Hello, Everyone! What a wonderful idea-- I'm so much enjoying the Christmas Dinner Guest emails! My own choice would be my great-great-uncle John Walker, my great-grandfather's younger brother. Thanks to a kind librarian the the Bradford Local Studies Library, I was able to track down a long lost 1905 newspaper article he had written, a memoir of his childhood friendship with Richard Oastler "The Factory King," when his father and Oastler were working together to pass the Ten Hour Bill on behalf of children working in the worsted mills in the 19th century. In the memoir, John Walker tells a wonderful ghost story-- and I'd love to hear him tell it again at our Christmas dinner! He says that when as a teenager he told Richard Oastler that he didn't believe in an afterlife, Oastler promised to prove it to him by appearing to him after his death. Sure enough, on the morning of Oastler's death, and before John had heard about it, his figure appeared to John in his bedroom in the early morning hours. He says in the story that his father was too grief-stricken to hear the story, and he never knew whether his father believed it-- but that he always knew his mother believed him. In his memoir, John Walker sounds like such a warm and interesting person. I wish I could learn more about him, but so far that 1905 article is my only clue. Now, if he came to dinner he could tell the rest of his story! Best holiday wishes to all! Charlotte Walker in Gilbertsville, NY, USA -----Original Message----- From: eng-yks-bradford-bounces@rootsweb.com on behalf of eng-yks-bradford-request@rootsweb.com Sent: Thu 12/13/2007 3:04 AM To: eng-yks-bradford@rootsweb.com Subject: ENG-YKS-BRADFORD Digest, Vol 2, Issue 278 Today's Topics: 1. My Christmas Dinner Guest (ann.burns@rogers.com) 2. Re: My Christmas Dinner Guest (Richard Wild) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:21:20 -0800 (PST) From: ann.burns@rogers.com Subject: [YKS-BRADFORD] My Christmas Dinner Guest To: eng-yks-bradford@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <728764.67427.qm@web88106.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii My guest would be my great grandmother Frances. Family lore has it that she was not a sweet person, but rather demanding to put it nicely. Her life would make a good outline for a novel and I have lots of questions to ask her. She was born Frances Core in Bradford in 1860 - to Wm Core and Nanny/Ann Holdsworth Core. In 1878 she married James Sunderland at St. Wilfred's in Calverly. James died in the fall of 1888 leaving Frances with 5 surviving children, including one twin girl, the sister having died young. The following year Frances packed up the children and sailed for Canada, probably in the summer, seemingly to join her sister, Margaret Ann Core Pownall, in Ottawa. In September of 1889 in Ottawa, ON, she married one Harry Raistrick - also born in Bradford, about 1865. That's the first and last thing I could ever find out about Harry in Canada. I believe he was the last of his particular family line in Yorkshire. In January of 1890 Frances gave birth to a daughter Serena, known in the family as Irene. On Irene's birth certificate James Sunderland is listed as her father. That would be impossible, but there's nothing to indicate for sure that it was the mysterious Harry Raistrick either. A few years later Frances was with Alfred Burwell Crawford, still in Ottawa, where she gave birth in 1897 to another set of twins, George and Alfred. Baby Alfred died of bronchitis the following year. No registration of a marriage to Alfred Crawford Sr. has yet turned up. Neither has any trace been found of Mr. Raistrick - no death, no divorce, no emigration ... despite attempts using every possible spelling of his name in church and cemetery records, and on Ancestry. A recent visit with a descendant of her youngest son George, turned up the story that Frances left England pregnant with the child of an unknown father. Harry Raistrick was from Bradford and has emerged as the likely father but ... I'm still searching digital images of all ships from England to Canada in 1889 hoping to turn up both Frances and Harry on the same ship - which still doesn't prove anything. So, the mystery remains and will intrigue me, possibly forever, unless a brick falls out of this particular wall. Merry Christmas to all listers. Ann Burns Ottawa, ON Canada ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:12:12 +0000 From: Richard Wild <wild.family@talk21.com> Subject: Re: [YKS-BRADFORD] My Christmas Dinner Guest To: eng-yks-bradford@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <09c840331dfe2c41c84b057f7d392f3a@talk21.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed I would like to invite two guests to my Christmas dinner table but ask each one the same question:- 1) My great, great grandfather's brother who was blessed (?) with the name WONDERFUL Brook. 2) My great, great grandfather (another branch) who was baptised WRIGLEY Wrigley. And the question I'd like to ask them both is:- "What did your mates call you when you went down to the pub?" : - ) ------------------------------ To contact the ENG-YKS-BRADFORD list administrator, send an email to ENG-YKS-BRADFORD-admin@rootsweb.com. 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