Week 3 - Longevity

The theme for week 3 is longevity and can be about the longest lived person in my ancestry or even someone who has taken an "age" to find out about.  Despite Ann Baker, my maternal GGGG Grandmother, believed to have lived to the age of 102, I am choosing to write about my maternal Great Grandfather and the efforts into finding out about who he was & where he came from and the many issues about finding out this information. Not to mention highlighting some queries that still exist about him!

My mother was Edna Trattles, her father was John James Trattles.

We knew very little about John James'  (my grandad) early years other than the person my mam knew as 'his dad', her grandad, was not Johns real dad….he had been known as "Mr Parker". Mam did not even know her grans name, only that she was her dad's mam.

We also knew that John James had a brother who was believed to have owned/ran a shop in Redcar, but all contact had been lost and we knew nothing else about Johns childhood. (We had also assumed, incorrectly, that they were all from Middlesbrough)

I started family research in the very late 1980s, at this time only the 1881 census was available to review (census are only made publically available 100 years after the event) and also my knowledge into "how to" and "where to go" was extremely limited. You also must appreciate that at that time many records were not yet available on-line, instead research had to be done in the records offices, searching through microfiche in order to find the information needed.  Sites that make it easy to locate civil registration dates were not yet available or just not sophisticated/populated enough to be able to provide adequate info.

To find my Great Grandfather I would need to use information available about his son John James and this would take 3 steps :

1 - find the fathers name/parents name on John James birth certificate (having to find his birth first - of course!)

2 - locate the marriage certificate of the parents to identify their ages & mothers maiden name.

3 - look at the  censuses to try and find more about them.

John James - My Grandad - Birth

Using the parish registers in the archives office at Middlesbrough, I eventually located John James birth in Stockton, this enabled me to order his birth certificate (Ordered 1993)

John James was born 20/10/1890 at 15 Kirby St Stockton, Father was John James Trattles (my great grandad), Mother was Frederica Sophia (formerly Bradley).

😸Hoorah - we now know the name of my Great Grandad - John James Trattles and his "wife"

**At this point in the story we will refer to my Great grandad as JJT(1) and his son  (my grandad) as JJT (2)**

Parents Marriage: John James Trattles & Frederica Sophia Bradley

More than 10 years were spent looking for this marriage (which would have given us JJT (1)'s age and ultimately be able to deduce his birth year). For reasons that will become clear…. It was, to this day, never to be found!

We now know that JJT(2) was born in 1890 and therefore not on the 1881 census - but he would have been on the 1891 census, which (by 1993) was now publically available.

I cannot recall If I was now using digitised records to search for people on the census, I believe I was. I eventually found the family! Though that fact that they were named "Tratles" instead of "Trattles" was probably one reason for further delay in finding them, search engines were not as clever!

Quite clearly I could see that My Great Grandad JJT(1), aged 45, a Mill Wright Labourer,  was living in Stockton on Tees, with Frederica, his wife and Alfred and John J, his sons.

*Lesson learnt after the event!  Do not make assumptions about what you see/ read!!*

JJ(1) Birth? Given that in the 1891 census JJT(1) was aged 45, he would have been born about 1846 in "Steers"….stuck again! Where on earth was Steers in Yorkshire!  Mam was never able to offer much help with my research, but the one thing she was able to tell me was that this was "Steers" was the local name for "Staithes".

(see Wikipedia Staithes)

It was during the next few years ( I say a few ...it felt like a lifetime)  that I started to "collect" Trattles (mostly from Staithes).  I contacted so many people who were researching Trattles just to see if they had found my John James, to no avail. We had about 4 "Johns" that were candidates and eventually (again over many years) we were able to discount most of them.

