dixon; Lydia married as Dixon.
The other two children I matched, but with the maiden name of Dickman, so where had that come from?

I have never had this happen before. So I ordered three digital copies, one of the Dixon birth, one of the Dickman births and one of the Barton births. Yes, it is exactly the same couple living at the same address.

On all three, it says “X the mark of Lydia King mother” so she couldn’t read or write, but it doesn’t answer why or does it?

This is the first and only one with Dixon as Lydia’s maiden name.

For a start I haven’t found anyone in the wider family who has the surname Dixon. I’ll come back to that in a moment. Researching, I have found that Lydia’s mother’s maiden name was Mary Dickman, traced through census records, made more difficult as I am unable to find a marriage for her and James Barton, her husband in census records.

I found this out by finding the most likely Lydia in the 1851 census, and she was with James Barton and his wife Mary and siblings. I checked the newest member of the family, Elizabeth Barton, and this is her birth record: BARTON, ELIZABETH DICKMAN GRO Reference: 1850 D Quarter in CAMBRIDGE Volume 14 Page 12. Lydia was born in the Andover area of Hampshire. As you can see, the family live in Cambridgeshire in 1851.

So my theory is that Lydia was born to Mary before Mary got together with James Barton. So was actually born Lydia Dickman in about 1837/38. It was four years later that they had a child, Mary, between them.

So this covers the surnames Barton and Dickman. Just Dixon to explain, I think, on her marriage, as she was unable to read or write, she said Dickman, and it was misinterpreted as Dixon. Was it the same registrar who wrote her first child’s birth certificate in Cambridge? It’s possible, and I honestly can’t think of any other reason! What do you think?

The Cottage Family

After my diversion, I will return to the photo. George Cottage was born on 18 August 1879 in Linton, Cambridgeshire. His parents were Charles and Emma. George married Mercy Sarah King in April 1900 in Linton.

The couple had one daughter, Elsie Alice Marion, who is pictured with her parents. George worked for the GER later the London and North Eastern Railway, starting his service with them as a signalman in the Signal Box on 21 September 1896, aged 17. In 1901, George was a Railway Porter, and in 1911, a Porter Signalman for the Great Eastern Railway.

This is the Cottage family on the 1911 census, Elsie is eight years old. They were living at the home of spinster Marion Isaacson, who was 73. There were also other members of the Isaacson family in the same household on census night.

Mercy and her sister in law Kate Cottage were domestic servants. Kate married James Hearn in the summer of 1911.

By the time of the 1921 census, the Cottage family was still living at the home of Marion Isaacson. Mercy is now described as a ‘Companion’, and Elsie, at eighteen and nine months, is training to be a Shorthand Typist. George is still working for the railway as a signalman.

Marion Isaacson died on 6 July 1922. Presumably, the family had to move after her death.

By the time of the 1939 register, the family had changed a lot! Elsie, who had been born on 7 September 1902, was married at the beginning of 1931 to Albert Victor Whitehead. He was first described as a ‘Decorative Artist’ in records, then later as an Architect and later in his life a Civil Servant.

The couple had a daughter, Verna Marion Whitehead, born on 12 June 1936. I’m thinking that as Elsie and Albert were living in Hornsey, Haringay, on the electoral rolls, Elsie and her daughter may have moved back to Linton to her parents’ home with young Verna when Albert joined up during WW2. Later, the family lived at no 81 High Street, Swanage, Dorset. Elsie died in 1989, aged 86, and Albert died in 1993, aged 87. Verna remained unmarried and died on 4 October 2015; she was 79. So, no descendants are left from George and Mercy.

George Cottage died on 20 February 1933 in Linton, Cambridgeshire, at the age of 53. He was buried just over the border at St Botolph, Hadstock in Essex. George was one of ten children born to Charles Cottage and Emma Rayner.

Also mentioned, on the back of the photo, was the eldest child of the ten above, Herbert Charles Cottage was born on 5 August 1877 in Linton, Cambridgeshire.

He married Lydia King, sister to Mercy, in July 1905 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire. On the 1901 census, previous to his marriage, I found him as a young Police Constable for the Metropolitan Police, working from the Police Station at Brentford, Middlesex.

Herbert and Lydia had six children. He died on 24 December 1944 in Brentford, Middlesex, at the age of 67.

George and Herbert’s brother William Frank Cottage (1886-1946) was also in the Metropolitan Police Force, and after he retired, he took on the Cricketers Pub with his wife Edith Mary Bennett at Bradwell on Sea, Essex.

The Cricketers Pub was the favoured local pub during WW2 for RAF squadrons. They were stationed at RAF Bradwell Bay, which initially had begun as a small landing ground in 1936 to support a firing range, but was later developed into a full-fledged airfield with concrete runways and other facilities. It became a busy station, hosting around 30 squadrons at various points during the war, with aircraft including Hurricanes, Beaufighters, Mosquitoes, and more. 

I found an article in the Maldon Standard online, written by Stephen Nunn, about the Cricketers Pub.
“Mrs Cottage’s pub was favoured by the majority of the aircrew”. “That would have been Edith Mary Cottage (née Bennett), born in 1893 and married (in 1914) to William Cottage. A former (until 1929) Metropolitan Police sergeant, William Frank Cottage (born 1886), is listed in Kelly’s Trade Directory of 1937 as the landlord, and both William and Edith are recorded as running the pub in the 1939 England and Wales Register. WF Cottage also appears in the telephone directories from 1935 through to 1946. William passed away in 1946, leaving effects of £128 8s 9d to Edith, and the following year she remarried and only died in 1977. So we can say with some certainty that the Cottages ran the Cricketers from at least 1935 to 1946. The ceiling of the pub was once covered in RAF signatures (sadly no longer)” 

William and Edith had two children, Derek and Dylis. In 1939, Dylis was a shorthand typist, working at Bomber Command C/O GPR Station. The closest to where she lived was RAF Northolt, later London Airport or RAF Bentley Priory, also in Harrow, which was the headquarters of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. Dylis married Derick who was in 1939 a Radio Officer at British Airways.

Another brother, Frederick James Cottage worked for the London and North East Railway in 1939. He had married Lily Wells in 1917, and the couple also had a son and daughter, Frederick and Lily.

The youngest brother, Edward Leslie Cottage, sadly died in WW1 of his wounds while serving in France. He was a Sergeant in the East Surrey Regiment, 8th Battalion, Number 4965.

Of the five Cottage sisters, the eldest, Alice Elizabeth Cottage, died fairly young at 39, just five years after being married to Alfred Roughton. I believe she may have had one daughter before she married.

Ada Florence Cottage married George Ferris in 1932, she was 48, and she was left a widow in 1939. The couple had no children.

Kate Mary Cottage married James Hearn in 1911. He was a School Caretaker. I’ve found no children born to the couple.

Lizzie Cottage married Fred Reader, he was a Motor Driver in 1921, by 1939 he was a Master Butcher. They had two sons who both became Butchers, the eldest, Fred, was taken a prisoner in WW2. From the records of ‘Imperial Prisoners of War Held in Italy’, he later emigrated to Australia, where he died. The youngest son Alan, stayed in the UK.

The youngest Violet Kathleen Cottage married Charles Crawley, a Tractor and Car salesman, in 1925, and they had three sons, Edward, Hugh and David.

Here’s the link to the Family Tree I have compiled on Ancestry: Cottage/King Family

Among the Kings and Cottages, there are potentially a few descendants out there somewhere!

Are you a descendant of one of these families? If you are, please do get in touch either with a comment on here or via email to lynnswaffles@gmail.com. 

Till next time then………