Who Do You Think You Are - Una Stubbs 24th Jul

[kiterunner]

And a likely marriage for those Watsons next door:
22 Feb 1881 Thornaby on Tees, Joseph Edward Watson married Selina Catherine Spencer.

[Nell]

I found the programme interesting because I live in Herts and know a bit about Letchworth GC and Welwyn GC. But I wasn't sure about some of the assumptions they made. I also wanted to know how Annie was able to keep her first illegitimate son Albert.

Still irked by the way if you are a celeb you just swan into a Register Office or Archive and have a dedicated helper ready to whisk documents out of an envelope for you!

[Shona]

Originally Posted by Nell

Still irked by the way if you are a celeb you just swan into a Register Office or Archive and have a dedicated helper ready to whisk documents out of an envelope for you!

Too true!

[Shona]

Annie Robinson was described by Una's cousins, as being a spiky and unconventional woman who liked dancing and drinking. They reckoned that Una's mother felt that Annie was a bit 'lower' and that there was a 'stigma' associated with Annie because of her colourful life. This was why Una never met her grandparents, Annie and Arthur.

We know Annie was born on 11 November 1884 at 55 Persley (?) Grove Street in York to Eliza Robinson - no father was named on the birth cert.

I can't recall if anything was mentioned about what happened to Eliza. Did Eliza give up her daughter for adoption? Did she die? Was there a family connection with the Horsfalls who took in Annie?

In 1891, Annie is with her adoptive family - the Horsfalls. They mentioned that Joe was blind when they looked at the census for 1891, but didn't mention that there were two boarders in the household who were blind as well, plus a visitor who was blind. All three were basketmakers.

- Jesse Sutcliffe, boarder
- Thomas Wardle, boarder
- John Taylor, visitor

They lived in Townsend Street, next door to an inn.

In 1901, in addition to Mary Horsfall and Annie (by then Horsfall), the household also included a boarder named James Ward, 44, a blind basketmaker, and a five-year-old named, Arthur Ward.

Joe Horsfall was baptised on 27 June 1851, the son of a dyer named John Horsfall and his wife Lydia. He was born in Shelf, Halifax. In 1871, Joe is in the Wilberforce School for the blind in York - aged 19 and a brushmaker. Pupils stayed at the school until they were 20. Joe married Mary Hannah Harper in York, Jan-Feb-Mar 1875. Joe died in Apr-May-June 1900.

Annie gave birth to her first son, Albert, on 12 October 1903 in the Union Workhouse. She was 18 and her usual address was Eldon Street in York. She was a servant.

I wonder who looked after Albert? Did Annie? Or did she give him to Mary Horsfall?

Clarence Watson Robinson was born at 50 Rose Street - Arthur Stubb's home. Arthur and Annie married when Clarence was five months old. Are we certain that Arthur was Clarence's father?

[kiterunner]

Originally Posted by Shona

Clarence Watson Robinson was born at 50 Rose Street - Arthur Stubb's home.

It is Arthur's residence on the marriage certificate, but I don't think we have seen anything yet to show when he moved there and how long he lived there. I could be wrong though. Sometimes the residence on the marriage cert is just for convenience or something like that.

[kiterunner]

Originally Posted by Shona

I can't recall if anything was mentioned about what happened to Eliza. Did Eliza give up her daughter for adoption? Did she die? Was there a family connection with the Horsfalls who took in Annie?

I don't think they said what happened to Eliza.

There is a marriage on FamilySearch 17 Mar 1885 at St Thomas, York, Francis Fieldhouse, son of Francis Fieldhouse, married Eliza Robinson, daughter of Edward Robinson. I wonder whether it is the same Eliza. Of course it's a common name.

[kiterunner]

Hmm, FamilySearch has a baptism of a Francis Fieldhouse 13 May 1829 at St Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire, son of Francis and Rachel. On the 1891 census there is a Francis Fieldhouse age 63 who is a boarder in Leeds, occupation printer, and he is shown as married but his wife isn't there. In 1881 his wife is Mary A age 52. There is a Mary Ann Fieldhouse death in Leeds Jul-Sep 1883, age 55. Francis and Mary Ann never have a son Francis with them on the censuses. There is a Francis Fieldhouse death Jan-Mar 1901 Leeds, age 74.

But there is an Eliza Fieldhouse, wife, born Leeds, age 61, in Filey, Yorkshire, on the 1891 census, with no husband there, so if she is the Eliza who married Francis Fieldhouse then she isn't Annie's mother as she would be too old.

This may have been a total red herring, but I will post it up anyway to save anybody else following the same line!

[Ann from Sussex]

Having had the two disparate sides of Una's family explained and seen how both families came to be in the same place at the same time, plus being told that Una's mother felt the Stubbs were a bit beneath her, I would have loved to know how and where her parents met....but that's me being nosey I'm afraid!

[Olde Crone]

Ann

Why, the tennis club dance, surely! Or, more likely, the Rowntrees social club.

It's odd though. Una's father must have been a bit of a wimp to allow his wife to cut him off from his family. I bet there's a bit more to the story than that!

OC

[Merry]

This is a bit embarrassing!

Kate said this, which is correct:

The birth certificate for Una's father Clarence Watson Robinson showed that he was born on the 25th Oct 1908 at 50 Rose Street, York.

but The Genealogist says in its write up that her father was Clarence Reginald Stubbs who was also registered in Q4 1908, but was a completely different person!! (and was registered with the surname Stubbs and not Robinson!!) Also, Clarence Reginald was registered in Pontefract but The Genealogist article says he was born in York, which of course was where Clarence W Robinson was born!

http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/feat...013_stubbs.php