I chose William TRALE because his family name was new to me, and there is minimal information about his parents in Filey Genealogy & Connections. Initial searches on Free BMD and the GRO Index made me think of Spike Milligna, the well-known typing error.

More searching raised a few individuals bearing the name but they were distant in time and place to the young man I was looking for. So, with Spike in mind, I went to THE source – the St Oswald’s baptism register.

Catherine is the tell-tale. Looking in my Filey census spreadsheet picks up the family in no time, at 22 The Crescent in 1861. That Josiah is a lodging house keeper and not an upholsterer is a caution. And although he is a father of four, none are called William. I fear the boy has died already…

I now had enough information to find the family on the Shared Tree. Josiah has five “possible duplicate” IDs. I have linked to the one that shows him with the two Catherines – wife and daughter. And just to confirm that I am on the right trail…

(The mother’s maiden surname for firstborn Clara is “Leggott” in the GRO Index.)

Sarah Ann is one of three SHIPPEY children who lost their father to the Great Gale of October 1880. (John William is “Shippy” on the Fishermen’s Window in St Oswald’s Church.) Her mother would live to see all three married and to welcome at least seven grandchildren into the world. Sarah Ann had three of those children with Isaiah CRAWFORD but she has yet to marry on the Shared Tree. Her man is out there, a fisherman waiting to be caught [GS1G-N4P].

Today’s wedding anniversary celebrants may have travelled a great distance to make their vows at Filey St Oswald’s, only to disappear on their honeymoon, and never return to the town. But the groom having Mendelssohn as a middle name begged my attention. To begin, I knew little more than Joseph’s birthplace and occupation – Roehampton and merchant – and understood the bride to be a Skinner, by family name, not occupation. All praise to the Shared Tree for providing an extensive, illustrated pedigree. Joseph’s connection to the composer isn’t immediately clear but it is worth the time it takes to figure out.

Samuel TOWSE may have spent all of his fifty-six years in a small patch of Yorkshire around Garton on the Wolds. His namesake great-grandson (death anniversary 4 January) would become Filey’s postmaster.

Walter BUNTING is a singleton without a past  – except for the FG&C note that his ashes are at The Lawns (Filey Cemetery). I went there this morning to see if he had a stone but didn’t find one.    

Path 177 · Cleveland Way