From Dewsbury to Brighton

Following my visit to the back-to-Backs in Birmingham, I started to think about Patrick’s accommodation in both Dewsbury and Brighton either side of the First World War. In 1911, Patrick, following eight years’ service in the Army, was living at 20 Elmwood St, Dewsbury. He shared the house with his widowed sister Mary Muldoon and…

More back-to-backs

Despite being (virtually) on my doorstep (less than 20 miles, or 30 km away) I had not visited the Back-to-Back houses in Birmingham until recently. That oversight has now been remedied. As mentioned in ‘Back to backs’ these particular houses were left standing, almost by accident. This type of development was generally deemed as unfit…

What would I have done?

As mentioned in “The Irish Pimpernel” and “A helpful suggestion” I have been unable to find Patrick in 1900 or 1901. I started to wonder what I would have done in his situation. What was that situation? His father, John, had died in 1898 when Patrick was 15. By some distance (10 years), he was…

A helpful suggestion

It is always pleasing when someone responds to a blog with a helpful suggestion. In “Irish Pimpernel” I stated that I still have no idea where Patrick was at the time of the (UK & Ireland) 1901 Census. My correspondent suggested that I look at North America. The 1900 (American) Census records the presence of…

The Irish Pimpernel

I seem to have mislaid my grandfather. He has disappeared, again. I started my search for Patrick Stanley in 2006. The lack of census returns for Ireland in 1891 was a known problem. I looked for him in both Ireland and England on the 1901 census (taken 31st March) without success. (I rechecked earlier to…

Double checking – part 2

This is the second post (see Double checking – part 1 for the rest of the story) following up, and correcting, my post titled ‘Definitely related’ (Dated September 2020), in which I recorded the following: John (born 1866, son of GGF John) is staying in Dewsbury with Catherine (b 1851-1857 – his half-sister) at the…

Double checking – part 1

In the post titled ‘Definitely related’ (Dated September 2020), I recorded the following: John (born 1866, son of GGF John) is staying in Dewsbury with Catherine (b 1851-1857 – his half-sister) at the time of the 1891 census. He married Catherine (or Kate) Delaney in Dewsbury later that same year. She was born in Ireland.…

We always want more

The quantity of information collected on census returns has steadily increased with time. It does seem that providing more information can lead to more questions. In 1911, couples were required to state the duration of the marriage. It is clear that either some memories were faulty or powers of arithmetic were lacking. Not all the…

Caution: automated technology at work

There is significant competition between the websites that publish genealogical information. More records are added on a regular basis. New “bells and whistles” are added to improve the attractiveness, and functionality, of each site. The Genealogist (https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/) recently added a map function to the 1911 census returns. When you have found an address of interest,…

Where to go

Some of the reasons for moving location were covered in ‘Why move’. Once someone had decided to move the next question is where to go. There may have been a few people who used the random “pin in a map” method. It was far more common to follow established paths. In the early 1900s, my…