PEOPLE SEARCH 

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People search from the old web site

Information and email addresses are not passed on without permission from both parties.

If you can offer help with any information, please email Gary

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October 27 2002

Hiya Gary

I have had a message from an old school mate living over in Lancs. Seeking the whereabouts of one of her old school mates…name as follows…Lynn Horsefall who married a Joe Fox in March 1967 and was living in Brierley at the time.

Can you help

We will certainly do our best Dick. Come on then folks do you know where Lynn is these days. If so please email Gary

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September 8 2002

Joy Ford (nee Midgley) would like to know if anyone knows the whereabouts of Diane Wilkinson?  She is Billy Wilkinson‘s daughter?    Billy lived originally in Hilltop then later moved to bungalow near the park.  Jessie and Jim Midgley looked after Diane for a long time when she was small. She was just about to move to Cudworth with her boyfriend about 13 year ago when Joy lost touch with her. 

REPLY  

Hi Gary

I can find out where Diane is as I am a lollipop lady at a school where her brother Gary's granddaughter goes.  I will ask Millie's mother when next she brings Millie to school.

Avril Perry (Picken).

Hi Gary,

I should have Diane's address on Monday, 30th September 2002.  Gary, her brother's daughter-in-law is supplying it and will probably visit your website.

Avril Perry (nee Picken)

Thanks for that Avril. It will be nice to pass the information on to Joy. By the way have you been in touch with each other yet? 

Hi Gary, I don't know if you've got details of Diane Wilkinson's address yet.

Joy Ford

No luck yet Joy. I am still waiting for information from Avril.

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July 22 2002

Does anyone remember or know the whereabouts of Jean Shillingford who was an evacuee during the war and stayed with Mrs Jessie Midgley from the Hilltop estate? If you can help please Email Gary

REPLY

July 27 2002

Hi Gary

I am writing to you in response to the request for information about the little girl Jean Shillingford who lived for a while with Jessie Midgley.  

Jessie Midgley was my mother. (My name is Joy).  I lived at 37 Hill Top Brierley until I was 18, then left to go to York university. I then married and did not go back to live in Brierley though of course I visited mum and dad (Jim Midgley).  Dad died very suddenly in 1985 and after a couple of years mum had a stroke and eventually left Hill Top to live in Grange House.   I remember her talking about Jean when I was at home though I do not really know any thing about her. Mum had her for about 2 years I think and always spoke very fondly of her. She took her back to London and I believe she came from the Pimlico area, but that is all I know. 

I have looked at the photos on the site and it has been quite an emotional experience. I didn't think I remembered a lot about Brierley but it all came flooding back.   

Mum lived in Brierley all her life; she was born in some old cottages on the road down to the Park on the left hand side of the road.  I can't remember what they were called.  Her maiden name was Steele.  There is a photo of Ronald and Joan Steele on the site, they were her cousins.  When she was 3 she moved with her father, brother Leslie, and her great aunt and great grandmother to 32 Hill Top just after the houses were built. . She was married from there to Jim Midgley in 1937. A few years later they moved to 37.   Leslie was missing presumed killed in the war. He was in Burma but his death was never confirmed. After I left home a smaller house was needed so they moved back 32!

I do have a few photos of Brierley.  Would you like them for the site?  If I sent them would you be able return them?  

Best Wishes Joy Ford (nee Midgley) 

September 28 2002

Hi Gary,

Have you had any response re Jean (Shillingford).  We were best friends when she lived with Jessie and Jim Midgley.  She went to my youngest sister Gail's christening with me and we used to go to school together.

Avril Perry (Picken)

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Hello Gary

 I read, at your site, an article by Trevor Limbert, in which he mentioned his research for Watson descendants, but there seemed no facility for contacting him direct.

       I am interested in a Yorkshire family of Watson and in particular of Jesse Wilfred Watson  (both these Christian names featured in a family he mentioned) born 1869, son of Francis Watson, journeyman stonemason.  He is said to have run away from home at the age of 14 and to have had no further contact with his large family.  There is no birth registration and he appears on no census until 1891, when he is a married man in Birmingham.  I just wondered if he had any connection with the family where there were children named Wilfred and Jesse (but a later generation).

Geraldine Gasparelli in London

Reply from Trevor Limbert

Regarding Geraldine's query. Jesse Wilfred Watson born 1869 son of Francis Watson Journeyman/Stonemason. Did the 1891 census say where he originated?.

I note your mention of Jessie and her brother Wilfred Watson and report that they are the children of William Watson, son of George who was in turn the son of William Watson and Charlotte Cooke Watson of the Farriers Arms at Brierley. My records show that in the main, during the nineteenth century, the family were employed in Inn keeping, as Blacksmiths, Shopkeeper, Coachman or Farm Servant. There was a Fred Watson recorded as being a Mason at the baptism of his son in 1907. (No other Mason's).

The other Brierley Watson's originated from present day Monk Bretton but then known as Farmers of Burton Abbey (now Monk Bretton Priory). Here were also recorded two generations of William Watson's.

There were also Watson families from Hodroyd and South Hiendley well recorded in Felkirk parish records and on prime positioned headstones.

I have checked through my records of baptisms, deaths and marriages and not turned up one Jesse, Wilfred or Francis other than those mentioned above nor can I suggest the possibility of what couple may have produced a child in 1869 that may have matched in any way. Sorry Geraldine.

As you mention the Watson name is quite common and the employment of travelling gangs of builders equally so. My Rogerson ancestors who lived in tandem with the Watson's in Brierley were also of the Journeyman/Stonemason trades. A team of a least three brothers left to work in Liverpool and since at some point they were recorded on census as being Stone Carvers, I thought they were most likely working on either Lime St Station or the Cathedral. One brother stayed in the area, one returned to Brierley and my Great Great Grandfather Thomas Rogerson.... I'm still looking for. Similarly, my Great Great Grandfather William Squires and his brothers arrived in Smithies Barnsley in the mid 1860's from Bramley Leeds via various other towns and were recorded as Journeymen/Stonemasons. At one point George (and brother Samuel) was based as running the Honeywell Inn and a Building Business from the same address 1869-1876. William lived next door. The Squires family ended their days in Barnsley.

I'm just trying to stress how nomadic the Stonemasonry trade of the era was. My Great Grandfather, another Samuel the son of William was described as being born at 'The Brickyard' Bramley.

Keep searching Geraldine, the answer is out there somewhere.

Cheers for now

Trevor Limbert

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