Obadiah Popplewell

Obadiah Popplewell was my great great grandfather, he was a Woolen Weaver from Batley, West Yorkshire. His son Harry, the father of my Nana died in February 1903, aged 26. Two months later Obadiah also passed away, on the 3rd April 1903 aged 66. Both Obadiah and his son Harry where buried St. Paul’s Church Hanging Heaton, Batley.

Harry’s widow Rose and his two year old daughter Violet (my Nana) moved away from Batley and Rose eventually remarried widower William Whiting of Bridlington, North Yorkshire. As far as I know Rose and Violet never had anymore contact with the Popplewell family of Batley, but when my half sister Jacqui was a young child her ‘Mum’ Violet, gave her this beautiful funeral card of Obadiah Popplewell to draw on! Thankfully Jacqui appreciated it’s beauty and value and kept it safe, just recently she rediscovered it and shared the photo of it with me.

My Tozer Family

 

High Street, Dartford, Kent

I have said it before and will say it again, Family history is like detective work, you find names that match up with your criteria, name, date and place, but sometimes there are more people with the same name living in the same general area at the same time period. How do you know that you have the right person, especially in the time period before the Census returns were started.

I knew that my 3rd Great grandfather, William Henry Tozer was a painter and decorator, as was his son William Frederick Tozer (see blog February 2019 and September 2018) and via the Census returns I was able to see that he was born around 1810 in Dartford, Kent. 

Many years ago I found his baptism record which was on the 9th March 1810 at Frindsbury, Kent, his birth was recorded as being the 13th January 1810 and his parents William and Elizabeth Tozer. A couple of other children are recorded as being from this couple, Charles James Tozer and Elizabeth Ann Tozer. To confuse matters though I discovered another couple called William and Elizabeth Tozer living in the same proximity who where also having their children christened around the same time at Chatham, Kent, they also had a son called William who was christened in 1813.

The William Tozer of Chatham was married to Elizabeth Dixon and he had a chemist and druggist business which produced and sold cough remedies. 

The other William Tozer was married to a young widow from Dartford called Elizabeth Couchman, I discovered that she had three young children from her previous marriage, Thomas, Eliza and Selina, and it was via records from these children that I was able to confirm that my William Henry Tozer was from this couple.

First of all I discovered that William Henry's daughter Annette Maria Tozer was staying with her cousins Ellen and Ann Couchman in 1861. Also I found a newspaper article of 1837 that announced that William Henry's brother Charles Tozer was appointed as a Deputy Registrar to Registrar Thomas Couchman of Eling, Hampshire. Finally last week I discovered a Will of William's half sister Selina Couchman which confirmed without a doubt that I had the right family. Selina Couchman, married William Asquith a publican of the Rose and Crown in Leadenhall, London in 1824. In 1838 at the young age of 33 she left a Will which not only mentions her brother Thomas Couchman but also her brother Charles Tozer whom she left a silver watch and also her brother William Tozer of Gavel Lane, Southwark, Painter, who was one of her Executors. Gavel Lane was the same address which is recorded on William Henry Tozer's marriage certificate of 27th August 1837 to Maria Bishop.

From Selina's Will I also discovered that she had another younger brother, James William Tozer. After further research I discovered his christening record, but for some strange reason his christening didn't occur until he was 15 years old, and then in St. Dionis Back Church, London, which is close to Leadenhall where Selina, who was a widow was living, possibly with her widowed mother and brother and her two young daughters.

On the christening record his birth date is given as the 9th October 1819 whereas the record is 29th June 1834. His parents are recorded as being William and Elizabeth Tozer and his father's occupation was Publican.

As I mentioned in my last Blog, William Tozer senior was a Publican at the Crown and Anchor Inn at Dartford where he was father to his three step children and five of his own (two of whom died in infancy), though as I have discovered this week he also seems to have passed away at a very young age. On the 9th May 1817 a William Tozer  was buried at Holy Trinity church Dartford, he was recorded as being aged 34 which corresponds with the birth date that I have for him.

