This blog is designed to record the findings of our family history, mainly for the benefit of the family, and to document the dead ends, the breakthroughs and the journey.
I’ll post the family stories as I’ve written them to now, and I’ll be grateful to anyone who can add further information or pictures, or point out errors.
Particular thanks to my sister Julia and my cousin Mandy who between them have done much more of the work than I have.

Tuesday 31 January 2012

Billinghams of Cradley

There’s a very useful website for people researching the Billingham story called the Billinghams of Cradley. Unfortunately the host of this website won’t let me link to it unless I pay for the privilege. Cheek! So here’s the URL. If you want to look at it you might have to type the whole thing in.

Saturday 28 January 2012

The Billingham Story

My mother was a Billingham so it makes sense to do the Billinghams next.

The Name

Billingham is a very common name around Quarry Bank and Cradley. The 1911 census shows 173 people with the surname Billingham in Quarry Bank and I found 19 of them in Birch Coppice alone, where many of our ancestors lived. The other key roads for us in Quarry Bank are Victoria Road, Vine Terrace and Saltwells.  Obviously there has been some dispersal in 100 years but the name is still firmly rooted in the West Midlands, especially in the Black Country. According to the Guild of One Name Studies Billingham is chiefly found in the Black County, particularly between Stourbridge and Dudley (37%); Birmingham, West Bromwich, Walsall (12%); Northamptonshire (25%); Lancashire (9%); Gloucestershire & south Wales (7%); Yorkshire (4%); London (3%).  There is a genealogy website called The Billinghams of Cradley Heath, which traces the surname back to 1538 in the area. I haven’t got that far yet.

According to Ancestry the meaning of the name is an habitational name from a place called Billingham. There is one such place in Stockton on Tees (formerly in County Durham), which probably derives its name from Old English Billingaham ‘homestead (Old English ham) of the people of Bill(a)’. However, in the British Isles the surname is found chiefly in the Midlands (Staffordshire), and the distribution, together with evidence from other names, suggests that it may be derived from a lost place in Staffordshire or nearby. Again according to the Guild of One Name Studies the name is thought to originated from the Billas tribe, and the old English word 'hame' meaning home, hence home of the Billas tribe

Our Billinghams seem to have led very ordinary working class lives. I’ve found no scandal, no criminals, no heroes, and most of them did not stray far from Quarry Bank.

The People

Frank Billingham, our grandfather (1889-1976)




Frank William Billingham was born on 6th November 1889 at Salt Wells Coppice Quarry Bank. The birth was registered by his mother Mary Ann (nee Jasper) who was illiterate and made her mark. Frank’s father was Thomas Billingham who was an iron puddler. Two years later by the 1891 census the family was living at 57 Vine Street Quarry Bank, to the north. By 1901 they were at 32 Victoria Street, Quarry Bank and remained there in 1911. By this time Frank was 21 and an iron bundler, working for Noah Hingley & Sons. His job description changes in subsequent censuses to iron bar weigher (rolling mills). After his retirement he worked part time at the Taylor & Law Tala works near his home.

Frank married Annie Elizabeth Morris in 1914. She was pregnant with their first child Jack. There is a family story that they had married earlier in secret, but there is no evidence for this

Frank and Annie’s children were
Jack                                 1914
Frank S (Syd)                  1916
Jessie B                           1918
Dorothy E (Betty)             1921
Joyce                               1923
Mary Gwendolyn (Gwen) 1927

Frank died in 1976. At that time he was living with his daughter Joyce and her husband Harry Chance, at 40 Barn Close Stourbridge.

Thomas Billingham (1853-1913)

Thomas was born on 31st October 1853 at Saltwells in Quarry Bank. His parents were Benjamin Billingham and Harriet (nee Easthope). The 1861 census shows the family living at Salt Well Coppice Quarry Bank. Thomas is 7. By 1871 the family had moved to Birch Coppice, still in Quarry Bank.

The 1881 census shows a great change. By this time Thomas had married Mary Ann Jasper on Christmas Day in 1876. Their eldest daughter Sarah was born in Quarry Bank in 1880, but by 1881 the family had moved to Middlesborough, where there was presumably work for iron puddlers in the Teeside shipbuilding industry. Their address was 45 Hatherley Street, Linthorpe, which seems to no longer exist, (and which is only four miles from the town of Billingham).

However by 1891 they were back in Quarry Bank living at 57 Vine Street. Two children were born in Middlesborough, Joseph in 1882 and Maria in 1884. Three more children were born after their return to Quarry Bank; Hannah in 1886, Frank in 1890, and Annie in 1893. At this time they also had lodgers, Reuben Bloomer a coal miner, his wife Violet and their infant daughter Sophia.

