RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Staffordshire => Topic started by: huxleg on Wednesday 02 August 17 21:50 BST (UK)
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Hello, I wonder if anyone can help me?
I am researching my father-in-laws family tree and have discovered that his mother and father were both friends and work colleagues of a Abraham Bancroft, 1913-1978, born in Wolstanton, died in Butt Lane, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
All we know is that Abraham Bancroft worked in the pottery industry in Middleport/Burslem during the 1930's/40's and may have gone on to have his own pottery manufacturing business. We also believe that he created a ceramic bust of Reginald Mitchell CBE AMICE FRAS in the 1950's which was on display in Stoke-on-Trent Museum.
If anyone has any information on him they'd like to share especially a picture or two so that we can put a name to a face then we'd be very grateful.
Kind regards and thank you for reading
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Hi and welcome to Rootschat
Did he marry? Freebmd has 2 marriages for Abraham Bancroft in Stoke - one in 1933 and another in 1944. Children were born to both marriages who could still be alive
He did not leave a will but administration was granted and he left over £14,000. For £10 you can obtain a copy of the documents which may give you some family info for contact purposes
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Hi,
Yes, he married twice once in 1944 and again in 1950. I have traced his children/grandchildren through birth certificates but not sure how to approach them as we are not related. Do you have any suggestions how I might go about this?
Thanks,
G
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I usually try and contact a male relative with the same surname as females tend to marry. I then use the Directory enquiries trace here to see if I can find a phone number
www.thephonebook.bt.com
If you manage to contact somebody - just be honest with them as to why you are ringing. I usually start by saying something like "this isn't a cold call I'm doing family history research and I think you have a connection to ..........
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Hi Huxleg, did you have any success with contacting anyone?
I happened to search for the name "Abraham Bancroft" just now, as that's my great, great, grandfather's name, and your forum post came up. I don't think I know anything about the Abraham you're talking about, but there have been a few Abraham Bancrofts in my family.
I have some newspaper clippings. One of them is about the death of an Elizabeth Bancroft in Burslem in 1952, and the funeral was attended by "Mr. & Mrs. Abraham Bancroft." who would have been her son and daughter-in-law. I'm wondering if the Abraham who attended the funeral in 1952 might be the same one you're looking for.
I saw in another forum you mentioned that "Yates" is his sister's married name, and also present at the funeral was a "Mrs. L. Yates" who is described as a niece. I'm attaching the newspaper clipping to my post.
I have quite a lot of old Bancroft photos and newspaper clippings, but I'm not sure if I have anything that would be useful to you. Even if we can confirm that's him in the newspaper clipping, I don't know if he was close enough to the rest of my family to be in any of their group or wedding photos, and many of the photos aren't labeled with names.
Still, I hope this message reaches you just in case anything is mildly interesting or useful. As a disclaimer: I'm not the one who did the family tree research. Most of what I know and have comes directly from my paternal Grandma who passed away in 2010.
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I'm confusing myself badly with all of these names; it doesn't help when they repeat! and doesn't help that I don't have the actual tree diagram available to me currently. Also doesn't help that I'm not into genealogy haha.
Am I interpreting the newspaper clipping correctly, that these people are brothers and sisters: Thomas, Abraham, William, Hudson, Eric, and the wives of Eric Forrester and Maurice Horn (which would be Nora and Grace)? And their parents are Hudson and Elizabeth (Elizabeth is the one the funeral is for)?
If so, I have a photo which I know for a fact has Nora, Grace, Elizabeth, and Hudson (Sr) in it. And then there are 6 younger men, which must be their sons (as they had 6) and must include the brothers I listed. So if Abraham is one of those brothers, and if we're talking about the same person - which we might not be! - then he's probably in that photo.
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I can remember standing in his Pot Bank and looking at his pots and plates and his kiln when I was a youngster. The smell of the clay is still clear in my memory and with me today.
He used to keep pigeons as well opposite his works in Talke.
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We used to call him Abe
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kirstyf - firstly welcome to Rootschat.
Yes, you have interpreted the names/relationships correctly, plus it was usual that the children would be arranged in age order, so Thomas would be the eldest son, then Abraham etc. Not totally sure about the daughters, but that too was probably the case so Eric Forrester's wife was the elder.
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I went to Reginal Mitchell Primary School and 'Mr Bancroft' retired took us for Pottery. He made two busts of Regional Mitchell whilst we were making crappy ashtrays as 9 or 10 year olds. I was born in 65. Very strong memories of him teaching us pottery and his unbelievable skill in creating the two busts. One used to be in the Greenhouse where the Spitfire used to be in Hanley and I think it then moved to the Museum opposite. Simple red clay bust, amazing.
I now live in Darwin, Australia, long way from Stoke.
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Hi kirstyf,
First of all let me apologise for not replying sooner. Unfortunately, we had a close family bereavement in August which diverted my attention away from this subject.
The information you gave was very informative and I worked out that the Abraham I'm interested in would of been the nephew of Hudson Snr and the sister of Lilian Yates. His father was William Thomas Bancroft and his mother was Sarah Price. William Thomas was the brother of Hudson Snr and died while on active service in WWI.
It would appear that my Abraham did not attend the funeral of Elizabeth unlike his sister unless I've mistaken him for a different Abraham (I'll reread it just to be sure :))
Anyway, if you have any pictures that you may be willing to share of the Bancroft family with me I would be very interested in seeing them.
Thank you for your help.
Kind regards,
Greg
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Oops - looks like he did attend he is listed under the nephews section - my mistake.
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Hi Huxleg
Did you have any joy finding any information/photos of the Bancroft family?
Whilst on our family holiday we got talking about Abraham and when I googled him, your post came up.
He was my Grandads uncle but unfortunately we don’t know a great deal about him.
Kind Regards