Now, here's a potted Kershaw/Gurner connection, so that RayAngel can see how I am connected to that lady he knew in 1959, Nora Kershaw.
So, in July 1870, a John Thomas Kershaw was killed under the wheels of a London horse drawn omnibus at Highbury Corner, outside the Cock Tavern. He had been returning from work in The Strand on that bus.
This tragic event widowed his wife Mary (née Kershaw) with 8 very young children, the youngest a baby in arms. One solution to help her cope was that Mary, b.1861 and her little brother Raleigh aged 2 or 3 were sent to an Asylum For Fatherless Children in Surrey. There eventually Mary became a student teacher. Raleigh was apparently blind or became blind and ended up in America.
One of Mary's other siblings was John b.1866. His daughter was Ada Nora Kershaw when he married an Ada Mason.
Thus Mary Baildon (nee Kershaw) was aunt to Nora Kershaw, her niece..
That Asylum, btw, was not as dreadful as the word Asylum might suggest. And the other thing is that when he was widowed in 1872 my gt-gt-gt-grandpa Henry Pakeman Gurner, who was the father of the Mary Gurner widowed by the London omnibus, moved from Ickleton in Cambs to live with her and her brood of children in St Paul's Rd Canonbury. Probably a mutually supportive move for both.
I hope this doesn't sound too complicated, Ray Angel, and all you other helpful Rootschatters on here...
Keith
