The visit to Islington Cemetery was not as productive as I hoped. It was to be honest a failure. The cemetery is huge, 190 acres, but armed with a list of actual grave numbers I felt confident that I would find some of the graves I was seeking. Sadly, it wasn't to be. My friend and I found the designated areas but other than the edges they were quite impenetrable woodland, deep in weeds and not at all maintained. I did, of course, pay my respects at the War Memorial where my grandfather, Herbert Bayliss, is commemorated. I then totally failed to find the grave of my mother's husband, whose name I bear, despite having always been able to walk straight to it on previous visits. One does get used to dead ends when doing any kind of genealogical research so I wasn't too downhearted about the day and I had enjoyed the bus trip across London which had taken me past so many places that have played a part in our family story. But there was one event that cheered me. While on our way out of the cemetery my friend and I were strolling along reading out loud any interesting inscriptions on the graves at the side of the paths. My friend found one bearing the name Huggins.Knowing that my great Aunt Daisy was married to a man named Huggins who had died during World War One in France, It was a child's grave and it gave not only the parents' initials but the street where they lived, Sparsholt Road, Islington, which was within the area of my interest. I photographed the grave.
When I got home I checked the details against our family tree without any result and then checked the tree of another researcher named Ray Beckman who is particularly interested in the Huggins family. Bingo! He had both the parents on his tree although no record of the child. So something good came out of the day; for me it was only the grave of a very distant relative by marriage but for a fellow researcher it was a real find.
I've since discovered some more recent 1920's and 30's burials at the cementery so I will possibly make the trip there again...on a cool day, with a machete and thick boots!
Until very recently I believed that Islington Cementery was at The Angel. I have never been there although I lived not far from it. I spent a lot of time in Highgate cemetery as I went to Brookfield School right opposite the gates. Sad you didn't find what you were looking for but I guess it must have been a good feeling that you were so near to all of those long lost family members.
ReplyDeleteNo room for a cemetery at The Angel. I believe a lot of the graves from St.Mary's church in Upper Street have been reinterred at Finchley.
ReplyDeleteHighgate Cemetery is run commercially now and I have mixed feelings about that but at least it is being cared for a preserved. We've got a few Bayliss relatives buried there. It was one of the playgrounds of my childhood.
I have Bayliss family in Islington cemetary at Finchley. Some of those could have been reinterred as members were also buried at St Mary's. My father Ernest Bayliss (known as Bill) was instrumental in the opening of the "overflow" cemetary at Trent Park.
ReplyDeleteHi sparlaine, I actually knew your father and met him regularly through his connection with St.Mary's in Upper Street when I used to attend their midweek services. We concluded that we were not related - members of two different Bayliss families. One of my friends was taught by you dad at school. I used to work at the Post Office opposite St.Mary's until 2002. Hope you enjoy the blog even if we're not related - although in this game anything could turn up.
ReplyDeleteHI
ReplyDeleteI was interested to learn that you knew my father.
My great great grandfather was born in Gloucester but we don't know why because his father and subsequently his son were both born in Islington.
Maybe they had relatives there.
I have been following
your Upper Holloway link too as I was born in Thorpedale road just off the Hornsey road and as a child I used to cut through Marlborough road to go to the Holloway road so I knew the area very well. My father lived in Ockenden road off the Essex road until his death in 2007.
Sparlaine
Thanks Joy, I visited your dad at Ockenden Road and he told me your family came from Northampton and were cattle drovers! There was a big need for labourers and artisans in London due to the expansion of the railways and the slum clearances so lots or rural people migrated to London for regular work. Glad you are enjoying the blog.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting Ernest. Did my father say when we came from Northampton to Islington?
ReplyDeleteThat is the first we knew about it and there are no records to show this?
I believe it was the mid-1850s. Of course, he may have been wrong if the records show something very different. I've had to explode several family "myths" which were taken as gospel by older generations.
ReplyDelete