I had remembered my mother speaking about her parents and my fathers parents living in Station Terrace, Cramlington so with that I wrote all of it down in my book and decided to go and start. I first went in to our library thinking that I would pick all of the census details of my fathers family in Cramlington as my father was born there but how wrong I was, not one was to be found. How disappointed I was. Never go researching and think you are going to find family straight away, as that is not at all possible.
I had vivid memories of my grandfather sitting in his arm chair when I was about 8 so I did some research on him and searched St. Catherine's Death Index's from 1940 and found him in 1942 which it gives you his age and I was delighted that I had started to find. Then I obtained a death certificate that showed he had died in Blyth and was buried in Cowpen Cemetery. I knew my granny Henderson was born Hannah Cassidy with mother mentioning her name and a Charlie Cassidy, which I assumed was her father's name. Then I remembered my granny still being alive in 1959 and that she was about 89 so I took her age off the year and came up with the year 1870 as a starting point. So then I got the 1871 Census of Cramlington but again, there was nothing. At a brick wall I thought I would have to try to find a certificate again. I then wrote to the Registrar at Tynemouth giving him the details that I had for a birth certificate and received one back showing Mary Hannah was born at the Catholic Church, Blyth in 1870, parents Patrick Cassidy and Hannah Dixon. I had won again. Why would Patrick call himself Charles? I have often wondered. I was still wondering how and where I would find my Henderson family in 1881 so I had to wait until the 1881 Census came out because it was being transcribed. While I was waiting, I thought about what those family tree books had mentioned. `If you are at a brick wall with one family start on another` so that is what I did and went in search of my granny Corners family (Jacques).
The first thing I obtained was my Mothers birth certificate and found that she was born at Weetslade, Annitsford so it was a trip to the Record Office to search the parish registers for Weetslade. I managed to find her three brothers but not hers and still have not found it to this day. Then I had to obtain a marriage certificate of Eleanor Jacques and Alfred Corner so that I could get their fathers name to search further back. When I did I found that I had to visit Durham Record Office and also looked in Seaham Harbour Census as that was where Alfred was born and I found them in 1851-61 and 71 and was so excited! My great grandfather George Corner was in the 1851 and 61 then married before the 1871. He married Hannah Taylor in 1865 at Dalton Le Dale Parish Chruch, Durham. Hannah was the daughter of Andrew Taylor and Eleanor Sharp and was born in Rothbury, 1845.
On finding my granny Eleanor Corner (Jacques) baptism I found that she was born at Longhurst Colliery in 1871, daughter of Hannah Jacques Longhurst Spinster, so then I decided to look in the 1871 Census of Longhurst and to my surprise i found my ganny`s grandfather Zepheniah Jacques with wife Eleanor and family. I also found some Heron family details as that was one of the names I remembered. Also Mother had some original photo`s of which one was a Thomas Heron with his wife Eleanor so I once again had to search the marriages in Longhurst and I was delighted to find a Thomas Mowbray Heron & Eleanor Jacques, married 1873, her fathers name was Zepheniah Jacques & Thomas`s was Thomas Heron so i had got much more information over a period of time. Thomas M. Heron was born 16 Dec 1844 at Wheatridge Row Seaton Delaval Northumberland. He died 1928 in Lismore, NSW Australia.
I was still waiting for the 1881 Census to come out as I wanted to find my Henderson family details. It wouldn't be too long so I kept on with my Jacques family and picked up the census when it finally appeared. I really had to hunt about for them but I got there after a long search which is the only thing to do if you really are interested in researching and the census tells you where people were born but they are not always baptised there which I have found. I took out the photo of Thomas and Eleanor Heron and saw that the name of the studio and place which was Lismore N.S.W. and to my delight they had emigrated there but I didn`t know when. As soon as the 1881 census came out I searched all of England and found nothing so I assumed that they went before the census was taken. So again I came to a halt.
It was back to finding my Henderson family and I remembered my brother George
mentioning some thing about my grandfather Joseph Henderson going to Durham.
