Adamson, Gainford

[Harlem]

Hello
I am a volunteer researcher for the Quilters’ Guild of Great Britain. The Guild has a museum collection of quilts, and it asks members who have some experience of genealogy research to research the quilt makers. I am currently researching Jane Ann Adamson (nee Dawson) of Gainford, near Darlington in County Durham, who lived between 1870 and 1952. I have been able to find out a lot about her: BMD records, censuses, wills and so on are available to me on Ancestry. However, I have two questions that I wonder if anyone can help me with.
Jane Ann married Ernest Clifford Adamson in 1901. He was a builder and continued a company that seems to have been built up by his father in the late nineteenth century. The company and family papers are in the Durham Archives, which is currently closed pending a relocation. Their extensive online catalogue suggests a very large and successful company, but I am wondering what happened to it. There is no-such company now, so it closed sometime since the 1930s. Does anyone have any idea why, and what happened?
My second question concerns Jane Ann’s role as Job Secretary to the Gainford and District Nursing Association. This is mentioned in a press cutting from 1946. Does anyone know what this association might have been? Was it a trade union, a professional organisation, or even a business? Again, there are papers in the Durham archives, currently inaccessible.
Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[ColC]

Census returns for Jane Ann & family, you may have these but it might help others.

1891
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WFLD-LPZ

1901
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XSHF-SPC

1911
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWHG-Z1F

Colin

[Harlem]

Thank you. Indeed it might.

[JenB]

My second question concerns Jane Ann’s role as Job Secretary to the Gainford and District Nursing Association. This is mentioned in a press cutting from 1946. Does anyone know what this association might have been? Was it a trade union, a professional organisation, or even a business? Again, there are papers in the Durham archives, currently inaccessible.

Is this any use? https://qniheritage.org.uk/history/district-nursing-associations/

[JenB]

If it's of any use to you, a search on the excellent 'Teesdale Mercury' newspaper archives reveals that she was elected to the Gainford District Nursing Society committee in 1923,
http://teesdalemercuryarchive.org/pdf/1923/May-02/May-02-1923-05.pdf#search=%22district%20nursing%20association%22 see penultimate article in 'Local and Other News'

She was secretary by 1933 (her name is partially lost in the centre fold)
http://teesdalemercuryarchive.org/pdf/1923/May-02/May-02-1923-05.pdf#search=%22district%20nursing%20association%22
 

[Harlem]

Thank you, JenB. That information is very useful. If she was in an elected post, I wonder if that suggests it was voluntary and not paid. And I wonder if it also suggests she was not a trained nurse herself. I am also thinking that it is significant whether it was the Gainford and District Nursing Society, as written in some sources, or the Gainford District Nursing Society, which would be a wholly different thing. Thanks you very much.

[JenB]

I'm sure it was voluntary and that the ladies on the various District Nursing Committees were there to mainly organise fund-raising events in support of the work of the District nurses.
If you go to the Teesdale Mercury archive advanced search http://www.teesdalemercuryarchive.org.uk/tm-archive/advanced-search# and enter 'district nursing association' in the second box down ('this exact wording or phrase') you will get a multitude of hits which you can read to give you a sense of what these committees got up to.

Here's a good Gainford example in 1917, in which your Jane Adamson was involved (she's almost invariably referred to as Mrs E C Adamson) http://teesdalemercuryarchive.org/pdf/1917/May-09/May-09-1917-05.pdf#search=%22adamson%20nursing%20association%22

[Harlem]

Thank you again. that is very helpful. That archive is a wonderful resource.

[JenB]

 

I am currently researching Jane Ann Adamson (nee Dawson) of Gainford, near Darlington in County Durham, who lived between 1870 and 1952.

The 1939 register suggests that she was born in 1875, and she died in 1953, obituary here

http://teesdalemercuryarchive.org/pdf/1953/January-28/January-28-1953-03.pdf#search=%22adamson%22