I haven't done much family history research over the last couple of years. But the release of the 1921 census on FindMyPast seemed a good opportunity to dip in to it again, to see what information the census could add about some of my closest ancestors, people I had actually known.
I'm not normally one to 'rush in' as soon as a database is released - there's often too many issues to make it worthwhile, better to wait until demand has settled down a bit and any initial technical problems have been resolved. But, with a short priority list, I reckoned a late night/early morning finding them would mean I could then get on with other activities again.
So that's how I found myself, counting down to that midnight deadline:
So this was my list of priorities:
Grandfather: Donald Martin PARRY, (1904-1980)
Grandmother: Elsie May THOMAS, (1902-1982)
Grandfather: John William Frederick ALLEN (1892-1967)
Grandmother: Maud Emily Alice DOWDING (1896-1971)
Great Grandparents: George THOMAS (1871-1955), with wife, Rose Hannah (1874-1958)
Great Grandparents: John Prosser ALLEN (1866-1945), with wife, Caroline (1866-1953)
Great Grandparents: Charles Henry DOWDING (1865-1933), with wife, Minnie Louisa (1865-1934)
2xGreat Grandparents: John THOMAS (1843-1929), with wife, Priscilla (1846-1932)
2xGreat Grandparents: George HAYNES (1855-?), with wife, Caroline (1855-1933)
(This was the point at which I realised I still have eight death dates for various 2xGreat grandparents to identify. A talk by Jeanne Bunting, on the importance of "burying your ancestors", at a Guild of One-Name Studies seminar, flashed briefly across my brain.)
Donald Martin PARRY, (1904-1980)
Finding Donald was easy - he was exactly where I expected him to be, in Rowleston, Herefordshire. I have already written about him in my "Favourite Photo" post at
https://notjusttheparrys.blogspot.com/2018/01/52-ancestors-in-52-weeks-week-2.html Orphaned when he was 14, he and his sister were separated and sent to live with 'relatives'. I knew this was a WILLIAMS family for Donald, but now, finally, I know which WILLIAMS family - a Joseph Henry WILLIAMS, with wife Gertrude, and children, Geraldine, William, Henry, Irene, and Gwendolyne.
A quick search revealed Gertrude's maiden name was THACKWAY, which hasn't appeared in my research so far, and, although I do know about various connected WILLIAMS families, this particular one isn't one I have come across before. So investigating how they might be related to us has gone onto my "ToDo" list.
Elsie May THOMAS, (1902-1982) and her parents, George and Rose Hannah THOMAS
After the intial success with Donald, I was feeling positive - but disappointment soon followed, when I searched for Elsie. Despite trying various search tactics, I was unable to find her. Her parents were easy to find in Collington, Herefordshire, along with six of her siblings still at home. But Elsie and three other siblings are absent.
It's not surprising - they were all old enough to be working (or married) and, as females, would often be 'living in', in service somewhere. That perhaps increases the possibility of errors in recording or transcription, as the census entry will probably have been completed by a non-family member, who might not get the name correct, or a transcriber not spotting the variations in a household's surnames.
More work needed there, unfortunately.
John William Frederick ALLEN (1892-1967), and his parents, John and Caroline ALLEN
Initially, there was more frustration when I searched for my other grandfather, John. There are a lot of John ALLENs in London!
Again, I tried a variety of tactics - parts of his first names, birthplace variations, other members of the family. I wasn't sure whether he would be with his parents - although I did know he was widowed, with a young son who his parents had looked after while John was away in the army.
Fortunately, when looking at entries in the index, by hovering over the 'payment' options, it is possible to see some of the other people in the household. So, finally, having searched for Caroline, and checking out an entry appearing in the index as just "C ALLEN", I found them. Yes, only John senior was recorded by name - all of the others, Caroline, my grandfather, 'John', another son, Robert, and the son of my grandfather, 'John Frederick", are all recorded with just one initial! Not only that, both my grandfather and his son are shown with the initial "F" - I always knew the son was referred to as "Freddie", but I didn't expect that for my grandfather.
All the other details match up - John senior was a toy maker, working for himself, my grandfather John, was widowed and in the paper trade, and the other son, Robert, was a decorator - so I am quite content that this is the 'right' entry. The address is also 21 Lambeth Walk - which, if I had thought about it, I could have used as a search term, since I did know that was their address from at least 1911 until many years after 1921. And, having now tried the address search, just to check out how it works, I can see from the index that there is another family at the same address - it's the third son of John and Caroline, Albert Edward ALLEN, with his wife, Alice Irene, and baby daughter, Doris Irene. An interesting contrast between the two families, with even middle names recorded fully in Albert's household, yet most of my grandfather's household recorded with just first initials.
I'm sure my mother would have found that amusing - she always said her dad could be an "awkward 'so & so'" 😄
Maud Emily Alice DOWDING (1896-1971), and her parents, Charles Henry and Minnie Louisa DOWDING
DOWDING is not such a frequently occurring surname as ALLEN, THOMAS or PARRY are, and there were only a few 'Maud DOWDING's of the right age, so my grandmother was easy to find. She and her younger sister, Ethel, were living with their parents in Pratt Street.
The 1921 census gives more occupational details than has been recorded in previous censuses and, although I knew that my grandmother worked in a tobacco factory, it is great to have the name of the factory, "Faulkner & Co", and location, "Blackfriars Rd", as I can now investigate more about them, where exactly the factory was, how large it was, what working conditions were like etc. All of that detail adds 'colour' to the lives of my ancestors.
I was also interested to see that Maud's sister, Ethel, was a machinist for a "theatrical costumier", H M Raynes, of Waterloo Rd. That conjures up images of glamorous, extravagant, costumes - definitely worth further research.
So who did that leave from my priority list - just two sets of 2xGreat Grandparents.
John THOMAS (1843-1929), with wife, Priscilla (1846-1932)
Fortunately, by this age, my ancestors were a bit more 'settled' - and, not only did I find John and Priscilla in Stoke Bliss, where they'd married over forty years before, but with them was one of their daughters, Lilly, and also one of their granddaughters, Edith, who was one of the four daughters 'missing' from George and Rose Hannah's family.
George HAYNES (1855-?), with wife, Caroline (1855-1933)
Again, George and Caroline HAYNES were easy to find, having been living in Sheep Street, Bromyard for many years and still there in 1921. There's nine in the household, a mixture of family, both children and grandchildren, as well as a couple of boarders.
And, for the first time from any of the 1921 census entries, I have some new family information, since there's a married daughter, Annie PULLEN, as well as two, previously unknown, grandchildren, Ellis Thomas PULLEN and Lilian HAYNES.
Clearly, I do have a lot more research to carry out now, adding the new members of the family to my files, as well as recording the additional information about occupations etc from the census.
As well as not finding my grandmother, Elsie May THOMAS, I was unable to find Donald PARRY's sister, Rosina Jane PARRY, despite trying the variety of names she was known by. I did identify an entry for their aunt in Hereford, who I believe Rosina was sent to live with after their father had died in 1918, as well as possible entries for the aunt's two daughters, who had moved to London by 1921. Unfortunately, according to one of Rosina's daughters, Rosina also moved to London when she was about 16 - which would be in 1921 - so she could be almost anywhere that year!
But, overall, I felt this was a fairly successful set of results for my first foray into the 1921 census (and I wasn't that late to bed, either!)
