John Welding. Brickworks

I've discussed the family links to the Whiston pottery, mining, the "cables" and the brickworks and the following is a fantastic photograph of John Welding (b. abt 1893) who, in 1911, prior to his national service worked at the cables as a drum guider, then following his return from the war, worked at the brickworks.

That's John on the left, playing a hand shovel fiddle with a workmate accompanying him on the guitar.

John worked on the kilns in the brick fields, the pair of them look to be holding coal shovels and of course, they are standing in front of a pile of coal. It was the hard work of men like these that created the very building blocks that Lancashire needed to grow and prosper in the 1930s.

In typical fashion, a camera appears and a Welding must perform!

1911 Census for 11 Hall Lane, Huyton Quarry

1911 Census data.
Address : 11 Hall Lane, Huyton Quarry, near Liverpool
District : Prescot - Subdistrict : Prescot
Enumeration district : 17 - Parish : Huyton with Roby
County : Lancashire

John WILDON *** Head (M) 52 years old. (abt 1859) Chip Dealer. Born : Prescot, Lancashire
Rachael WILDON Wife (F) 49 years old. (abt 1862) Married 27 years (abt 1884) Born : Whiston, Lancashire
Arthur WILDON Son - single (M) 24 years old (abt 1887) Cable Measurer Wire Worker Born : Whiston, Lancashire
Richard WILDON Son - single (M) 22 years old (abt 1889) Insulator Wire Worker Born : Whiston, Lancashire
Amy WILDON Daughter - single (F) 20 years old (abt 1891) Maker Globe Maker Born : Whiston, Lancashire
John WILDON Son - single (M) 18 years old (abt 1893) Drum Guider Worker Wire Born : Whiston, Lancashire
Ellen WILDON Daughter - single (F) 17 years old (abt 1894) Lamp Packer Globe Maker Born : Whiston, Lancashire
Jane WILDON Daughter - single (F) 15 years old (abt 1896) Lamp Tester Globe Maker Born : Whiston, Lancashire
Rachael WILDON Daughter - single (F) 11 years old (abt 1900) School Born : Whiston, Lancashire
Jo WILDON Son (M) 9 years old (abt 1902) School Born : Huyton Quarry, Lancashire
Alice WILDON Daughter (F) 6 years old (abt 1905) School Born : Huyton Quarry, Lancashire
Frank WILDON Son (M) 4 years old (abt 1907) Born : Huyton Quarry, Lancashire

Source : www.1911census.co.uk

*** Note. This is Joseph Welding (b. June 5th, 1859) the John Welding we have been recently discussing is the 6th entry in the census.

Weldon, Welding, Wildon and Well Done....

The name game, I've discussed it before and my Weldon family firmly has documented roots with the Welding name, so today I have officially expanded the blog title to include, and rightly so, that surname.

John Welding, son of Thomas Welding, grandson of the John Welding highlighted in the last few posts, recounted a family story of the name:

"The whole tribe used the name Weldon until an Aunt in St Helens died leaving money, but the funds were only left to 'John Welding'. That led to a clarification that indeed the name was 'Welding' and John used the name from there after, those that didn't receive any money continued with 'Weldon'."

Graeme, my Scottish friend who kindled my interest in the family tree process, saw that and said to me: "So, that must mean that you come from the poor side of the family!"

The 1911 census gave me a particular puzzle, no sign of Joseph and Rachel Welding or Weldon, so I cross referenced some addresses, paid more to the census service and finally discovered the family again, this time, the enumerator had wrongly entered the surname as Wildon.

So as you can see, this research can be tricky.

I'll add that data in the next entry.

Memories in books and drawers

When I was a kid, growing up in Liverpool and Whiston in the 1960s, I would occasionally ferret out the black book that was in the Welsh dresser in the front room, it was a photo album with most of the family snapshots.

This photo, received today, reminds me so much of those lost pictures. It is of John Welding and, if I can read the photo correctly, was taken in September 1915 and shows the 2/3 West Lancs R.F.A. 14th Battery. John Welding is fourth from the left, back row.

I usually photoshop creases out, but the danger with this photo is that I alter people and they lose what is left of their identity, so this picture is presented as is, in all it's creased glory. What a great bunch of young men, about to fight for their King and Country.

I will focus on John Welding and his military service as soon as I have verified the facts.

John Welding (b. abt 1893) and Ellen Overend (b. abt 1896)

This is a photograph of John and Ellen on their wedding day. They married in West Derby, Liverpool, in the second quarter of 1921

John appears to be wearing his Military Medal ribbon, something we will talk about later.

John Welding (b. abt 1893)

I will link a new set of information with the last post, here is a very important photograph to the archive provided by Thomas Welding (John's son) and John Welding (John's Grandson) who have provided that valuable "real" information that extends the people from just an item in a database.

The photograph shows two sons of Joseph and Rachel Welding, on the left side there is John Welding (b. abt 1893) and his older brother, and I was excited when I found this out, William Welding, William Hardman or Billy Weldon (b. abt 1884).

