The Wright family in 1911

Please click on the 'Wright' tab on the right hand side to find more information about my great-grandfather Harold Wright, his parents and family. The 1911 census does not add to

o much extra information to what I already knew - All four children were born in Acomb, Henry Cecil Wright b1897, Harold b1900, Ethel b1902 and Kathleen Maud b1905.

In 1911 the three younger children were at school and Henry (named Harry on the census) is an apprentice cabinet maker. Their father Henry Wright (b1868, Acomb) is working for North Eastern railways as a wagon maker. This census also confirms that Henry and Ada Wright had only four children all of whom survived. They are living at Gale View, Acomb in a house with 5 rooms.

John Driscoll (comedian) in 1911

My great-grandmother was Mary Driscoll who was born on Curzon Street, Birmingham on 23rd October 1883. Her parents were John Driscoll and Mary Lines who were both born in Birmingham also. According to their certificate of marriage which took place on 25th December 1882 they were born in 1859 and 1860 respectively and were both living on Great Lister Street, Duddeston. At this point John Driscoll is described as a goods porter. However, in the 1881 and 1901 censuses he was described as a negro comedian or simply comedian. He obviously did other jobs as in 1891 he was a brass turner and at the birth of Mary Driscoll in 1883 he was a gas fitter. I'm not 100% positive about his birth date as in the 1881 and 1891 censuses his birth date would be 1862ish whereas according to the 1901 census it would be 1865ish.

According to the 1911 census, John Driscoll and his wife Mary are living at 28 Tennant Street, Birmingham in a house with 3 rooms that is also described as a 'shop'. John is described as a comedian working in the 'stage' industry, whilst Mary is involved in 'domestic work'. Interestingly they have been married for 28 years which agrees more or less with their marriage date of December 1882. However, they both claim to be 45 meaning that they were born in 1866 although as pointed out above their marriage certificate puts their dates of birth 6-7 years earlier.

They are living with two children Ada (aged 13) and Agnes (aged 8), but it also states that they have had 13 children in total but only 4 are living. That means that in addition to Ada and Agnes and my great-grandmother Mary there must be one other living child whom i do not yet know the name of. I don't know where this child is living or why he or she does not appear in the 1891 or 1901 censuses. The only child of the 9 who died that I know the name of is Clement John who was born around 1900 and appears in the 1901 census, but whose death record I've found in the register of deaths for 1902. I know from family information that Ada Driscoll did not marry and went on to run a boarding house for people involved in the theatre in the centre of Birmingham. I have found a marriage record for an Agnes Driscoll to a Sidney Jones in Birmingham in 1924.

There is lots of work still to do on the Driscoll family including filling in details about the children of John and Mary Driscoll. Church records and further birth certificates will help this. Also, I know that John Driscoll was the son of Dennis and Susan Driscoll from census records (click on the Driscoll tab on the right to find out more), but I need to see more church records and birth certificate work to find out further details of this family.

The Wilkes family in Castleford

I have previously researched the history of my Wilkes ancestors back to around 1800 in West Bromwich. I have yet to fill in some gaps in what happened to my more recent Wilkes ancestry - in the pedigree shown I've added in the extra information I've acquired recently in red.

According to the 1901 & 1911 census, John Thomas Wilkes and his wife Eliza Beatrice Wilkes had three children (John Thomas, Pollie and Elsie) in West Bromwich before moving to 5 Grafton Street, Glasshoughton (Castleford) between 1907 and 1911. They had a second son, Albert, in 1912 born in Castleford although I have yet to get the birth certificate. Albert was the only son to survive infancy.

It appears that John Thomas Wilkes died aged 39 in Castleford in late 1916 as I have found a death record for this event though I have yet to get the certificate. Eliza Beatrice Wilkes remarried a John White in early 1919 - I knew she remarried a White as my grandfather remembers Eliza Beatrice as being called 'Granny White'. I don't know yet what happened to Eliza Beatrice and John White after this time.

Of the three surviving children, Elsie Wilkes who is my great-grandmother married David Hughes and moved to York. I do not know very much about Albert Wilkes and his family though there is a family story that while he was young Albert saved some boys from drowning in a lake or brick pond. It will be interesting to search local newspapers to see what happened. I'd also like to find out more about Albert Wilkes' life.

I know more about Pollie Wilkes as I have a copy of both her birth and marriage certificates. The birth certificate (born 4th May 1902, West Brom) is not one that contains any family information, so I think it was not the official birth cerificate but simply a register of a birth certificate entry (it is a copy obtained in 1971 for what reason I don't know).

The marriage certificate is interesting and shows that she married a William Haigh, a miner, son of Amos Haigh, a miner, on the 26th March 1921. The witnesses are Harry Haigh and Lena Crosswaite. The Haighs live at 25 Temple Street Castleford and Polly Wilkes at 65 Grafton Street - presumably with her mother Eliza Beatrice and step-father John White.

