What Happened to Gladys?

 

Gladys PARROCK has been mentioned in this blog before.  Although she was my Great Aunt I never knew her – nor did I know that she existed.  Likewise,  her brother Alfred.  I was surprised that this ignorance is shared by my more mature siblings.

In the 1921 Census (see blog entry) she was living with her parents; Alfred and Minnie (Nee COWLAND), her sister Minnie and her brother, Alfred John, at 5 Hickling Road, Ilford.  She was the youngest in the family having been born in 1901.  She was a Book Keeper at James Copeland Marine Insurers.

Like her sister Minnie she was musical.  There are a couple of newspaper reports of her singing at local concerts with her sister and her Father.  These little performances were mostly ‘popular’ songs of the day.  One has a title that modern sensibilities prevents me from repeating!

She married William Harold WILLOUGHBY (B1897) on 29 October 1921 in Ilford (a couple of months after the census).  He was a bank clerk working for the Midland Bank.  A career he continued until his retirement. 

They had a least two children: Muriel Gladys was born in 1922 and her brother William Eric in 1925.  Both married and there is another generation or two of distant cousins to add to our tree.

In 1939 Gladys and her family were living in Hornchurch.

When Gladys’s husband William Harold died in 1979 they were living in the New Forest.

Gladys was the informant on the death registration of her sister Minnie (‘Great Aunt Min’) in 1984.  We don’t know if this is evidence that the sisters were in touch or how close they were.  Gladys was still living in Hampshire at the time.

The last we see of Gladys is her death in 1998 in Axminster Devon.   She was 97.    Her death was registered by her son Eric William who lived until he was 92, dying in 2017.  The PARROCKS are a family that have seen many of their number reach old age.

The mystery remains.  Why don’t the grandchildren of Nellie PARROCK know anything of her siblings with the exception of Great Aunt Min?  When Nellie PARROCK (later TRENDALL) died in the US in 1970 there was no mention of her sister Gladys and brother Alfred.  If there was any contact with Great Aunt Min I was not aware of it, but it is possible.  Was she still in touch with her brother and sisters? and if not why not?  Was there some great schism from which Great Aunt Min was exempt?  Or is this a case of families drifting apart.  Probably the latter, we will probably never know.

The Parrocks in 1921

 

The newly published 1921 Census shows us that the PARROCK family, that is the family of my paternal Grandmother, were living at their long term address at 5 Hickling Road Ilford. In the census this is described as a house of 5 rooms. 

Present on the night of the census were:

(1)    Alfred, aged 50, born in Stourbridge, Worcs, a Linotype Operator working for the Daily News in Fleet Street

(2)    Minnie, wife of Alfred, aged 49, born in Kempston, Beds.

(3)    Minnie, daughter of Alfred, aged 29, born in Plaistow, a Machinist working for a blouse manufacturer in Seven Kings.  This is the person I knew as ‘Great Aunt Min’

(4)    Alfred John, aged 26, son of Alfred, born in Plaistow, A GPO Clerk.

(5)    Gladys Anne, aged 20, daughter of Alfred, born in Forest Gate, a Book Keeper, Marine Insurance, working in Lloyds Avenue in the City.

 

Nellie PARROCK, who had become Nellie TRENDALL having married in 1913, was living in India with her husband and son (Frederick Alfred TRENDALL B1914).  She would give birth a few weeks later to her only daughter Irene Nellie.

 

First Gleanings From the 1921 Census

 

It’s Census day!  Not the day when the census is taken of course but the day that the 1921 Census has been released for us to view (at a price).

In my own family history there are many people who I want to pin down in 1921.  Most of these will have to wait, but there are a couple of early pieces of information which look interesting.

On 19^th June 1921 my Great Grandfather, Great Grandmother and Great Aunts were living at 86 Chesterford Road East Ham.  Thomas TRENDALL (B1855) was then aged 66.  He describes himself as a Corn Dealer’s Salesman.  For many years he had worked for Sanders Bros but on the night of the census he was ‘out of employment’.  His wife, my Great Grandmother, Agnes TRENDALL (SHARP B1856) is described as the ‘housekeeper’. 

The next entry is then mis transcribed, showing two Minnie TRENDALLs.  By looking at the original form we can see that Minnie TRENDALL (B 1893) (who emigrated to Australia a short time later) was a Milliner, working for herself at 670 Romford Road with her sister Beatrice TRENDALL (B) who was a dressmaker. Their sister Victoria TRENDALL (B1897) (transcribed as ‘Victor’) is shown as being out of work and having previously worked as a Draper’s Counter Assistant for M HISENTHALL at 395 Green Street, Upton Park. The last sister. Grace TRENDALL (B 1903) was also out of work and also a Draper’s Counter Assistant.  Her last employer was S DEAN of 783 Romford Road.  This address is next door to the shop formerly managed by her Father, Thomas TRENDALL.

Things were obviously difficult in for the family in 1921.

My Grandfather, Frederick TRENDALL (B1890) and his family – including my Father Frederick Alfred TRENDALL (B1914) - is not shown on the domestic census.  By this time he was serving as a sergeant in 3^rd Bn, King’s Royal Rifle Corp in Mhow, India.  The overseas census returns show him in Wellesley Barracks.  Only serving officers and other ranks are shown – not families.   The barracks forms what is now the site of the Indian Army’s War College.

I am sure there will be a lot more to report……………………..

A New Year: 2022

 Family Historians are easily excited.  At least that is the impression of those on the outside who consider the fascination shown by said family historians in the minutiae of the past as perplexing.  But actually this year, indeed this month, is likely to be really exciting. 

In two days time the 1921 Census (of England and Wales) will be released.  On 6th January we will be able to read what our (near) ancestors recorded a little over a century ago.  We will be able to see where they lived, who they lived with and what they did for a living.  Like the 1911 Census we will be able to actually see the documents they filled in.  In all the other censuses what has survived are the entries made by the enumerators.  

The 1921 Census was taken while the country was emerging from the shadow of the Great War and in the immediate aftermath of the 'flu pandemic that killed thousands (possibly as many as 200,000 in Great Britain).  It was a very different country to that examined in 1911.

In 1921 the population had grown to over 42,000,000.  The census itself was delayed because of the industrial unrest that dominated the spring of that year.  We will be looking at our ancestors as they were on the night of Sunday 19th June.

Census records are closed for a century.  The 1921 is the last release that most of us are likely to see.  The 1931 census (for England and Wales) was destroyed in a fire during the Second World War and no census was taken in 1941.  We will have to wait until 2052 before the next (English/Welsh) census will be available to view.

The 1921 census of Scotland will be published later in the year.

Hopefully everybody can appreciate the excitement?