My one name Study for Trattles continues to this day, though has had many stops and starts. It is now officially registered with the Guild of One Name Studies. I have over 4500 individuals in my database (Trattles, their spouses and descendants from all over the world)

It took a while to locate the family in the 1881 census (using digital searches), mostly through my lack of knowledge on how to search properly for those potentially difficult to find people!. The family surname had been transcribed "Traffles". Eventually finding them, I had my 2nd and most important breakthrough! This led to me learn an interesting English law that existed at the turn of the 1900s

Fredericka was not JJT(1)'s  wife , she was his sister-in-law! Using this information I looked for Frederica Bradley's sisters and their marriages.

(Incidentally I will mention at this point that Frederica went onto marry Mr Samuel Carter in 1899, describing herself as a spinster, and later marrying Mr Mark Parker in Oct 1926, the gentleman my mam knew as her grandad)

John James Trattles (1) married Harriet Clara Bradley in 1876. Harriet died in 1879 (only 8 days after giving birth to son Alfred).  The assumption can be made that her younger sister Frederica moved into the household to look after the baby (as we see in the 1881 census).  It is worth mentioning that John & Harriet had also had a son, William born in 1887, however he died in infancy)

10 years later (1891) we know that JJT(1) and Frederica are claiming to be man and wife and they have a son JJT(2). So now to the question...why could I not find their marriage?, did they marry?, why lie on the 1891 census?

The answer was that I found that it was illegal, before 1907, to marry your deceased wife's sister: Deceased Wifes Sisters Marriage Act 1907

I now knew I had the right JJT(1), however it is worth noting that on the 1881 census John gave his age as 34 and place of birth as "Comdale, Yorkshire"! Here we go again…. Where on earth is Comdale!

Over the years, with some limited evidence to back this up, I have deduced that Comdale is actually "Commondale", located on the North Yorkshire Moors.

I now had another document I could order, that should contain information about JJT(1), his marriage certificate to Harriet Clara, which hopefully would identify JJT(1)'s  father. The marriage took place on 29th February 1874 (leap year!) in Stockton. JJT(1) was aged 29, he was a coachman and his father was Thomas Trattles, a labourer.

This would give JJT(1)'s year of birth approx 1844

So I needed to find a son born to Thomas Trattles between 1844 and 1847, in Yorkshire (either Staithes or Comdale). By this time in my research journey, I had learnt a few tricks of the trade and knew I had to search for everything and anything, with all sorts of wildcards and name resemblances and not only just stick to place names / people names I knew!

Having searched all Thomas Trattles from Yorkshire area and identifying if they had a son called John (within a 20 year time frame of the years I was interested in) the following were potentials:

• John T Trattles son of Thomas & Maria in 1856 in Northumberland (located via 1871 census)

• John Trattles son of  Thomas & Jane in 1842 in Staithes (located via 1851 census - living near Scarborough)

It is worth noting I did look for other Johns born in the same time period with any other fathers name (not just Thomas) and again, by following their individual lives, I was able to discount many of them.

I had ordered JJT(1)'s Death certificate in 2005, but this provided no new information, other than giving us doubt as to his real year of birth: "John James Trattles of 392 Cannon St, died aged 44, 15th June 1896. Informant was son A Trattles".  He would have been born in 1951/2 if he was 44 at his death!

We have now progressed in time to 2013! (during the years that passed I concentrated on gathering Trattles as well as researching my other family ancestry lines...I was not just doing nothing !). No one had come to light as having the same Trattles ancestors as me. Well, that is except for the contact made with Julie Brough (nee Jones).

Julie is my cousin, being the daughter of my Auntie Joan (mams sister). The sisters lost touch in the 1960s and Julie I grew up knowing nothing much about each others families. Family History research brought us together in the early 2000s. Whilst Julie also knew nothing of the ancestry of JJT(1) we have worked together to try and break down some of those brick walls.

In March 2012 Julie had that ultimate Eureka moment!   Searching local newspaper articles she had found something that would take our research along a different path, confuse us even more, but also enable us to pull together some of the jigsaw, though there is no doubt there are still many assumptions made along the way.

The Email was "Look at this!.....

"15th June 1899 Trattles : In Memory of John James Trattles better known as James Harrison late of 392 Cannon St who died June 15 1896. In life respected in death lamented.""