John Thomas Wilkes in 1911

My great-grandmother was Elsie Wilkes (b1908), the daughter of John Thomas Wilkes (b1878) and Eliza Beatrice Evans (b1881). The Wilkes and Evans families were living in West Bromwich for the second half of the nineteenth century, and I have previously traced the Wilkes line back to the beginning of that century in that area (click on the Wilkes tab for more information). I knew that there were also two older children - John Thomas b1900 who died in infancy, and Polly (b1902). I also believe there to be a youngest son called Albert who I had thought to be born pre 1911. I also knew that the family moved at some point between 1902 and 1911 to Castleford, but I was not sure when.

In the 1911 census, I find John Thomas and Eliza Wilkes living at 5 Grafton Street, Glasshoughton, in a house with 4 rooms. It is a traditional terraced house that the majority of coal miners would have lived in - John Thomas is working as a coal hewer. They have been married for 11 years, which tallies with the marriage certificate that I already have - they also have had 3 children with only 2 surviving. Both Polly and Elsie are listed as having been born in West Bromwich, meaning that the Wilkes family must have moved to Castleford after 1908. This also means that Albert Wilkes must have been born after 1911 and in the Castleford area - there is a reference to an Albert Wilkes being born in the June Qtr of 1912 in the Pontefract district (which includes Castleford) so it is likely that he was born then. I shall also do a post sometime soon about Albert Wilkes's namesake and John Thomas' elder brother Albert Wilkes , a footballer who played for Aston Villa and England.

John William Hughes in 1911

John William Hughes

From the 1901 census I found out that my great-grandmother's father was called John William Hughes and that she (Catherine Annie Hughes b1897) had two brothers Mathew (b1895) and Zachariah (b1900). He was born in 1872, but he did not know where as the census stated NK - not known. He was married to Margaret Annie Carr (b1871), the daughter of Mathew Carr and Ann Padley. I found out this information after consulting Catherine Annie's birth certificate and the marriage certificate of John William Hughes and Margaret Annie in May 1893.

Also from the marriage certificate I know that John William's father was Zachariah Hughes - I have previously traced the family of who I believe to be the correct Zachariah Hughes here, however, I need to find a birth record that associates John William with Zachariah.

In the 1911 census, I find John William Hughes living at Landsale Cottages (or Landsdale Cottages), Greenside, Ryton-upon-Tyne. The house had 2 rooms and he is still a coal miner/hewer. He is living with a new wife called Elizabeth Hughes (b1881, Dunston), to whom he has been married for 8 years meaning that he married her in 1903. Elizabeth Hughes has had four children, one of whom has died. The three surviving children are Elizabeth (b1902), Winnie (b1904), and John William (b1910). The first two children were born in Dunston and then John William was born in Greenside, Ryton. Therefore, as Zachariah was born to Margaret Ann Carr in 1900, she must have died between 1900-1902. Interestingly, two of John William Hughes' children with his previous wife - Mathew Hughes and Zachariah Hughes - are also living there but Catherine Annie is not.

I found Catherine Annie Hughes living in the same town, Ryton-upon-Tyne at 1 Holborn House in a house that has 4 rooms. She is living with her mother's parents Matthew and Ann Carr and three of her uncles - Matthew, Joseph and John Carr. Strangely, she is described as being a servant rather than a grand-daughter. All of the Carr men are coal hewers. The other interesting information from this census is that Ann Carr (nee Padley) has had 11 children and four have died. Other than Catherine Annie's mother Margaret Annie, I knew that Ann had had 8 other children, so that means that there are 2 further children who likely died in infancy that I do not yet know the names of.

The most useful piece of information here is that I have found out that John William Hughes was born in Consett, Durham in 1872/3.

Morris Hughes in 1911

Morris Hughes was my 3xgreat grandfather born in 1856 in Bilston, Staffordshire. Here he is pictured with his wife Mary Gray who was born in Cawood near York in 1862. They were married in Normanton, Yorkshire in October 1881. They had 10 children - David, Jane, Mary Ellen, Charles, Morris, Harriett, Elizabeth, Laura, another Morris and Evelyn.

I looked up the recently released 1911 census. In it I find Morris and Mary Ellen Gray living at 16 Regent St, Castleford in a house with 4 rooms. Their unmarried daughters Mary Ellen (34), Elizabeth (25), Laura (12), Evelyn (7) and son Morris (10) are living with them. They have been married 31 years, and Morris is still working as a coal hewer underground.

I still cannot find a record of a death certificate for Morris, and haven't searched the church records. It will be interesting to find out how and when he died.