It seems that July was a popular month for weddings in my family. On my ancestral calendar for the week of July 14th to July 20th are the following events:
July 15, 1882 : Marriage of Arthur Harris and Lucy Taylor
Arthur Harris was my great-great-uncle, the son of John Harris and Elizabeth Byrn. He was born in Sheffield on 23 January 1857 and by the age of fourteen, he had become a file grinder like the rest of the Harris family. On 15 July 1882, he married Lucy Taylor. I don’t know much about Arthur and Lucy’s life together yet after their marriage, but I’m sure it holds some interesting stories yet to be discovered.
July 15, 1878: Marriage of John David Taylor and Eliza Turner
My great-great-grandparents, John David Taylor and Eliza Turner married on 15 July 1878 at the parish church of St James in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire after banns. Witnesses were Isaac Moores and Ann Frances Whiteside.
Their marriage was not to be a happy one and piecing together their story is an ongoing challenge for me. You can read more about them in my post John David Taylor – “A bit of a disappointment” or search for all the Taylor posts to find out what else I’ve uncovered about them so far.
July 15, 1829 : Birth of Emma Dickinson
Emma Dickinson was my great-great-grandmother. She was born on 15 July and baptised on 9 August 1829 at the Sheffield Parish Church on Church Street in Sheffield, Yorkshire to parents William Dickinson, a cutler, and Hannah Wright.
When Emma was twenty-one, she married a twenty-six year old widower James Fores and had six children with him before he died in April 1862. Two years later, at the age of thirty-five, she married file cutler Samuel Boulding at St Phillip’s Church and the couple had five children together. When Samuel died at the age of forty-three, leaving her a widow once again, Emma married John Parkin, a spring knife cutler. She died on 30 May 1900 at the age of seventy of influenza and bronchial pneumonia and was buried in St Phillip’s churchyard. She was survived by her third husband.
July 17, 1942 : Marriage of Alexander Macrae and Irene Alberta Bond
My aunt Irene and uncle Alex were married during World War 2 at St Clement’s Anglican Church in North Toronto. The announcement in the Toronto Star read:
Will be Wed in North Toronto Church July 17; Miss Irene Bond and Alexander Macrae, RCN:VR whose marriage will be an interesting event of Friday evening at 7.30 o’clock, in St Clement’s Anglican church, North Toronto. The bride-to-be is the daughter of Mr and Mrs J A Bond, Hillsdale Ave E. Her fiance is the son of Mr and Mrs A Macrae, Melrose Ave.
July 18, 1701 : Marriage of Edward Brazier and Bridgeta Beeton
My 7x great-grandparents, Edward Brazier and Bridgeta Beeton were married in Coreley, Shropshire on 18 July 1701. They had three sons that I know of: Edward, Charles and Thomas, all born in in the nearby town of Cleobury Mortimer.
July 18, 1769 : Marriage of William Wood and Elizabeth Cartwright
William Wood and Elizabeth Cartwright were my 5x great-grandparents. They married in the village of Lilleshall, Shropshire which is about nine miles from Wrockwardine and the same distance from Dawley Magna. They had eight children that I know of, all born in Wrockwardine: Thomas, William, John, Mary, Elenor, Robart, John and Jane. More than likely, William was a miner since Lilleshall and Wrockwardine were mining villages. This family is calling out for further research.
July 20, : Marriage of Thomas Etherington and Ann Backhouse
My 4x great-grandparents Thomas Etherington and Ann Backhouse were married on 20 July 1784 in the Kirkham parish church. Thomas Etherington was a blacksmith of Westby with Plumpton. In his will, he left all his estate to his wife who he referred to as Nanny Etherington. He appointed as executors, James Ratcliffe, the pawnbroker in Kirkham and his son Lawrence Etherington a carpenter of Clayton. Many of my ancestors from the Kirkham area were Roman Catholics but I have not found any evidence so far to indicate that Thomas and Ann (Nanny) were anything other than Church of England.
Musings about the Calendar Report
Reviewing this week’s events from my ancestral calendar report has inspired me to do some further research on several of the families I reviewed. I’ve realized that in several cases, I’ve left off when it seems like there should be more records to search and more documents to yet to find. The calendar report helped me look at families that I have not visited with for quite a while and seems like it would be a great tool, not only for blogging prompts, but also for further research planning.