I have also discovered that his widow Elizabeth remarried for the third time in 1824 to widower William Rashbrook of Chatham, her married daughter Eliza Jones nee Couchman was a witness at the wedding.

I have one mystery amongst all these facts, that is that her youngest son James William was recorded as been born on the 7th October 1819, whilst his father William passed away in May 1817. Maybe the year 1819 was recorded wrongly as it wasn't recorded until 1834, or did Elizabeth have a child from someone else after her husbands death or maybe one of her teenage daughters had an illegitimate child and this was the reason that he wasn't christened as a baby. There always remain mysteries to be solved.

I believe that the parents of William Tozer senior are Charles and Mary Tozer and I have a possible candidate for Charles, though this also needs more detective work to make sure that I have the right person.

His story will be written at a future time. Next week I will share some more interesting facts about William Henry Tozer the painter and decorator.

Fake news and William Tozer

 William Tozer was born on the 7th June 1783 in Chatham and was christened  on the 4th July 1783. His parents where Charles Tozer and Mary (more about them in a following blog)

In the early 1800's he was living in Stepney in London and was working as a baker. At the age of 25 he married a young widow of Dartford, Kent, Elizabeth Couchman formerly Archer who had three very young children, they where married at St.Dunstan's church in Stepney, London on the 23rd October 1808, William was 25 and Elizabeth 33. 

After their marriage they lived in Dartford, Kent where William became a publican at the Crown and Anchor, an old 15th Century pub which is still standing and is located at 80 High Street, Dartford. William and Elizabeth had five children, two of whom died in early childhood, so along with Elizabeth’s three children from her previous marriage it was a large family.

In 1803 Britain resumed war against Napoleonic France, hostilities were to continue until the British victory at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. This period required the resumption of mass enlistment, higher taxes and the fear of a possible French invasion.

Last week I was trying to find some more information about my Tozer family and decided to do a Google search of ‘William Tozer of Dartford ‘  I discovered an interesting fact in a book in Google Books. The book is called ‘The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger and Sir Thomas Cochrane....’ by William Brodie Gurney which recounts a trial which was held in the Court of King’s Bench, Guildhall on Wednesday the 8th and Thursday the 9th of June 1814. The trial was about a Hoax which had a significant impact on the London Stock Exchange, it is known as the du Bourg hoax.

On the morning of Monday, 21 February 1814, a uniformed man posing as Colonel du Bourg, aide-de-camp to Lord Cathcart, arrived at the Ship Inn at Dover, England, bearing news that Napoleon I of France had been killed and the Bourbons were victorious. Requesting this information to be relayed on to the Admiralty in London via semaphore telegraph, "Colonel du Bourg" proceeded on toward London, stopping at each inn on the way to spread the good news. Three "French officers" dressed in Bourbon uniforms were also seen celebrating in London, and proclaiming the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy.

Rumours of Napoleon's defeat had been circulating throughout the month, and the combined events had a significant impact on the London Stock Exchange. The value of government securities soared in the morning, after the news from Dover began to circulate among traders at the Exchange. Lacking official confirmation of the news, prices began to slide after the initial rush, only to be further propped up at noon by the French officers and their handbills.

However, the entire affair was a deliberate hoax. In the afternoon, the government confirmed that the news of peace was a fabrication. The affected stocks' prices immediately sank to their previous levels.

The Committee of the Stock Exchange, suspecting deliberate stock manipulation, launched an investigation into the hoax. It was soon discovered that there had been a sale that Monday of more than £1.1 million of two government-based stocks, most of it purchased the previous week. Eight people were eventually convicted of conspiracy to defraud, including Lord Cochrane, a Radical member of Parliament and well-known naval hero, his uncle the Hon. Andrew Cochrane-Johnstone, Richard Butt, Lord Cochrane's financial advisor, and Captain Random de Berenger, who had posed both as du Bourg and as one of the French officers. Six, including those involved in the purchases, were tried, and sentenced to twelve months of prison time, with the most prominent also sentenced to the public pillory; fines were also imposed. Lord Cochrane was stripped of his naval rank and expelled from the Order of the Bath.

