Trying to match names to faces...
This is Edna's side of the family. Bernard at the back, then from the left, Monica, Evelyn, Maurice, Edna, Anne, Granny Young (Elizabeth, nee Osbourne), Grandpa Young (Philip). Dated ca. 1930, before Sheila was born, at their house in Ilford.
Maurice was Edna's brother; he was married to Evelyn, with Monica their daughter.
we will get back to them, but first I want to look at the Portuguese connection...
My great, great, great, great grandfather was Joseph Antonio Dos Santos (born 1783 in Portugal, possible José; died Mar 1839 in Gloucestershire). Family legend says he sailed a ship from Porto up the River Severn, where it run aground near Gloucester. He settled there, set up business importing port and married a local girl. It is also said he played a hand in establishing a port at Gloucester.
So that is the legend.... I came across this interest excerpt from a book about the clay tobacco pipe making industry in Bath:
By early 1836 the Bridewell Lane factory had been taken over by Joseph Sants. His father, Joseph Antonio Dos Santos, had been a Portuguese wine merchant until his ship the Tres Reis arrived damaged at Gloucester in 1803, after which he married a local girl and settled in the city before taking up pipemaking himself.
That has to be our Joseph Dos Santos, even if his industry is different. See also here, and here. From the latter:
Joseph Sants, son of Gloucester 's Portugal-born pipemaker Joseph Antonio Dos Santos, took over the Bridewell Lane business in 1836, moving it to Milk Street in 1851 to join his already flourishing pottery business. After the closure of the Avon Street factory in 1860, the Sants made all of Bath's pipes; widow Sarah was followed by sons Edwin and Waiter, the latter running the business after Joseph's death until its eventual closure in 1916.
Pretty sure that should be Walter, not Waiter! Our ancestor was Walter's sister, Sarah.
It sounds as though Joseph Dos Santos owned his own ship, and would use it to bring wine (and port?) to England for sale, then return to Portugal. On this one trip the ship ran aground, and was too badly damaged to be repaired, so he was stuck in Gloucester, and had to make the best of it.
Sarah Sants is top left in this photo, which dates from about 1900:
From the writing on the reverse, Granny Young (i.e., Sarah Young, nee Sants), Granny Osbourne (i.e., Elizabeth Osbourne, mother of Elizabeth Osbourne) and Kitty at the back. The writing is less clear for the front row, but might be Tom Bunting (a Loftus Kendrew Bunting witnessed Granny Osbourne's wedding), Dorothy Bechy(?) and Uncle Maurice. Besides Uncle Maurice, no idea who the other people are.
Back to Sarah Sants... She married Philip C Young, who ran a successful pawnbrokers, also in Bath. I think this is the two of them (it could be their son with his wife, but I think she looks like "Granny Young" above).
Their son, Philip William Young set up his own pawnbrokers in Redditch, I guess after he married Elizabeth Osbourne, as the Osbournes were also from Bath.
This is 2 Somerset House, Wells Road, Bath, where Granny Osbourne lived, between the wars; it was destroyed in WW2. It was also home to Jane Osbourne, it is not clear which Elizabeth Jane was the sister of, but I guess the younger one. She was a witness to the wedding of the younger, which further makes me think her sister. This is the famous (in the family) "Auntie Jo", who would would sit at the table before the meal was ready.
We have a set of professionally done photos by a photographer based in Bath.
Unfortunately none are labelled, but that is "Granny Osbourne" at the top, and I think the second is "Kitty".
This one is from Redditch, so might be Elizabeth Osbourne (the daughter of "Granny Osbourne", who was also Elizabeth):
Philip and Elizabeth had two children, Edna and Maurice. The parents seem to have had a thing for dressing their kids up for twee photos. The first is not too bad.
This is Edna with, I think her grandfather Philip C Young (the father of the "Grandpa Young" in the first photo; could be her father, Philip William Younbg). Some serious boots she is wearing.
Hmm, maybe it is her father. Edna lived at 276 Mount Pleasant, Redditch, as her business card tells us. The house is still there.
Maurice as an adult. I have to assume the bowtie is his own choice at this stage.
He is with his daughter Monica to the left. Not sure who the girl next to him is; not Anne or Sheila as far as I can see.
A few years later Monica would contract polio, and spend some two years in hospital, Great Ormond Street as well as another, much of it on a iron. When she eventually left hospital, it was in a wheelchair. She nevertheless managed to lead a full life, and had her own car at a time when it was not that usual for able-bodied people; she painted and was an active member of her church, singing in the choir. I have to respect her indominable will!
No comments:
Post a Comment