Goodwin family - potters around Burslem

[amandski]

Hi all

I am researching my ancestors, who were potters around Stoke-on-Trent. Their birthplaces include Burslem, Tunstall and Wolstanton. The family name is Goodwin and I suspect they are Romany Gypsy travellers but cannot be certain as they are listed as potters, pot sellers, pot packers, pot transferers etc. I wondered if the Goodwin name rang a bell for anyone with family from around that area?

Many thanks,

[Ellenmai]

What dates are you looking for & are you looking for anyone in particular?

[Steve G]

Amandski; The Book Of Bob (Clicky) cites Goodwin as a name recorded as given my Gypsys, in the Midlands.

Sadly, in this rare instance, that's All he has 

[amandski]

Hi

Sorry, I hadn't seen these posts. Thanks Steve G, I had a look in the book of Bob but didn't find anything else either. I have some records for my Goodwins, Ellenmai, but there is rumour that they were travellers but I cannot say for definite. I just wondered if anyone had other information about the Goodwin family that might help. Never mind, I'll keep searching.

[whiteout7]

John Goodwin was a really profitable potter in Stoke-on-Trent
http://www.thepotteries.org/allpotters/454a.htm

[whiteout7]

There is this Earthernware dealer in the 1881 census that is mentioned on some gypsy census pages

William Goodwin, 33 years born in Leek, Staffordshire
Ellen Goodwin (wife, maiden name was Bailey) 33 years born in Biddulph, Staffordshire
Robert Wm Goodwin (son, a hawker) 14 years born in Leek, Staffordshire
Thomas Goodwin, 12 years, born in Warrington, Lancashire
Simeon Goodwin, 10 years, Warrington, Lancashire (Simeon's birth registration at GRO gives the mother surname as Bailey).


The Bailey surname has associations with the Boswell family tree:
https://rtfhs.org.uk/publications/gypsy-families/

[whiteout7]

You say "DNA links show that I am also related to a lot of Romany Smith, Boswell, Booth and Sherriff families

If you put the surname Goodwin in FamilySearch and in other person you enter the other surname(s) it does bring up Goodwins living with Boswells and Sherriff, so there seem to be a lot of links amongst these surnames.

Do you have any census entries for your Goodwins??

[amandski]

Hi

Sorry for the delay. Ancestry literally wiped most of this side of my family tree including all the attached documents so I have had to start again! I have found William Goodwin in the 1841 census. He is 46, living at Twenty Row in Burslem and is listed as a Carter, with the rest of his family all potters. In 1851 he is at Norton le Moors and is a labourer at the colliery, but his daughter is still a potter. His son (my GGG Grandfather) Isaac Goodwin is a pot packer in 1861 + 1871, but in Mexborough. Not sure how or why he ends up here, as there is no family connection to the place before this. His children are born in Wales, London, Staffordshire and Mexborough. The there is John Charles Goodwin, who is my GG Grandfather, born 1858 in Burslem, but living in Denaby (near Mexborough) He is in the army for a while, but is a coal miner on all the census entries. He gets around a bit as he is recorded on the census in Ashton under Lyne in 1891, 1901 he is in Denaby, but can't find him yet in 1881. He is in prison a lot though so that might be where he is during that census. I have 7 prison records for him being drunk and disorderly, assault, deserting the Manchester militia and also abandoning his family. He meets my GG Gran in Dublin, (I think she was from Kildare) and they marry in Manchester where she is staying in a hotel and the publican is a witness so maybe they eloped? Their children are born in Ashton under Lyne, Denaby and Castleford.
Many thanks,
Amanda

[GoodwinF_]

Hi Amanda,

We are Goodwins, our family dates back to Liverpool in the 1850’s. My grandad and two great uncles are still alive the eldest is 99 and believes we are related somehow to John Goodwin the famous potter who relocated to the Wirral, I have been looking into family history recently so I am yet to find concrete evidence but everything so far they tell me has worked out! My grandad also said he’s heard our family before that came from Staffordshire.

Can you get in touch? I don’t understand this website so much.

Best,
Francis