My dad always thought he had no family. If the past 25 years of research have achieved anything, it's that I have proved him wrong! We may have no close relations alive today (apart from each other), but oh-my-goodness do we have plenty of 'family'!
My ancestors, the Walker family of Whaplode in Lincolnshire, have proved to be an elusive bunch. When my gran (a Walker born in Whaplode in 1911) died in 1986, we knew very little about her family other than the names of her mother and an aunt, and vague recollections of an invalid uncle and a grandfather with a housekeeper called Miss Annie.
Over the years I’ve pieced together the Walker family, bit by bit. Some of the first discoveries confirmed family rumours and fleshed out my gran's generation and the one above. We found out that Miss Annie came to work with my great, great grandfather Frank Thomas Walker when his wife died aged 32 leaving him with 7 children under 12 years of age (my gran’s mother Grace being one of them). And I unearthed details of how the invalid Uncle Royal had signed up to fight in WW1 in 1915 – but was discharged in 1916 for ‘made a misstatement as of age at enlistment’: he was still only 16, and weighed just 111 pounds at 5ft 4 inches tall.
In 2005 the excitement of discovery was tinged with sadness when I found that my great x 3 grandfather John Walker (1841-1937; father of Frank T Walker) spent part of his childhood in the Holbeach Union House (the workhouse) in Fleet. This led to a visit to the site with my dad to find that the imposed red brick building still stands and is now executive homes.
Now, I have discovered evidence that John Walker's siblings, previously untraceable, may have remained around the Holbeach area after their workhouse years and kept in strong contact with one another.
The first link was made when I found that John’s sister Matilda lived next door to the cottage in which my gran was born - a link across four generations. And now, in one day's research online, I have sketched out a much fuller family tree that suggests despite the horrors of the Union House, the Walker family stuck together over the decades, well into my own gran’s lifetime.
The Walker family story starts (I can't trace back further, yet!) with the 1831 marriage in Gedney, Lincolnshire of Joseph Walker and Mary Ann Wingell. They had nine children together to add to Mary's illegitimate son William Wingell, who was born about 1825. A very poor family, they received outdoor relief from Holbeach Union several times in the 1840s: when my own great x 3 grandfather John was born in 1841 the Union gave the family money as father Joseph had pleurisy (and was unable to work) and mother Mary was 'confined' after childbirth (and 'going on favourably'). On other occasions in 1841 Joseph was unable to work because one of his children had worms, another had a fractured arm and one had a remittent fever: on each occasion the Union stepped in.
The children were Sarah Ann (bp 1831 bur 1832); Mary Ann (bp 1833); Joseph (bp1835); Francis (bp1837); Lusher (bp & died 1839); Matilda (bp 1840); John (1841-1937); Thomas Wingell (bp1843); and Elizabeth Ann (bp1848).
Quite a brood for an agricultural labourer to clothe and feed, let alone educate and discipline. The loss of Sarah and Lusher must have been upsetting, but who knows how 19th century parents coped with the high child mortality rates: at least they had eight healthy (ish) children at home...
The 1841 census shows Joseph and Mary living in Gedney with William Wingell and their own Walker brood. My dad and visited Gedney on a blue-sky day and found a picturesque churchyard around a landmark tower. The picture was very different in 1851 and it has taken me years to trace them all.
Joseph Walker died from bronchitis on 21 December 1849 aged 46 years leaving his wife Mary with eight children.
In 1851 I find John Walker in Holbeach Union House with his 'imbecile' half-brother William; Matilda, Thomas and Elizabeth. Older brothers Joseph and Francis are still in Gedney, lodging with the Crowden family (perhaps their rent paid for by the Union?). Until today I had assumed that their mother had also died, leaving them all orphans and that is why they were in the Union House. But now I find a Mary A Walker, aged 50, widow and former lace maker, living in Gedney with an 18-year old of the same name, birthplace Gedney. No Mary Ann Walker was baptised in Gedney around 1833 other than the daughter of Joseph and Mary - my ancestors. So, it appears that poor Mary Walker was living out in the parish with her oldest daughter while her two elder sons were lodging elsewhere in the same village; and her four youngest children (the little one being just 3 years old) were with their adult, imbecile brother in the Union House.
John married Eliza Saunt in 1868 and I now we know that the witnesses - Richard Garner and Elizabeth Ann Walker - were his brother in law and sister in law. Richard Garner married Mary Ann Walker in October 1866, while Francis Walker married Elizabeth Ann Westmoreland two months later, both at All Saints in Holbeach. So, contact endured between John, Matilda, Mary Ann and Francis.
What of the others?
Poor William died in the Union House in 1881 and was buried at Gedney. Once we went in, he never came out.
The youngest, Elizabeth Ann, died in 1858 in her tenth year.
Mary Ann in later years lived with her brother Thomas in Holbeach and then in Whaplode. In 1891 Thomas and John had both given the address Roman Bank, Holbeach in the census - so they were neighbours. And of course, John's son was named after two of his brother: Francis and Thomas gave their names to Frank Thomas Walker (1869-1951).
In 1901 Matilda, Thomas and Mary Ann were all in Whaplode. John was in Pinchbeck and Frank in Holbeach; but Frank's brother Fred was in Whaplode...
That leaves Francis - who in 1866 was noted as a soldier when he married Elizabeth Ann Westmoreland. Nothing of either of them after 1868, as yet. And Joseph (bp1835)? He pops up in Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1870 when he married an Irish-born widow called Maria Barker and established a household with at least four of her Barker children (who were noted as Walker in the census). He was a gardener, but died in 1878. His widow was still in Loughborough in 1881 and two of her sons were noted in the census as Walker.
So for someone who thought they had no family, my gran was born into quite a clan in 1911 in Whaplode. She was raised by her grandfather Frank and his housekeeper 'Miss Annie' with her aunt Ada (just 9 years older) and other aunts and uncles including the small but feisty Royal. Next door was her great, great aunt Matilda. Half a mile away was Matilda's sister and brother Mary Ann and Thomas who died in 1919 and 1920 respectively. My gran’s grandfather, John Walker died in1937 and she visited weekly to pay a visit.
I wonder if any the old Walkers bounced my gran on their knee when she was a little girl. If so, I am only one person's touch away from a generation raised in almost unfathomable hardship that nevertheless survived - and seemingly thrived well into old age in the gusty Fens of Lincolnshire.
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