Gibsons again

Its ages since I have updated this blog so thought while I had a bit of time to spare, before going back to work in a couple of days, I would use the time to update.

I have done quite alot more research on the Gibson line, Uncle Alan has been in touch with the son of Edith Hodgson, who was the daughter of Eleanor Gibson (born 1882), and he has a family bible which provided us with the dates of birth of all the children of Thomas Allan Gibson and Alice Gibson. It also had some of the marriages on, although not the partners, which gave me two of my great grandad John Gibson brothers weddings.

The first wedding was Allan Gibson "Uncle Pip" who the diary said married on 29 Mar 1916 in Morecambe, which was quite a find as we had believed Uncle Pip had never married. So I searched the Lancs BMD for any suitable marriages and found one to a lady called Margaret Dempster, and sent off for it. This turned out to be the right one and interestingly Allan and Margaret were both residing at Daisy Bank Farm, Middleton at the time of their marriage. Once I found her fathers details it was easy to find her family on the 1901 census living at Daisy Bank Farm. I havent as yet found out what happened to his wife as Uncle Alan doesnt remember anybody ever mentioning Uncle Pip having a wife or family.

Using Lancs BMD I did a search for any children born after 1916 with the mothers maiden name of Dempster and found a girl in the Sep quarter of 1916 with the name of Margaret Dempster Gibson, good sign I felt that I was on to a possible of daughter of Allan and Margaret. After receiving this certificate I found that it was the right child and the family were still living at Daisy Bank Farm, Middleton.

So lots of unanswered questions about Uncle Pip now, what happened to his wife that Uncle Alan never heard anything about and what happened to little Margaret. If either of them died young I still haven't found them and neither can I locate a marriage of Margaret Dempster Gibson if she did survive to adulthood. Also did they live at Daisy Bank Farm with Margaret's parents.

The second marriage the diary told us about was that of Stephen Gibson, married 16 Oct 1912 also in Morecambe. So again I sent off for this one and it turned out he married a lady call Grace Downham, married at the same church as Allan and Margaret.

Using Lancs BMD so far hasn't turned up any children of Stephen and Grace, but it might be that the mothers maiden names aren't all on them yet.

Anyway lots more information and lots more things to check.

Cross Keys Inn, Whitechapel, Lancashire

Well I thought I would just update my blog with what I did on my day off this week. After receiving Annie Gibson's wedding certificate I was surprised that it had said Thomas Allan Gibson, her father, was an Innkeeper. I decided to send off for Thomas Allan's death certificate, as I knew this was a couple of years before Annie had married.

Anyway the certificate arrived and he died on 24 Dec 1909 and it states he was an Innkeeper and Farmer and lived at Cross Keys Inn, Goosnargh. Annie's marriage certificate had said it was in Whitechapel, which is very close to Goosnargh. So I think I can safely say I had found my great, great grandfather's death.

So yesterday we, myself and my uncle Alan, decided to go and look for the Cross Keys Inn. I got out my trusty sat nav, I don't know how I ever got anywhere without it, we set off to Whitechapel and decided while we were there we would look for the local church to see if there were any graves of interest to us.

Above you can see the picture I took of what is left of the Cross Keys Inn, it is not open anymore which is a shame, and there is no farm there now either.

The church turned out to be directly across the road, which was handy. We easily found Thomas Allan's grave and he was buried with his wife Alice and two of their children, who I hadn't been aware of as they had only lived a short while. Both called Amy, one died at 1 year and the other only 7 months, poor little girls.

We also found Annie's grave with her husband William Procter, so that was an added bonus.

So a good afternoon's work all in, more dates and pictures for my family tree and two little girls death certificates to find now.

Annie Gibson

After finding this newspaper clipping in the photographs that my uncle had I decided I would do some research on Annie Gibson, my great grandfathers sister, who married William Procter.

This clipping is from their golden wedding and I believe the picture below, if you look closely you can see they are wearing the same outfits, is taken on the same day and is a picture of their whole family. We haven't worked out who any of the other people are yet though.

So I decided to send off for their marriage certificate, they were married on 28 June 1911 at Whitechapel Parish Church in Whitechapel, Preston. He is noted as living at Barnes Lane, Whitechapel, Preston and is a Farm Labourer and his father was James Procter and he was a Farmer.

Annie is noted as living at Cross Keys Inn, Whitechapel, Preston and her father, as I already knew was Thomas Allan Gibson. But something I didn't know is that he was noted as being an Innkeeper, this is a complete surprise as we always thought he was a Farmer throughout his life. He is deceased by this time as I believe he died in 1909, so now I have sent off for his death certificate to see where he was residing at the time of death and what his occupation was.

Martha Brown

I have received the marriage certificate of Martha Brown and James Batty, Martha is the half-sister of Ellen Wilson.

Marriage details
25 Dec 1869 Register Office, Sedbergh
James Batty (31yrs) bachelor - Husbandman - Marthwaite, Sedbergh - father Thomas Batty (Farmer)
Martha Brown (24 yrs) spinster - Marthwaite, Sedbergh - father Thomas Brown (farmer)
witnesses John Askew and Elizabeth Askew

Looking at the census returns 1871 onwards I find them in 1871 living at Beckside, Sedbergh, Yorkshire and Thomas Allan Gibson (who is Ellen Wilson's son) is living with them and working on their farm, noted as being a servant. Wish they had put him down as a nephew I would have found Martha much sooner, but our ancestors don't make things easy do they?

So I am doing well with the Brown children's marriages now, only a couple more to find, and one of them I think may not have got married and died in between 1841 and 1851.

I now have found lots of Batty children, 7 in fact, John (1875) Lucy (1877) Jesse (1879) Bessie (1880) Maggie (1883) Willie (1885) Tom (1887). James and Martha seemed to move around alot as well 1871 in Sedbergh, Yorkshire, 1881 still in Sedbergy, 1891 Diddlesbury, Shropshire and 1901 Ludlow, Herefordshire