1901 saw them on the move again, but this time only as far as 6 Victoria Road Quarry Bank, and a further child Harriet was born in 1896. Sarah was working as a domestic servant and Joseph as a bucket factory saucepan maker.

In the 1911 census the family has moved along the road to 32 Victoria Street, and of the children, only Frank and Harriet were still living at home.

Thomas died on 5th March 1913, at home, aged 61 of bronchitis.

Benjamin Billingham (1808-1883)

Benjamin Billingham was born in Kingswinford in 1808. The first reference we find to him is in the 1841 census where he is 35 and living in Edwards Row, Cradley. He was a nailer. His wife’s name is illegible. The transcript has her as Sarah, but it could just as easily be Harriet, which the name his wife has in the 1851 census.

I haven’t found a marriage date, and their first child was born in 1841 IGI shows a Benjamin Billingham marrying a Harriet Hestop on 28th November 1831, and despite the gap before any known children are born, this does seem most likely.

By 1851 the couple had four children Hannah, John, Sarah and George. 10 year old Hannah and 7 year old John were already working as nailers, along with both their parents. They lived at Saltwells in Quarry Bank, and living with them were Benjamin’s widowed father John aged 81, also formerly a nailer, and 15 year old Joseph Easthope a chain maker. We know from Thomas’ birth certificate that Harriet’s maiden name is Easthope, (pretty close to Hestop) so this is probably a relation.

In 1861, still in Saltwell Coppice the lodgers have gone, but the family has grown. Hannah is longer at home, but the others are John aged 15, Sarah aged 14 (now also a nailer), George aged 12, Eli aged 10 and Thomas (our ancestor) aged 7. Interestingly the younger children are no longer working, so perhaps the family was a little more prosperous.

We find a much smaller family living in Birch Coppice Quarry Bank by 1871. Benjamin and his wife (called Ann H in this census) are both nailers still. Only the two youngest children are at home, Eli aged 19 and Thomas aged 17. Both work as iron puddlers. And by 1881, still at Birch Coppice Benjamin and Harriet are living with lodger Edward Weaver aged 20 a chainmaker.

Benjamin died on 3rd October 1883, at home, aged 71, again of bronchitis.

Samuel and Alice had both died in 1861 after the census was taken.

Mirah died in 1885 and in 1891 William married Emily Collins, a woman of his own age also from Quarry Bank with a son George and his wife Martha who was from Glasgow, and they have moved to Sheffield Street Quarry Bank.


John Billingham (born 1770)

I first learned of the existence of John when the 1851 census shows him as an 81 year old widower living with his son Benjamin. He was also formerly a nailer, born in 1770. The 1841 census shows him living in Swinford Wood Kingswinford with his wife Sarah born 1776 and daughter Mary. Sarah died aged 76 on 8th June1848 of “old age”. I haven’t found a death date for John, but he does not appear on the 1861 census, at which point he would have been over 90. IGI suggests that John and Sarah were married on 25th April 1791 in Brierley Hill, and that her maiden name was Timmins. One future task is to see whether this is the same Timmins family as our grandmother Lily Gertrude Hamilton (nee Timmins), although like Billingham Timmins is a name common in the Black Country and rare elsewhere’

IGI doesn’t suggest a birth/christening for John, so I have been unable to find his parents so far.


Sunday 22 January 2012

Problems with family trees

One of the major difficulties for me has been in constructing the, now rather complicated, family tree. Julia and I bought some very large scrolls at the West Midlands Family History Fair last year, and one day I will get round to filling mine in.
Of course Find My Past www.findmypast.co.uk  and Ancestry www.ancestry.co.uk both provide very good on line family tree builders and I have some software  called Family Tree Maker, but I have difficulty in bringing any of these into a Word document in order to make them part of the family stories as I publish them. I’ve also tried constructing them as an organisation chart in PowerPoint, but again with limited success. The answer must be somewhere.

Sunday 15 January 2012

The Hamilton Story part 1

The Hamilton Story


Let’s start with the Hamiltons as Julia and I were born with the surname Hamilton, although that turns out not to be quite right

Dad has written elsewhere about his childhood in Roebuck Street, growing up in the 1920s and 30s.

Walter Hamilton

Dad’s father was Walter Hamilton, born on 30th September 1887 and registered as Walter Hambilton, although he always said the family name was Hamilton and spelt it Hamilton himself. Walter married Lily Gertrude Timmins on 2nd January 1911, and they lived the rest of their married lives at 17 Roebuck Street, with eventually nine children

Arthur               1911-1991
Dorothy            1914-2001
Alfred               1916-1980
Frederick          1918-1979
Dad
Stanley             1923-1997
Norman             1926-1995
Betty                1929-2003
The Youngest

I haven’t included any personal details on this blog about anyone who is still alive

Walter died in 1966 and Gert in 1969.