By that time the 1881 census Index was released so I checked the Durham Census
Index and there they were, Joseph and his siblings were born at Murton in Durham
so it was a trip to Durham Record Office once more and found the family in Murton
and to my surprise my great grandfather was Joseph as well so I was well on
the way with them. I found the 1871 and 61 census as well so I was overjoyed.
The next step was a marriage certificate of Joseph Henderson to a Frances ?
so looking on the IGIs what a surprise I got there was this marriage of a Joseph
Henderson to a Frances Phitsu Henderson in 1858 at All Saints Parish Church
Newcastle on Tyne. So once more I had a trip to the record office and checked
the parish registers of marriages at All Saints Parish Church and there they
were, ages were given, fathers names were given and I saw that Josephs father
was also a Joseph Henderson and Frances`s father was a Roseby Henderson so once
more I looked at the IGIs and lo and behold there were quite a few names of
Roseby so that gave me a good start to search backwards as I found Frances Phitsu`s
baptism at Newburn in 1828. Parents names were Roseby Henderson and Mary. After
doing more research I found that Roseby Henderson was the son of Ralph Henderson
and Frances Drybrough. Ralph being the son of Roseby Henderson and Hannah Thompson
so therefore my great gr, gr, grandfather who was Joseph Henderson who married
Ann Harvey was Ralphs brother which meant that Joseph Henderson and Frances
Phitsu Henderson were cousins so then I thought that I had only one line to
trace back and got back to George Henderson and Eleanor Roseby which i eventually
did.
Ralph Henderson married Frances Drybrough at All Saints Parish Church Newcastle
on Tyne 1801 and Roseby their son was born 1802 January 16. He married Mary
Thirlwell in 1826 at St.Johns Parish Church Newcastle on Tyne. Their children
were-
Frances Phitsu born August 14, 1828 at Newburn Northumberland and died 1901
in the Blue Bell Inn Cramlington which Joseph her Husband was the owner of the
Blue Bell Inn, both were buried in St.Nicholas`s Church Yard where I found the
headstone many years ago.
Ralph born May 2, 1830, Winlaton Durham.
Hannah born July 6, 1834. South Hetton Durham.
Mary born July 6, 1834. South Hetton Durham.
Charles born March 4, 1845, Murton Durham.
Michael born Dec 27, 1840. South Hetton Durham & Baptised at Gosforth Nothumberland.
Joseph born May 7, 1837. South Hetton Durham.
John born 1842. South Hetton Durham.
I found that Charles had married Mary Ann Potts (daughter of George Potts) at the Parish Church Dalton Le Dale Durham in 1867 April 11. Mary Ann died before1891 so I therefore checked to find a marriage again of Charles and found that he had married a Sarah Minnie Spring in the Register Office District of Settle in the County of York on the 22 October 1887. He was a Widower and Engineer and she a Spinster and music teacher.
So I started to do some investigation on John Henderson born 1842 brother of Charles born 1845. I spent a certain amount of time then I decided to give up as there was no information that I could find so I assumed that he had died somewhere.
Zepheniah Jacques was born Doncaster, Yorkshire in 1826, son of Robert Jacques and Ann England. Zepheniahs daughter Eleanor was born Seghill Northumberland 1854 April 22 and died 7 Dec 1916 in Lismore NSW Australia. I went on to search on the Internet for a newspaper for Sydney and found `The Northern Star ` so I emailed the Editor and gave the information that I would like to have edited so that I could find my relatives. On receiving an email straight back I was delighted at what the Editor had wrote so I sent my details and three days later I found four relations and we emailed each other sharing our family information and photographs which made me feel over the moon. Thinking back now I never thought that I would find them so it pays one never to give up.
As time went by there was one day I was typing names in google and Roseby Henderson entered my head so I typed that in and up came the `Descendants of John Alexander Wintrip`. I thought, well I'll look in there and to my great surprise John Wintrip was the descendant of John Roseby Henderson who was the son of my John Henderson that I had come to a halt with. I just couldn't believe it, I was so excited so I got in touch with John Wintrip and we exchanged our information and photographs so I had won again. Over a period of time I got word from John Wintrip with more information on John Henderson and now I have American cousins which I am delighted with. Such a delightful find.
There are other parts of my family to pursue but time will tell.