William Tozer was one of the witnesses at the trial, this is what is recorded in the book ..... ‘William Tozer, the next witness, says, “I keep the Crown and Anchor at Dartford; I remember Jem Overy bringing a fare to a house in our town on Monday about the 21st February, and the person I took notice of was sitting in the chaise. I made my obedience to the gentleman in the chaise, hoping he had brought us good news; he said he had, and that it was all over; that the allies had actually entered Paris; that Bonaparte was dead, destroyed by the Cossacks, and literally torn to pieces.” ...’

I can imagine the joy and relief that William and his family must have felt on hearing this news and the disappointment when they heard it was fake news. 

For me it was a great discovery to find out a little bit more about one of my ancestors and the life that he led.

Christmas Memories

 My first Christmas memory is from when I was around 4 years old, we were living in Sutton Coldfield at the time and I think that there must have been a special  Christmas service at a local church for John and Denise's school. I remember sitting in this old church with stained glass windows and listening to the Christmas Carol 'O Little Town of Bethlehem' being sung. We didn't attend a church at that time but this must have made an impression on me and this carol has always remained a favourite.

On Christmas Eve we would lay a pillowcase at the foot of our bed, it was always exciting, wondering when Father Christmas would come and I can remember sometimes waking to check whether the empty pillowcase was still on my bed or whether it was filled, I still have a plastic pillowcase with a picture of Father Christmas on it which I used. In the morning we would carry our filled pillowcases to the living room and open our presents under the Christmas tree. When we lived in Scotland we had a silver Christmas tree with fuchsia pink ribbons and coloured lights (very retro).

When I was about 8 my Mum began a new Christmas tradition, after our traditional Christmas dinner of turkey and roast potatoes etc. followed by a real Christmas plum pudding with hidden coins, which I think where put in the pudding to encourage the children to eat them, and the Christmas crackers with party hat and joke. A small self made snowman would be set on the table. This little snowman, which was a large jar covered in cotton wool with a removable head, sometimes Mum used a white balloon with a face drawn on, which would be popped when the meal was over. The snowman was filled with little presents for everyone, even though we had been spoilt rotten by Father Christmas this little present after dinner was always looked forward to by me, infact I still possess one of these presents, a little plastic clip purse.

I have carried on this tradition with my own children and grandchildren and even though it is sometimes difficult to find presents small enough to fit in the snowman's body it is still a much appreciated tradition. 

Underneath are some photos of my Christmas memories- my pillowcase and snowman gift and a film of Christmas 1972 when we were living in California.

Bicycles

 Living in the Netherlands I am blessed to be able to bike everywhere, mostly on bike paths and a nice flat terrain. Last week my bike had to go to the cycle repair shop to fix a flat tire and several other necessary repairs. On Thursday afternoon I always pick up my granddaughter Naema from school, as my bike was still at the repair shop I borrowed my daughter Esther's bike. My bike has back pedal brakes whilst Esther's bike has hand brakes, something that I took into consideration whilst biking down the hill from the dyke but when I suddenly had to stop at a junction I automatically tried to brake by peddling backwards before I remembered that the brakes where on the handlebars. Thankfully everything went well and I was able to stop in time, but it reminded me of one of the stories that my Nana told me about her childhood.

      My Nana, Violet Popplewell was born on the 12 December 1900, yesterday would have been her 120th birthday. Her father died when she was 2 years old and her mother eventually remarried a widower with five daughters. Violet went from being an only child to suddenly having five sisters, one of whom was the same age as her. They lived in the seaside town of Bridlington and her mother ran a small bed and breakfast located on Quay Road. Some of the stories that my Nana told me remind me of Louisa May Alcott's book 'Little Women' especially since the sister closest to Violet in age was called Joey, and she seems to have been just as vivacious and headstrong as the Joey in Little Women.