Joseph Hamilton

Walter’s father was Joseph Hamilton. He was colliery engine driver at Sandwell Park Colliery. Joseph was born on 11th February 1850 at Tividale in Tipton. He married Sarah Emily Mills on 2nd November 1873 in Dudley Parish Church.

In 1871 Joseph was living with his mother and his sister Mercy in Sedgley Road East in Tipton, his father having died.

In 1881 Joseph was married and living at 10 Groveland Road Tipton , with his wife and the first three children, Emma, Thomas and Alfred.

By 1891 the family had moved to West Bromwich, to 74 Roebuck Street with their children Thomas, Alfred, Ernest, Emma, Sarah, Joseph, Walter and Eva. Joseph’s wife, Sarah Emily was, according to Dad, always known as Emily. At this time her mother Elizabeth Mills was living with them.

In 1901 they are at no 41 and have one more child Lilian, she who allegedly ran off to Tenbury Wells with the money.

Joseph died on 25th January 1933 aged 83.

It is Joseph who was probably responsible for the variations in our name, together with some fairly slapdash census enumerators.

1845 Samuel’s marriage certificate         Hamblet
1850 Joseph’s birth certificate                Hamlet
1851 Census                                         Hamlett
1861 Census                                         Amphlett
1862 Samuel’s death certificate              Hamlet
1862 Birmingham Daily Post                  Amblett
1871 Census                                         Hamlet
1873 Joseph’s marriage certificate         Hamlinton
1881 Census                                         Hamilton
1887 Walter’s birth certificate                 Hambilton
1891 Census                                         Hamblington
1901 Census                                         Hamlinton
1911 Walter’s marriage certificate           Hamilton
1911 Census                                         Hamilton
1933 Joseph’s death certificate             Hamilton

Roebuck Street

In 1911 the Hamiltons were living at a number of properties in Roebuck Street and probably owned a few more. The 1911 census wasn’t available when Mandy started doing this and it gives us some useful information. Joseph, Emily (Sarah) are living at no 66. Some of the children have married and left home, and of these two are living in Roebuck Street, Walter at no 17 and Ernest at no 102. Later Walter’s son Arthur lived at no ? and we lived at no 85.

Samuel Hamlet

Joseph’s father was Samuel Hamlet. He was also a pit engineer at Tipton Green Colliery.

Samuel was born around 1827. This was of course before the registration of births, and we think that he was born at Charlton in Shropshire (according to the 1851 census). The 1861 census however gives a completely different birthplace. The transcribers have it down as illegible, but it’s possible that it says Wrockwardine in Shropshire. St Peter’s church in Wrockwardine was (is) the parish for Charlton. A Samuel Hamblett was christened there is 1818, according to the IGI. There was also a Samuel Amphlett christened at St Thomas in Dudley (where Samuel got married), on 26th December 1830. This baby had a father called John, and we know from Samuel’s marriage certificate that his father was called John.

Samuel married Sarah Whitehouse on 10th August 1845 in Dudley Parish Church. Samuel and Sarah were both living in New Hall Street Dudley at the time of their marriage.

I can’t find anyone on the 1841 census that I can definitely say is Samuel.

The 1851 census shows Samuel and Sarah living in Tividale with two children Samuel Jnr aged 4 and Joseph aged 1. Samuel’s place of birth is given as Charlton in Shropshire, and Sarah was born in Tipton. By 1861 they have moved to Park Lane Tipton and have another child Mercey.

Samuel died tragically, on 18th January 1862 as a result of a accident at work. The Birmingham Daily Post of 23rd January 1862 wrote it up as follows. The paper, as well as giving him yet another spelling, says he had six children, but I have only been able to identify three.

FATAL COLLIERY ACCIDENT – On Saturday evening last, there occurred an accident at the Tipton Green Colliery, which cost the life of a married man, with six children, named Samuel Amblett. Deceased was employed at Mr. Edward Williams’s colliery, at the above-named place, and was highly respected. He was engaged on Saturday morning at about eleven o’clock, in his usual duties as engineer of the colliery, when, by some means or other, he became entangled in the revolving arms of the cylinder upon which the pit rope is wound, and, before he was extricated, he was so severely injured that all possible chance of the resuscitation of life was gone.


John Hamlet

Samuel’s marriage certificate (1845) gives his father’s name as John. He is deceased by then, and he was also an engine man.  I haven’t yet been able to find John. As Samuel was born around 1818, I would guess that John was born around 1790.

Part 2 will take the Hamiltons further back, probably into Shropshire.