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My late wife was previously married to Grenfell R (Roy?) Williamson (born 10th October 1902, if I have found the right one!). The Williamson family bible which she had among her possessions has recorded in it the births, marriages and deaths of members of the family, starting with Richard Robert Williamson, who was born in the Charente on 30th September 1840, and his wife, Mary Anne Rawsthorne, who wa born in Clitheroe on 12th December 1839.

The Williamson given names recorded are Elkizabeth Jane, Richard Pierre, John Rawsthorne, Robert Grenfell, Thomas Hyde, James Allen, Mary Florence, Frederick Dean and Marion Dean. If anyone can help me to identify living members of this family please respond to this post!

Check in search trees for links on GR

In the absence of date info for the various named people, this is speculation


Birth
Name: John Rawsthorne Williamson
Year of Registration: 1869
Quarter of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec
District: West Derby
County: Lancashire
Volume: 8b
Page: 356

Marriage
Name: John Rawsthorne Williamson
Year of Registration: 1906
Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun
District: Birkenhead (1861-1998)
County: Cheshire, Merseyside
Volume: 8a
Page: 1041
Maria Ann Heath or
Marion Renney Richardson

You can check 1911 census (free to search) to see which one he married

it was marion (from Cheshire bmd)

Cheshire Marriage indexes for the years: 1906
WILLIAMSON John Rawsthorne
RICHARDSON Marion Renney
Rock Ferry, St Peter

Here are all the entries from the bible with dates:-
Surname Given names Date Event Place
Williamson Richard Robert 30/9/1840 Birth Charente
RawsthorneMary Anne 12/12/1839 Birth Clitheroe
Williamson/Rawsthorne Richard Robert/Mary Anne 31/1/1865 Marriage Clitheroe
Williamson Elizabeth Jane 5/2/1866 Birth Clitheroe
Williamson Richard Pierre 6/9/1867 Birth Liverpool
Williamson John Rawsthorne 21/10/1869 Birth Liverpool
Williamson Robert Grenfell 4/11/1871 Birth Liverpool
Williamson Thomas Hyde 21/5/1873 Birth Liverpool
Williamson James Allen 15/9/1878 Birth Liverpool
Williamson Mary Florence 30/4/1880 Birth Liverpool
Williamson Mary Anne 26/3/1883 Death
Williamson Frederick Dean 17/4/1888 Birth Crosby
Williamson Marion Dean 25/4/1892 Birth Crosby
Thomson/Williamson Walter/Elizabeth Jane 29/4/1894 Marriage
Williamson/? Richard Pierre/Jessie 3/7/1899 Marriage
Williamson/? Robert Grenfell/Minnie 20/8/1901 Marriage
Williamson Richard Robert 11/3/1904 Death
Williamson/? Thomas Hyde/Gertrude 28/11/1904 Marriage
Williamson/? James Allen/Mabel Louise 6/5/1905 Marriage
Williamson/? John Rawsthorne/Marion Renny 28/4/1906 Marriage

I hope you can make sense of this - I copied it from a table. I will follow up on the suggestion to look at the 1911 census

You should be able to cross-refer everything on freebmd...............then look for offspring of the various marriages on the same site

http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/

This is him on 1911:

WILLIAMSON, Minnie Wife Married
9 years F 33 1878 Private Means Lancashire Chorley VIEW
WILLIAMSON, Grenfell Roy Son M 8 1903 Lancashire Birkdale VIEW
WRIGLEY, Harriet Mother-In-Law Widow F 54 1857 Lancashire Charnock Richard VIEW
WRIGLEY, Herbert Brother-In-Law Single M 30 1881 General Hardware Cureness Lancashire Chorley VIEW
ELLIOTT, Nellie Domestic Help Single F 26 1885 Lancashire Leyland VIEW

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RG number:
RG14 Piece:
22862 Reference:
RG14PN22862 RG78PN1339 RD457 SD5 ED22 SN64

Registration District:
Ormskirk Sub District:
Formby EnumerationDistrict:
22 Parish:
Southport

Address:
114 Liverpool Road Birkdale Southport County:
Lancashire

Forgive me but you say your late wife's first husband was born in b1902

Was she a great deal older than you ??

Dea x?

Forgive me yet again but was your 'late wife' REALLY born 108 years ago ???

I am NOT meaning to be ageist here but can't 'get my head around this!'

Dea x

Have I got lost somewhere???
Dea x

Marriages...................

Grenfell R Williamson Fowler Jan-Feb-Mar 1926 Ormskirk Lancashire

Grenfell R Williamson Bundey Or Scaife Jul-Aug-Sep 1947 Liverpool Lancashire

Grenfell R Williamson Stewart Jul-Aug-Sep 1963 Liverpool Lancashire

Death.........................

Name: Grenfell Roy Williamson
Birth Date: 10 Oct 1902
Death Registration Month/Year: 1975
Registration district: Wallasey
Inferred County: Merseyside
Volume: 37
Page: 1160

She could have been the man's second or third wife - and much younger than him..................

Those three marriages I would take to be all for one person................nobody else on Ancestry with the name.

One birth - one death - 3 marriages

Fran,

Forgive me but she would have been over 100 - HE would have to be the younger one??

We need some feedback here please!

Dea x

I'm sorry, Dea, but I don't follow your reasoning - perhaps you could clarify for me

As far as I can see Grenfell had three wives - one of whom at some stage married Murray.

So, whether she was his ex-wife - or his widow, there is nothing in Murray's posting to suggest that she was Grenfell's FIRST wife..............

Perhaps I have it wrong - I will look again in the morning!!

Dea Xxx

Dea

Sorry for butting in

The first marriage to Grenfell R (Roy?) Williamson b1902....he could have been 50 or so and married the much younger 'late wife'

Does that make sense?

x

Yes Ginny,

It would make sense if Murray would come back and confirm that his 'late wife' was SO much younger than her first husband !!

Dea x

My late wife was born in 1917. The birth date of 1902 was that of Grenfell Roy Williamson - so, Dea, he was considerably older than her!

I am still hoping for pointers to finding living descendants, so I will check the helpful posts tomorrow.

Good morning Murray,

I am now 'awake' and can see that your dates do in fact make sense (for some reason I just could not see it yesterday!).

Anyway, as well as the 1911 Census and FreeBMD, you may find these sites also very useful for that area.

Parish Records for Lancashire:
http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Search/indexp.html

Births, deaths + Marriages for Lancashire:
http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/index.html

These 'local' sites often give more info e.g. mothers maiden name for births and wife's previous married name as well as maiden name if she has been previously married.

If it is 'living' relatives you want to find, I should start with the most recent marriages and look for children and 'their' marriages, then check the trees on here.

Ancestry site is good too if you want to search for children - do you have access? - If not, just ask on here.

Dea x

Dea, I am most grateful for the pointers to Lancashire websites. I have one question that you may find extraordinary - where do I go for free access to the 1911 census?!?

I am an Ancestry 'member', and made that my first port of call.

Murray

Murray I have pm'd you re the 1911 census.

Chris x

Hi Murray,

The site I used to use to do free searches for 1911 was:

http://www.1911census.co.uk/

I assume this link still works but if not let me know.

Just ask if you need anything more.

Dea x