New Member - Black Country Ancestors

[Limbrix]

Hello - I've been working on my family tree for over 10 years now on and off. I've recently been following a line which is Black Country / Staffordshire based and for me it's really interesting as it's quite exotic compared to the rest of my tree. I'm from coal mining stock so most of my ancestors are from the South Yorkshire/Derbyshire area but it seems a lot of Black Country miners moved up to the area as new pits opened.

The family I'm obsessed with currently are the Whitakers who lived on Dudley Port. George Herbert Whitaker was an Assistant Surgeon (i.e. the person who held the patient down while they chopped bits off). He fathered children with his maid Elizabeth Lydia Howkins but he didn't marry her until she started giving birth to boys. At this point she changed her name to Lydia Elizabeth Whitaker. He died of stroke at 43. I think in the next few years she married a man called John Price and had 2 daughters with him at Kates Hill but I can't find any documentary evidence of this. In 1877 she was admitted to Burntwood Asylum with epilepsy (I suspect actually trigeminal neuralgia) and died in 1881 aged 39. Her daughter Harriet Whitaker moved to Eckington with John Price when he started work at the new pit there and that's where she met my great Grandad, Thomas Hudson.

I'm also interested in Sarah Barnett - she was the informant on George Whitaker's death certificate and I've found evidence of her on others. I suspect she was the local 'woman who does' - sitting with the dying and laying out etc (a Terry Pratchett witch). I've come on here to ask if people can check their Tipton death certificates to see if Sarah Barnett was the informant.

Any advice gratefully received - this is my first foray into forums so I'm hoping to find it a fruitful experience.

[grangers14]

Hello Limbrix,

I hope you enjoy the forum and our company

[peterd]

HI Limbrix, welcome to the forum

[Northern Lass]

Welcome

[SRD]

Welcome to the forum.

[Limbrix]

Thanks everyone.