The one line that I would like to know more about than any other and it proves to be the most difficult !

Information on the Marshall family has been extremely hard to come by, but with perseverance I have managed to uncover a few more family members. When I first started looking at the Marshalls, all I knew was that my Dad’s father was called Harold and that maybe he had a brother and possibly two sisters, but no hard facts could back this up.

My Dad, Alan, was the first son for Harold and Annie Mary (nee Brooks), born in 1928 in Lincoln. Two years later they had a second son, Ivan also born in Lincoln. Little was known of Harold’s background, but a stroke of luck from Genes Reunited open up a few doors and I have since found evidence of his siblings.

According to the 1901 census and George’s marriage certificate, he was born around 1867 in Middleton, Lancs (this could be Lancashire or Lancaster) and his father was called John. So far I have been unable to track down George’s birth or indeed find him with any certainty on other census returns.

Probably the easiest way to show what is known of the Marshalls is by bullet points:

• 31st March 1901 – Census shows George Marshall & Susan Jessup living at 8 Commercial Road, Bedford.
• 6th May 1901 – George and Susan get married at Bedford Registry Office.
• 29th May 1901 – Florence Edith is born at 7 Holme Street, Bedford.
• 1st May 1903 – George Edwin is born at St.Mary’s Hospital, Manchester. George & Susan living at 17 Broughton Lane, Manchester.
• 15th July 1906 – Harold born in Lincoln.
• 6th Sept 1908 – Winifred Amelia born in Lincoln.
• 12th Sept 1913 – Grace Margaret born in Lincoln. George & Susan living at as 6 South Bar Court, St.Botolph, Lincoln.

At this point, the Marshall family appears to be quite settled in the Lincoln area, but events soon took a turn for the worse:

• 1st Oct 1915 – George Edwin (aged 12) is admitted to Lincoln Union Childrens’ Home in Scothern, reason unknown.
• 28th Oct 1915 – George Edwin dies at the Childrens’ Home in Scothern.
• 14th Feb 1916 – Grace Margaret dies in Sheffield Union Hospital of Broncho Pneumonia aged just 2. Susan was present at the death and registered it giving her address as 22 Matilda Lane, Sheffield.
• 17th Dec 1916 – Susan Marshall dies (aged 40) in Sheffield Union Hospital of Pulmonary Tuberculosis. Occupation on the death certificate shows ‘Laundress wife of George Marshall, a florist’.

From this point onwards, nothing more is known about George.

Harold Marshall and Annie Mary Brooks on their Wedding Day (11th July 1928)

Of the remaining children, Florence Edith, Harold and Winifred Amelia, Florence married Charles Thomas Peel in 1921 and had 7 children. She died aged 56 in Boston General Hospital. Winifred Amelia got married 3 times, first to Henry Johnson in 1926 in North Collingham, Notts, then to George Casey in 1940 in Newark, Notts and finally William James Bull in Hampstead Registry Office, London. She died in 1970 in Clare Hall Hospital, South Mimms aged 62.

Harold spent all of his adult life living at ‘Sunny Nook’ in Reephem with his wife and two children. He turned out to be a very keen gardner like his father and managed farmland of several acres behind his house.

My Dad grew up in the village of Reepham and went to De Aston Grammar School in Market Rasen. At the age of 18 he joined the Fleet Air Arm and served with them for 7 years before joining A.V.Roe at Bracebridge Heath in Lincoln as an electrician.