This war grave is a tricky one, because when we get down to William, outside of his war service there’s no heroes of the story – only a child to absorb the consequences of her parents’ and grandparents’ choices. Sometimes it’s hard to respect the dead and tell the truth. Patrick Walls was born in …
Read more “13.6 – Patrick, Mary Ann, Mary Jane, Florence and William Walls”
Here’s a war grave that encompasses quite a bit more than “just” WW1; here we have wealth gained, wealth lost, new starts, domestic violence, and a little bit of Russian and Canadian intrigue. The story begins with George Hirst and Harriet Rowlandson of Knottingley, who married at Christ Church in East Knottingley in July 1851. …
Read more “15.30 – William, Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth Lord, and Joe Hirst and Mary Ann Shackleton”
Following on from our story about Sarah Elizabeth and Mary Ann Hirst, enjoy another Hirst story. The story of these two is straightforward, but this grave contains a mystery: who was Maria Hudson? We’ll get to her at the end. Firstly, though, a recap on Arthur Hirst’s childhood. His parents George and Hannah Hirst came …
Read more “15.25 -Arthur and Hannah Hirst, and Maria Hudson”
This plot marker started a spiral down countless search term variations and speculative rabbit holes, as we tried to trace the lives of the people most likely buried here – James, Elizabeth, and John James Laithwaite. Many thanks to the recordkeepers of the 1800s for their many creative spellings of this surname. We appreciate it. …
Read more “49.55 – The Laithwaites (or Leithwites, or Lethwhites…)”
Lots of names and surnames here, covering four generations: William and Sally, their daughter Susy, her daughters Emma and Sarah Ann, and her granddaughter Sarah Annie. We’ll try not to make it too confusing. William Crossley was a clogger, born in 1804, who set up shop at York Street (now Halifax Road). He married Sally …
As researcher Holly put so much care and compassion into her FB post about this grave, it’s been copied over in full here. Located not far from the middle pathway to the school is row 31, along here at plot number 36 is an unmarked grave (one of many unmarked). From the sexton records we …
Another instance of two graves which might only be one – and at least one error that leaves us in the dark about what’s actually happening in these two plots. Bridget Faulkner is the oldest person in this story – born sometime around 1833, in Leeds by her accounting, Bridget only appears once on a …
Read more “S6.1 and S6.2 – John and James Thomas, and Bridget Faulkner”
This stone is slightly unusual in that it starts with those buried more recently, rather than the first few into the plot. Chronologically, we need to start with James and Hannah Lather. James Lather was born in Derbyshire in 1844, two years after his future wife Hannah Dean. He was from Spondon and she was …
Read more “17.16 – James and Hannah Lather, Samuel and Elizabeth Greenlees”
Rather than type all their names into the title, here lies seven of Elizabeth and John Ashton Greenwood’s children – Sarah Elizabeth, Evelyn Josephine, John Ashton, Florence, Sybil, Theresa, and Elizabeth Ann. So many children. Elizabeth Ann Greenwood was born Elizabeth Sykes in Preston in June 1860. She is hard to track down before 1881, …
Two simple sidestones: In Loving Memory of Richard Percy Martin who fell asleep Dec. 19th 1914 aged 10 years. Never forgotten by his loving father, mother, and sister. Richard Percy Martin, or Percy Richard Martini as he was registered at birth, was born in Holbeck, Leeds, the son of Richard and Rosa Martin. Richard was …
Read more “2.35 – Richard Percy Martin (previously unmarked)”