MAINS family - NBL/ DUR Hartlepool, Stockton

[colmain]

Hi Gobbo & Alan

Thanks for the latest info & suggestions, I seem to be at last going somewhere since joining Rootschat and finding helpful genealogists only too willing to help & advise!

Would you believe I have just received copy Rbts(b1855) birth cert in post and there I have it - the family address being Wall(i)ers High Yard, Forth Banks  - 1851 census confirmation!!  Rbt snr was employed as a Lead Factory Labourer.

Also just discovered the Family Search pilot section on Durham Transcripts the other day but have not had a chance to do a reallly good search, just managed to do a bit of a scroll through the Newburn registers, so hopefully on my days off can take a better look at these - how lucky that Durham was chosen for the pilot programme!

I have 2 Rbt Mains' died (1) 1865 Gateshead district - reg 1st quarter and
                                       (2) 1855 Durham district - reg last quarter

So I imagine it'd be more than likely the 1856 death to check out first though I guess there's always the slight possibility that Rbt died while Mary Jane was still pregnant with the young Rbt.

Thanks too for the deaths of Sarah, John & Margaret.
Prob explains why I haven't been able to track down the 2 girls anywhere!

Thanks a million once again, I'm now off to "google" Wallers High Yard & see what it brings up.  And then it's back into the records.
Col

[O1dgobbo]

Hi Col

The Bishop's transcripts (Diocese of Durham) on line are a tremendous boon for those of us with ancestors who lived in Durham and Northumberland.  However, there are little gaps in the records, either where a priest did not make the required return or where some archivist has lost a few pages.  I was quite frustrated, having slogged through several years of Chester le Street baptisms to realise that two of my ancestors had been baptised in the two periods that were missing.  Fortunately, the Durham Record Office has most of the original registers and they will send a photocopy of one entry for 5 UK pounds.  Or if you are lucky you may find a rootschatter who is visiting the record office and will transcribe the entry for you.

All the best

Gobbo

[O1dgobbo]

Hi Col

The 1901 census return showed Robert Mains living in Melbourn Rd and this flummoxed me since despite having lived in W. Hartlepool I could not find it.  However, looking at the description of the enumeration district it evidently lies in the rectangular space between Raby Road, Chester Road, Jesmond Road and Hart Lane.  This space is largely the old town cemetery with a few streets around the edges.  I believe the cemetery, which is elevated above the surrounding land was originally the dump for spoil from the excavation of the docks.  There is no modern street there with the name Melbourn.  Durham County Council provide an on line mapping of the county including some old maps, see

http://www.durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/pws/gis+-+online+mapping

I have looked at the 1919-1926 map and I think that Melbourn Road is either the row of buildings on the NE side of the cemetery, behind Tweed Street or else the row at the SW side, whose name I cannot read but might be Melbourn (The modern name is Jesmond Mews).  The housing in the area was nearly all small terraced houses and the census describes Robert's house as having just three rooms.  I presume that as a marine engine fitter Robert would have been employed in the docks and he would have walked to work quite easily along Hart Lane and on to Middleton Road.

All the best

Gobbo

[colmain]

Hullo Gobbo

Thanks for the map info, had a look and can see the area you've mentioned.  Yes some street names are quite easy to read but others not so.
Also picked up on Topcliffe St, just SW of the cemetery square below Hart Lane.  That's where I found Rbts daughter, Mary Jane MONET & family in 1901.  Her husband was a shipyard lab also.
Have you heard of Wall(i)ers High Yard at Forth Banks?  Just curious - couldn't bring anything up on google.

Many thanks
Col

[O1dgobbo]

Hi Col

I am not at all familiar with the development of Newcastle so may not be the best person to ask about Walliers yard.

Looking for old maps of Newcastle brought up

http://www.tomorrows-history.com/mapping/maps.htm

The oldest map showing the Forth banks area was the 1894-1899 map - the earlier 1856-1865 is sadly blank North of the Tyne.  The 1890s map shows Forth Banks and Forth Street but is missing Forth terrace where Robert Mains dwelt in 1851.

