#SurnameSaturday: Linford

This week I am looking at my mother's side of the family and the Linford surname. At one point we thought the name was dying out in our branch of the family so I double barrelled my maiden name to include it and then gave my children it as and extra middle name. This century there have been 3 Linford boys born to the family so hopefully it will continue for some time yet.

The name means dweller at the lime tree ford and there at least five parts of the UK it could have come from. This means we could have originated from Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire or Leicestershire. As yet we haven't traced back far enough to find out which.

My grandfather Vivian Haldane Bruce Linford was born in Kilmalcolm, Renfrewshire in 1900. He was the youngest of 5 children born to Albert Wallace and Annie Mary Harrison Nash. My family seem to have the habit of using surnames as middle names and the Scottish tradition of using other family members names as well.

Tragically the eldest daughter Violet died as an infant. The others went on to either marriage and family or in the case of my great aunt Madeline a groundbreaking career as a journalist and first editor of the Guardian's women's page. There are some interesting articles on her here and on my cousin Paul Linford's blog. She also published a few novels and a biography of Mary Wollstonecraft.

Albert was a travelling salesman for a brewery and he had moved from Southampton to Scotland and then down to Manchester as he was posted to different regions. The family were very well off until he was admitted to an asylum around 1910. The former family home in Manchester is now a seminary for Catholic priests and was a substantial family home. Unfortunately medical fees used up most of his estate and my grandfather was unable to follow his siblings to university.

Albert was the only son of Henry Albert and Elizabeth Martha Forbes. He was born in Lewisham, Kent and lived in Middlesex and then at the Southwestern Hotel in Southampton which his father was the proprietor of. Albert had 7 sisters:

I haven't established how Henry went from being a clerk to running a hotel but it seems a strange career move! The hotel was built at the railway terminus from London and it was used to accommodate passengers before they embarked on a liner from the port (later on many first class passengers from the Titanic spent their last night in England at the hotel). Henry was a prominent local citizen and even spent time as mayor. Tragically he was only 56 when he died leaving his wife with children still of school age to raise alone.

He was one of 5 children born to John Thomas and Sarah Hamley Weeks in Canterbury, Kent:

John Thomas was a chemist and druggist in the city and at one point owned a shop in Burgate. His father-in-law William Weeks had been in the same business and for some years they were in business together. Things weren't always a smooth ride as John appears in bankruptcy records a couple of times. Like his son Henry he held public office and was a mayor of Canterbury in 1823.

John had been born in Vauxhall, Surrey (now London) to Samuel and Mary Butcher. Samuel was a butcher in Vauxhall and he also owned quite a few properties and had a complex will in 1832. Nothing much is known about his parents Joseph and Elizabeth Kitchinman other than their marriage in 1750 which produced three children.

Posted with Blogsy

Family History: 1911 Census

I discovered that Ancestry were offering free access to the 1911 census last night so I thought it was time to double check I had all my ancestors that were alive at this point in time: 


Newly weds Oswald Guy (a wine merchant's clerk) and Marjorie Amy Bedell in St Albans my great grandparents from my mum's mother. The only one of their parents still alive was Emily Jane Bedell who was lodging in Stevenage with her daughter Margaret Isobel (a pharmacist).

Grandpa Vivian Haldane Bruce Linford was at boarding school at Alywin College, Arnside. This is not far from us here so my mum is going to try and find it. His mum Annie Mary Harrison Linford with 2 of her children (Elsie Dorothy (a music teacher) and Arthur Forbes (an insurance clerk)) plus nephew Stanley Haldane Linford Greaves (a chartered accountant) in Didsbury, Manchester. They had a live in servant called Edit (sp) Norman. There was also a lodger Charles J Weber (insurance clerk). My great grandmother has both married and widowed on her entry. This is because her husband Albert Wallace (a former wine merchant) was a patient in an asylum. There he is listed with his initials and the final column says he became a lunatic aged 47 (this was due to him contracting syphilis).

My great grandparents Owen Evan and Hannah Honorah Audrey Jones were residing in Ormskirk. He was a Certified Elementary Teacher and a colleague John Lund was lodging with them.

Great, great granny Jane Kellet was running the Station Inn in Skelmersdale with my great granny Lillie Agnes and two more daughters Fanny (a school teacher) and Bertha still living with her. Great grandpa Charles Band (who married Lillie in 1915) was a teacher in Bickerstaffe. His mother Sarah was living in Glossop and had 3 grandsons in the house Charles Kemble, Frank and Cecil Elliott.

Then I struck gold with my 2x great grandparents Edward and Martha Spencer. His birthplace was recorded as Beggars Bush Barracks, Dublin!!! So off I went to Google to find out more! I came across the marriage of his parents Edward and Catherine Dunne in 1848 which is the record in this image. It gave me the names of the fathers too so I have now added Timothy Dunne to my tree as a new 4x great grandfather. As for 3x grandpa Edward I now need to find out more about his career in the 55th (Westmorland) regiment. What was a Yorkshireman doing serving with them?