Author Topic: St Aidan's church Gateshead  (Read 6525 times)

Online Tickettyboo

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #18 on: Thursday 16 February 17 19:51 GMT (UK) »
I've tried searching for the 2 men that you named in the forces to see if there's any links. I can't find them. I do remember vaguely seeing another family in Gateshead with a Robert and a William so maybe it's that family as I can't seem to find them to see if there age etc matches up x

The absent voters roll I found at Marian St had a Robert W and a John which matches with your family

Boo

Offline Kirsty Spence

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #19 on: Thursday 16 February 17 21:16 GMT (UK) »
I'll try and have another look to see if I can find them on google. Thanks.

Offline candleflame

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #20 on: Thursday 16 February 17 23:35 GMT (UK) »
Robert William alder spences wife was a Lawson. The child you mention is my grandad b 3/12/1918 William Lawson Spence. It's further back I'm needing info for ie William Spence b 1885,  wife Anne Alder and his parents x

I'm getting confused again. I thought William who you found in the 1901 and 1911 was born about 1868 not 1885. If you want to find out Williams parents, you need to buy William and Anne alders marriage cert. That should state his fathers name and if he was still alive when the marriage took place.
North East of England

Offline Kirsty Spence

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #21 on: Friday 17 February 17 00:15 GMT (UK) »
Sorry William was born in 1868 and married 1885. In confused myself ha! Xx


Offline Kirsty Spence

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #22 on: Friday 17 February 17 12:46 GMT (UK) »
Ive dug out some photos that we found in my grandad house after he passed away and there is a photo of Robert in a uniform and there's another photo of his father William stood in front of a door with the number 170 so yes it is the same family-it must be. I'm sorry for doubting I was convinced it was a different family. Is there any way someone can fine them on the 1939 register? William would have been abt 71 and Anne abt 74 years old. X thank you for finding the electoral roles for me x

Online Tickettyboo

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #23 on: Friday 17 February 17 23:16 GMT (UK) »
:-) Super to have the photos.
Family history can be a long, time consuming and often expensive process, it really is best to find out as much as you can about one generation before moving on to the previous one. The info we find for each generation helps us as we go back.

Asking questions is good and everyone is willing to help but we try to help by by offering suggestions and showing you the different ways you can use to sort out who did what and when. From there you can get the records and decide if they are the correct ones.

I never say that anything I find is 'definite' but offer possible theories. It wasn't a case of me saying I was right and you saying I wasn't, I offered a theory to be explored.

The electoral rolls were another avenue to explore to narrow down of William Spence's year of death to make the 'possible' death registration that Candleflame gave you of Q2 1953 more likely. Certs are expensive and we all want to be as sure as we can be before spending out on one. If those electoral rolls were a match for the family (which seemed highly possible) they indicated that he was still alive in 1931 so that increased the likelihood of the death reg which was a match for name, area and age.


IF you are in Tyneside the area I'd suggest going to Tyne and Wear Archives, they have parish registers on microfilm which you can explore to see if he was buried in a churchyard, though if he died in 1953 I'd also be looking at the civil cemeteries of Gateshead East and Saltwell (both on microfilm at Tyne and Wear Archives)
Another option is to go to Newcastle Library and look at the microfilms of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle to see if there was a death announcement in the newspaper, they often give details of where the burial took place. Means looking through all the editions for 3 months covering the June quarter of 1953, which is time consuming but free. Other than that you need to buy the death cert to see if its the right one.

As for the WW1 service of both John and Robert William, though you couldn't find a service record that is not unusual as about 60% of the WWI service records were destroyed in WW2 when the building they were stored in was hit with an incendiary bomb. The ones that weren't burned were damaged by the water they used to put the fire out, so its hit and miss to find a surviving record. Also bear in mind that though your Dad says his Grandad never mentioned serving in WW1, many men did not talk about their service, they were ordinary lads who went through an extraordinary and horrific experience and its no wonder many didn't talk about it afterwards.

I am sorry, but the rules of the forum are that we are not allowed to do look ups on the 1939 Register for copyright reasons. Even if you don't have a subscription to FindMyPast, you can try a free search of the 1939 Register to see if there are any possibles so try a free search for William and Ann  to see if there are any possible results.

To go further back you would, as has been suggested, need to buy the marriage cert for William Spence and Ann Alder to see what the names of their fathers were and also their fathers' occupations. Armed with that info you can explore previous census returns to see if you can find them.

Boo

Online Tickettyboo

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #24 on: Saturday 18 February 17 13:36 GMT (UK) »
Back to other avenues to explore -

Your William Alder, born c 1868 was a stationary fireman.
http://www.darlington.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/head-of-steam/ken-hoole-study-centre/

That link takes you to a page for the Darlington Railway Museum and one of the links on the page will let you download an excel file for the pension records details. On that list is a
William Spence, born 23 Sept 1867, died 09 June 1953, started work for the NER on 17 May 1898, was a Fireman based in Gateshead and later was an attendant in Gateshead.

You can contact Darlington Museums to order a copy of the pension record which may give addresses etc, been a long time since I ordered one of these but, from memory, the cost wasn't very much.

So, a bit of a long road round, but the date of death for that registration of Q2 1953, is a match for name, age and now occupation, still not writ in stone but getting increasingly likely. You also have a date this person died, so if you can get to Newcastle Library to look at the Evening Chronicle on microfilm you can zoom through to the 9th and start looking for a possible death announcement from there. IF there is one and IF it has details that confirm its the right person it will likely mention a cemetery,  the burial records will be at Tyne and Wear Archives.

If you are outside of the area and can't get to the library, you can try a new post now you have a date of death and ask for a lookup. IF someone is going and has time they may look for you as any announcement would have been within a few days so not too long to look.

Sometimes looking at other, seemingly unconnected to what you are looking for, records may lead you to the info you need.

Boo

Offline candleflame

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #25 on: Saturday 18 February 17 14:53 GMT (UK) »
Good find TB and also very well explained posts in my opinion .
North East of England

Offline Kirsty Spence

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Re: St Aidan's church Gateshead
« Reply #26 on: Friday 24 February 17 01:42 GMT (UK) »
Sorry for not replying sooner-I'm unwell with a cold. Thank you Boo for all of that information, you are truly a star. I've managed to get quite a lot out of it so thanks again and thank you to all those that commented-I really do appreciate all your help. I hope one day I'm as good as all of you at researching. Think I have a long way to go though. Thanks again . Kirsty