The description of the 1851 enumeration district (St Nicholas, 2e) describes it as "All that part of the Parish of St Nicholas comprising East side of Forth Banks, Regent Street and Forth Terrace as far as the corner of Forth street. (added in a different hand) down to Hawthorns stairs.

I did wonder if some of he Forth addresses were pulled down to make way fro the railway station but according to Wikipedia this ran from 1845 to 1850 when the Central Station opened.  So that did not explain the missing streets.

I have looked in

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/

for a Directory close to the enumeration date and found Wards 1850 Directory of Northumberland and Durham.  This includes a guide to the streets of Newcastle.  (From the home screen select find by location, select Northumberland, select page 2 of the list and click Directory at the right hand end of the Wards 1850s title line.  When the frontispiece comes up click browse directory and then go to image 133, which should put you in the middle of the street directory and then go to next or previous as you wish.  The site is tediously slow at the moment so you will need patience.)  The street directory includes the following

Forth banks, west end of the Close to Cattle Market
Forth row, Forth banks
Forth street, head of the Postern
Forth terrace, Forth street

Postern, foot of Westgate street to Forth street

Regent street, Forth terrace

Forth banks runs from the Close to the cattle market, passing the west end of the Central Station, and its route is more or less unchanged up to modern times.  Forth terrace and Regent street were listed in the Directory as parts of Forth street, which is the modern street running along the south side of the station.  The old city walls ran up behind Orchard street and so probably East of Orchard street  was the Postern (signifying the former presence of a gate in the wall).  This means that in 1851 Robert Mains was living just South of the Central Station.  Wards 1850 Directory lists quite a few yards in the street directory but unfortunately not Walliers high yard.

There are some pictures of Newcastle Central Station at

http://www.newcastle-arts-centre.co.uk/Exhibition__Preview.htm

Forth street can be seen on the left of the 1962 picture of the station from the roof of the keep and also on the right of the 1972 aerial view.  It looks as if the housing had been bulldozed by 1972 since the space seems to be mainly car-parking.

All the best

Gobbo

[colmain]

Hi Gobbo
Thanks ever so much for all the hard work & time you have put in!

Being a Sunday I am a bit pressed for time but have printed out your info & when time allows tomorrow I will digest it all & look up the websites you have mentioned.  I would think it will give me a fairly good picture of the area & its surrounds - second best to not being able to actually be there in person!
You mentioned about the being patient bit with the tediously slow site -  I think that is something we genealogists have to accept at times - a good reason for a bit of a stretch & break from the screen eh!

Thanks
Col   

[bristol]

Hi Col

To cut a long story short my cousins husband is the nephew of your husbands dad. He asked me to look at his tree and I agree with you up until the marriage of  Robert Mains and Eliza Stead, I thought the marriage was Robert Mains to Eliza Stewart? I am also looking for the marriage between Robert Mains and ? Long do you have this information? I thought that your Robert b1917 his mother was Alice Winter and the Long mother was the mother of William who my cousins husband is descended from he also told me he had an aunty but did not know anymore. He can't remember meeting any of the Mains family other then his own.

Bye 4 now
Bristol

[colmain]

Hello, I'm guessing that through you I'm looking at one of Williams line, Bryan or Allen perhaps?
Definitely Rbt = Eliza STEAD (ref:marr cert, birth cert)
Rbt b1895 = Alice Rose LONG 1.9.1915.
Haven't come across a WINTER anywhere.  Williams wife was an Alice herself, her maiden name wasn't Winter was it??
Leave that with you as just  on way to work, wait to get your comments on above!
Col

[bristol]

Hi Col

Al is married to my cousin and his mothers name wasn't Winter I got the Winter from a marriage between Robert Mains and Alice Winter in 1916 in Hartlepool, I thought that your Robert had a different mother to William his being Alice Long. I'm now going to retrace his tree so it's a case of back to the drawing board for me. One other query I also thought Mary Jane Mains married William Cheesebrough and not Monet as I can't find them on the 1901 census.

Bye 4 now
Bristol