WHAT!..... "James Harrison"….what on earth !

There were 4 newspaper articles that had been located. The death notice in 1896 and then for the following 3 years a memoriam notice. I assume it was Frederica who submitted these as they continued up to the year that she re-married.

We had heard the name Harrison before, it was the maiden name of the person we had been thinking might possibly be JJT(1)'s mother, Jane (wife of Thomas).

In 2013 I ordered the birth certificate for John born to Thomas and Jane which told me that John was born to Thomas Trattles ( a labourer) and Jane (nee Harrison) 4th Dec 1841 at Staithes. Harrison! Surely this was no coincidence?

So other that the year of birth, which was about 5 years too early and the name being John instead of John James everything else seemed to fit, however there were still a few questions to answer. Why did he say he was from Comdale? And why was he also known as "John James / James Harrison / Trattles"?

At this point it was time to concentrate on Jane Harrison and her family background in more detail to see if we could uncover any new information. This led to finding out that Jane was born in 1806 Staithes to William Harrison and Ann (nee Thompson). She had 3 siblings Mark b.1803, Margaret b.1801 and Ann b.1799.

Jane married Thomas Trattles in 1836 and in the 1841 census, age 30 she was living with her father, William Harrison & her brother, Mark, with her 2 children, Leonard b. 1837 and Ann b.1840. Husband Thomas is not at the residence. (again is it worth mentioning this took a while to locate - due to Trattles being transcribed as "Grattles" !)

 In 1851 census Jane was living in Burniston with her husband Thomas Trattles and her 4 children. ( Ann 11, John9, Elizabeth5, Harrison 2)

 Jane died in 1852, and Thomas went on to marry Rebecca Hostler in July 1855. The 1861 census shows us that there was a John Trattles living with Thomas and Rebecca at Oxford St, Scarborough.

Having exhausted anything relating to Jane, I turned to her siblings and found that Mark, unmarried, after the death of his father was living with elder sister Margaret, who had married Thomas Breckon, a farmer originally from Glaisdale.  In 1851 they were living in Danby, and in 1861 they were living at Long Green, Commondale!...

…. Now where had we heard that name before?

This surely has to be a coincidence too far?

JJT(1) stated he was from Commondale in the 1881 census. Could it be that sometime between the  years 1861 to 1876 when we know he married Harriet Clara in Stockton, he had stayed with his maternal aunt and uncle in Commondale? Had he fallen out with his Trattles father and wanted to be known as Harrison? (his mothers maiden name) or could it be something more sinister...had he committed a crime and needed to move away and change his name so he would not be found?, though this seems unlikely as he was later advertising his true name in the local Gazette, for instance when Harriet died:

We had never located JJT(1) in the 1871 census. Using the new name information a search for James Harrison returned the results of a James Harrison, age 28, (married) living in Stockton ! His occupation was Labourer in Iron Works (the same occupation that we know JJT(1) had in 1881).  (Showing as married could be a red herring / enumerator error?)

 Further newspaper searches have proved fruitless and it is more than likely we will never know the real reason for the name change.  However for legal reasons, he obviously still had to use the name he was originally registered with  for his marriage and death certificates.

25 years after starting to look for John James Trattles, I concluded that John Trattles born to Thomas Trattles and Jane (nee Harrison) in 1841 was indeed my Great Grandfather.  He later also became known as James Harrison, marrying Harriet Clara Bradley in 1876. She died shortly after childbirth and Harriet's younger sister, Frederica, moved in with John James to look after the child.  Frederica and John James became a couple in the following years and John James Trattles (my grandfather) was born in 1890, out of wedlock.  John James (aka James Harrison) died in 1899, probably aged 58.  I suspect along with the name changes and the fact that he was not officially married to the woman he called his wife, giving the wrong age throughout his life was something that I find is a strong possibility!

There will always be a nagging doubt about who John James Trattles really was…. And I will always welcome any thoughts, information or ideas about his life & family.