Castlechurch St Mary, Castle Bank, Stafford

[Stuart P Pearson]

I am (still) searching for some details of my Pearson family and having visited Stafford last week would like to know if any kind person has details on the Church St Marys in Castlechurch Castle Bank Stafford.
I have visited the St. Marys Church in the center of Stafford and contacted a very kind person who said that I may be searching for the wrong Church as there is a second St. Marys in Stafford just below the Castle!
If anyone has details on burials in this second Church I would be so very pleased to hear from you, the details are as follows (we do have birth and death certificates for both so details are accurate, we think):-

John Pearson died 17/03/1929 buried on 21st March 1929 age 71, he was living at 36 North Castle street. at the time of his death.
John Pearson died at 'The Infirmary' 20th November 1900 buried 24th November 1900 age seven, Father was living at 8 Burley Terrace (we assume his son John was also there). John's Mother Annie Pearson nee Pitchford died shortly after young John's birth.

Also my search for James Henry Pearson continues, he, according to family chatter died in WW1 as a machine gunner but we can find no details after extensive research using the scraps of information we have. James was born 14 12 1887 Peel St, Castlechurch, Stafford he was in 19 Lammascote Rd in 1911 but then the trail runs out.
Any help on any of the three would be good.
Regards and Thanks.
Stuart Pitchford Pearson.

[Cathymjp]

Hi Stuart,

I expect you will have seen the three James Henry Pearsons listed on the medal records and also the 6listed under UK soldiers died inthe Grear War.  There is one  who died on the 12th May 1915 at Aldershot who was in the Machine Gun Corps.

It is also possible that due to an error his death is not recorded on the database for those fallen in the Great War.  I am currently applying to have my Great Uncle recorded as his name has been missed.  I did managed to find a death certificate for him (missing in action presumed dead) under the death certificates for the forces.  Also he was recorded on a local war memorial, but not where I thought he would be so it might be worth a search on the local memorials.

Cathy

[Stuart P Pearson]

Dear Cathy.
Yes I am still looking for James! We have followed up all the slim leads we have, even been over to Ypres where we found other family member's graves and name plaques and still nothing on James. We are now starting to think he did not go, perhaps too much sense! We are now waiting for the Red Cross records which I understand will be available in 2014 so all is not lost.
Last week we went over to the Stafford to search the three Cemeteries, Tixall Road Cemetery, Stone Cemetery and Eccleshall Road Cemetery. The staff in the bereavement services <bereavementservices@staffordbc.gov.uk> were great and went to great lengths to locate graves. Our search for other than the two John Pearsons and of course James was a success but no head stones.
Again thanks for your interest and help.
Kindest regards.
Stuart and Judi Pearson

[Cathymjp]

Hi Stuart,

Have you managed to check the death registers at the County Records Office for St. Mary's Castlechurch to see if they are recorded there?

I was very fortunate with my Gt. Uncle.  Two Red Cross letters were still in the family.

Cathy

[Stuart P Pearson]

Dear Cathy,
Yes we have checked and found the two Johns in the Archive records but what we did not know was that there are two St. Mary's Churches in Stafford. I now need to find out if the records in the archives are also in the Church near to Castle and if possible are the graves to be located and better still are there any headstones.
I think we will go down to Stafford again next week to do a physical search as we are off to Edinbrough in the morning.
It was good to hear you had located your Gt Uncle and are getting him commemorated on a suitable war memorial, if we ever find James and confirm his death in WW1 we will do the same, may need some words from you on how you set about it.
All The Best.
Stuart

[Cathymjp]

Hi Stuart,

Only too glad to help.  My Gt. Uncle however, was recorded on the war memorial at Stone but not on the commonwealth and war graves commission site and it is here I am attempting to have his name put on the Roll of Honour.  They have told me that they have now passed on all the information to the Ministry of Defence.

There is a site for St. Mary's Castle Church which has inscriptions recorded but I could not find any Pearsons listed on it but it is not necessarily complete.

www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/STS/CastleChurch/MIs.html -


Cathy