From time to time I come across intriguing connections between people in my ancestral family tree. This was certainly the case with two of my 2^nd great uncles: John Charlton Haw (1876-1958) and Frederick Thomas Haw (1881-1858). Their parents, William Haw (1846-1907) and Ann Bean (1843-1911), my two times great grandparents, lived and worked in the York area of Yorkshire. William was a tailor who by the 1901 census was living with his family at 45 Marygate, York and working as a tailor on his own account.

John and Frederick were both living with their parents in 1901 with John described as a railway porter for the North Eastern Railway company and Frederick a labourer for them too. By the 1911 census Frederick had married Sarah Ethel Goodrick (born about 1881) and they had three children. His occupation was given as a municipal electric cable joiner. Sarah had been recorded as a servant to the Nutchey family in 1901; the head of the household was a railway clerk. By the 1939 register Frederick and Sarah were living at 23 Fifth Avenue, York and Frederick was an electrical engineer. He continued to live in York until his death in 1958 when his address was recorded as 23 Park Grove, York in St Thomas’ Church burial records. The church is located in nearby Lowther Street. I have found a possible death for Sarah in 1960.

Frederick’s brother John continued to work for the NER throughout his lifetime and in 1905 he joined the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants trade union which later became the National Union of Railwaymen. His occupation at that point was given as a shunter. In 1919 he married Maria Emily Goodrick (1880-1967) who was his brother Frederick’s wife Sarah’s younger sister. Before her marriage Maria had been a domestic servant for the Proctor family who ran a Chemical Fertiliser company and were Agricultural Merchants, living in Ashcroft, York. John and Emily continued to live in York and by 1939 were residing at 5 Neville Street with John giving his occupation as a railway foreman porter. Both John and Maria were still living there when John died. His burial record was found in St Thomas’s Church records.

Park Grove, York

In addition, one of John and Fredericks’ sisters, Sarah Ann Haw (1874-1944), married my great grandfather William Ellis (1873-1951), and they were living at 40 Ambrose Street, York in 1939.  William’s father Francis Ellis (1839-1925) was residing with his family in 40 Park Grove, York in 1901, not far from where Frederick died in 1958 at no 23 Park Grove. (The photo Park Grove was taken recently by me and is an example of what the houses in the street now look like.)

As a final thought, it is interesting that both brothers died in 1958 and their burials recorded in St Thomas’s Church, York. They seem to have lived within half a mile of each other throughout their later lives.