     The story that I was reminded of last week also involved bikes. The girls all owned a bicycle, which wouldn't have been so common in the early 1900's. I think that Violet and Joey where aged about 12 or 13 and together with a friend they decided to go for a bike ride in the countryside. Their friend had just received a new bicycle for her birthday and Joey desperately wanted to ride on that bike instead of her own. She kept on pestering her friend to swap bikes for a short while so that she could ride on the new bike. Eventually her friend gave in and swapped bikes with Joey. Everything went well until they began biking down a steep hill, Joey tried to brake to slow down her decent but discovered that the bike didn't have any brakes on the handlebars. Her friend had forgotten to inform her that her new bike had back pedal brakes, Joey and the bike ended up in the hedges. Luckily both where not badly damaged and everyone could laugh about it later.

Stories

 My five grandchildren are blessed to have their grandparents around them and also two great grandparents. My Mother in law celebrated her 92nd birthday today and my Mum celebrated her 94th birthday last August. These two wonderful women have lived through almost a century of history and have memories of their parents and grandparents. Our grandparents and other elderly relatives are a link to our past and our family history, it is also one of the first things that I advise people who are beginning with their family history to do, to ask their elderly relatives for information about their past.

My Dad's parents died when he was a teenager and my Mum's father passed away two years before I was born, so I grew up with only one grandparent. Thankfully when I first became interested in family history at the age of 16, I was living close enough to my Nana to be able to talk to her regularly about her past and listen to her stories about her Edwardian childhood growing up in the seaside town of Bridlington. 

 I was also able to talk to my Dad's elder sisters, auntie Alice and auntie Lily who were teenagers when my Dad was born and were able to share stories of my grandparents and their childhood during the 1920's as well as my grandfather's experiences in the First World War.

Genealogy isn't just a list of names and dates but should become a patchwork full of stories of our family which brings the backdrop of history to life.

When I think of my auntie Alice I recall her story of my grandmother Charlotte, wrapping Alice and her sister in blankets and taking them out into a field on a cold winters day during a First World War air raid from zeppelins. Also stories of my Grandad who served in the Royal Garrison Artillery in Flanders and was hit by shrapnel at Hell Fire Corner and was for a time declared missing and presumed dead. Eventually after applying for a widow's pension my Grandmother received a notification that my Grandfather was alive and in a hospital in New Castle. Auntie Alice told me about the huge scar across his back and the problems with his lungs preventing him from being able to hold a full time job.

My Nana told me that her grandmother Eliza Challis had long black hair, and she gave me a perfume bottle that belonged to her mother which still carries her scent.

My Mum told me stories of her childhood, growing up in the 1930's and 40's, of sleeping in their air raid shelter during the Second World War and listening to the buzz bombs passing overhead, and her new pink coat being covered in plaster after a bomb dropped at the end of their road.

My Dad had stories about working on the dogem cars at Hull Fair, and how he learnt to drive whilst driving a laundry delivery truck. He told me about the death of his father when he was 13 and then the death of his mother a year later, and that he was sent to live with his aunt in SouthShields. Of his many jobs, even working for Billy Butlin, and where he was when the end of the war was announced.

All these stories paint a colourful picture of their lives and are so integral in helping us to understand who they where and who we are.

We need to record these stories and pass them down through the generations along with our own personal stories.

Sometimes stories can be remembered for several generations, my husband heard a story from his uncle Freek, who was also a Miller about a young Miller's assistant who almost fell into the machinery. The Miller was able to catch him by his collar and saved him from a painful death, the saying was that the young boy laughed but the Miller was white from fright. When my husband visited the windmill where this happened he discovered that the Miller who was "white from fright" had been a Miller there in the 1700's, whilst he had always thought that the story happened during his uncle's lifetime he realised that it was a story that had been passed down from generation to generation.

This is the power of stories, whether good, bad, happy, funny or sad our stories can help and inspire future generations.