It is rare to be able to put names to faces, but this photo, from around 1924, is the exception.

Left. John Welding (b. abt June 1893) with his wife Ellen (nee Overend. b. abt June 1896) and their son, Joseph Leslie Welding (b. abt 1923)
Right. William Welding (b. abt 1884) with his first wife Lilian May (nee Turner. b. abt 1886) with their daughter Catherine (b. abt 1922)

The name game is in full force with this group, besides the surnames of Welding, Weldon and Hardman (all from the same parents, Joseph and Rachel Welding) the first names shifted, Ellen was affectionately called Nellie, Joseph Leslie went by the name of Leslie, of course we have already discussed William and then there's his daughter, Catherine, who was always called Carrie.

More to come!

William Hardman

I've discussed my great-great grandfather, William Hardman (b. abt 1831) in this blog and his wife, Jane Barron (b. abt 1843).

I tracked most of their children, via census data, birth records and more recently the OPC (Online Parish Clerks) website where I discover baptism records.

The key to creating a family tree is not to be too twitchy about things and the baptism records at the OPC show numerous William Hardmans in the county, so, I tracked the baptisms for the children I knew and found baptisms that matched church criteria and where the father was William Hardman and the wife, Jane. The OPC is great in that respect as it allows filtering

It was with some excitement that I discovered that at the age of 50, William and Jane had one more child and they named him William. William was baptised on 27th May, 1881 at St Mary the Virgin Church, Prescot, Lancashire. However, in the future years, there is no sign of this person (ie, 1891 census onwards) and I investigated further and discovered that on the 26th October, 1882 at the same church, William Hardman was buried at the age of 18 months.

There are often other reasons why things happen and we can only speculate, but about a year later, their unmarried daughter, Rachel, fell pregnant (to Joseph Welding) and when the child was born, it was named William. The grandparents took this child into their home and raised him, allowing the young Welding family to establish itself.

I also recently found a baptism record for this child.

Baptism: 30 Mar 1884 St Mary the Virgin, Prescot, Lancashire, England
William Welden Hardman - [Child] of Rachel Hardman, Single Woman
    Born: 6 Feb 1884
    Abode: Whiston
    Baptised by: H. A. MacNaghten
    Register: Baptisms 1879 - 1887, Page 118, Entry 938
    Source: LDS Film 1657584

William Welden Hardman (born 6 Feb 1884) aka William Hardman, aka Billy Weldon, not only had a grandfather called William Hardman, but a lost uncle, William Hardman, that he would never know.

"God be with you till we meet again"



(link to OPC : http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/)

Mary Ann Bird and the Bird dealer

There is an interesting coincidence in the family history and it was highlighted by one of my real Aunties, and, with my research, is not uncommon.

The Auntie that informed me, and started a line of research was my dad's sister, Margaret. She told me that her mum's maiden name was Edwards, which was strange, as my mum's maiden name was Edwards. ie, my Dad's mum's maiden name was the same as his wife's.

Simply put, my mum's maiden name was Edwards and my Grandmother's maiden name was Edwards, but on my dad's side of the family. The logic here is that, I had two great grandfathers with the surname Edwards. Confusing, so a tree diagram is required:

Margaret Anne Weldon (b. April 26th 1912) who was my dad's oldest sister, told me that her mum's maiden name was Margaret Rebecca Edwards and that her grandmother's maiden name (on her mum's side) was Mary Ann Bird. In addition, an interesting fact was that she married twice.

In Margaret's own words, she told me "Gran married twice, and I think her second husband's name was Houson" she went on to say that around 1920, Mary ran a small pet shop on Tunnel Road in Liverpool. The young Margaret would spend a lot of time with her, often staying over for exciting nights. She said that her Gran was a lovely lady and she always got on smashing with her.

And that was that. So, I decided to put my detective hat on and do some digging. The first clue was the following information from Gore's Liverpool Directory for 1919:

The list of trades does not include 'Pet Shops' but under 'Animal Dealers' it says 'see Bird Dealers' and under Bird Dealers it lists: Huson, R.F., 176 Tunnel Road

Tunnel Road was in the West Derby area of Liverpool.

A resulting search then revealed that Ralph F Huson married Mary A Edwards in 1915. This was at Toxteth Park, St.Bede, Liverpool. Reference 2049TP/2/62 - A certificate was obtained. The stated age for Mary was 52 years old, which would confirm the 1862-1863 timeline for her birth. It is noted that her son-in-law (Margaret's father) Arthur Sandiland Weldon, was a witness at the marriage.

Ralph Frith Huson was shown as a widower on the above marriage certificate, a subsequent search shows that his first wife, Frances, was still alive when the 1911 census was taken and that they both lived at 176 Tunnel Road. Ralph was a house painter at the time and Frances, a Bird Shop owner. This would indicate that Frances died between 1911 and 1915.

A satisfying detective story.