Genealogy, detective work and DNA part 3

If you have been researching your family tree for as many years as I have then maybe you will also have branched off of the direct line and tried to find out about the siblings of your direct ancestors.
During the mid 19th century as many Tin and Copper mines closed down in Cornwall the Cornish people migrated to all corners of the globe in search of employment in mines, infact there is a common saying in Cornwall that "a mine is a hole anywhere in the world with at least one Cornishman at the bottom of it!"  It is estimated that 250,000 Cornish migrated abroad between 1861 and 1901.
My own great great grandfather Robert Stickland left Cornwall in the mid 1840's to work as a boilermaker and engineer in the industrial midlands of England, I was also interested to discover what happened to his siblings.
Through Ancestry.com I came in contact with a distant 'cousin' living in Australia who was also busy with her family tree and we discovered that she was descended from William Stickland the younger brother of Robert, who had emigrated to Australia in the mid 1850's, after arriving in Australia he married a Cornish girl and they had four daughters, his second daughter was given the name Grace Morsehead Stickland after my great,great,great grandmother, confirming the fact that we had the right William Stickland. My distant 'cousin' in Australia has also done a DNA test and I was pleased to discover her name among my DNA matches, confirming biologically our distant relationship.
One of Robert's sisters,Wilmot Stickland, married and travelled with her first husband to California during the time of the Gold Rush, their eldest child was born in California but after finding their fortune they returned to Cornwall, her story can be read in one of my previous blogs.
Robert's youngest brother Richard Arundel Stickland died at the age of 14 after a fall from the mast of a schooner in the port of Hayle. That left one brother unaccounted for, John Stickland who was born a year later than Robert in 1829. On the 1851 census aged 21 he is recorded as still living with his parents and his occupation is recorded as being a copper miner. In the summer of 1851 I found a record of a marriage between a John Stickland and Eliza Treglown but in 1862 Eliza was living in Norfolk and was married to someone else, her marriage certificate declared that she was a widow, so I assumed that John had died, though I couldn't find any record of his death.
Then my DNA test results came back, Ancestry 's results give you a list of possible relatives, people who share a small part of your DNA, recording how many segments, according to how close the relationship is.
Ancestry also shares a list of surnames which you have in common and places where your ancestors lived. One of my DNA matches shared the name Strickland and looking at his tree I saw that he had a John Strickland born around 1830 and living in Australia close to the area where William Stickland, Robert's brother lived. The only thing was that on this person's tree he had recorded that John was born in Australia and had a different father. After doing genealogical research for more than 40 years I know that family trees are not always correct, infact I have had mistakes in my own which I have discovered later after more research and after more information becomes available. I decided to check all the documents which were available about this John Stickland/Strickland and discovered the following facts that convinced me that this is my long lost John Stickland, brother of Robert.
First of all in August 1854 a John Stickland arrived in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in October 1857 he was initiated as a Freemason in Beechworth, Victoria, his occupation was recorded as being a miner. In 1863 and in 1864 he fathered two daughters though he didn't actually marry their mother until 25 November 1864 (could this have been because he was still legally married to his first wife in England?)
On his marriage certificate he is also recorded as being a miner and as final proof I found a copy of his daughter Maria Strickland's birth certificate on which it records her father's birthplace as being Cornwall! Also an interesting fact is that the area around where some of John's children where born is often referred to as the Cornish settlement.
John had a total of 10 children and passed away in 1908 at the age of 78.
One of his sons, also named John, and also like his father and grandfather, a miner, fought during the First World War in Gallipoli. During one of the battles he was severally injured and was sent to England to recover. His vision was so impaired he was unable to return to active service, but during his stay in England he met and married his wife and resided for a short time in Dorset, very close to his ancestral home of Cornwall.
Without the help of the DNA test I probably never would have found out about John Stickland/Strickland (like my great great grandfather he added an 'R' to his name) and now I have found a lot more 'cousins' in Australia.

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