My Ancestors

In a previous post https://myancestors.blog/2023/09/21/two-almost-orphaned-photographs/ I revealed a bit of a soft spot for old photographs.

In my ‘About this blog’ https://myancestors.blog/about-2/ I also spoke about why I think it’s important to remember the ancestors and use the records we have to reconnect some of the dots.

This wonderful photograph includes all the twenty-one descendants and in-laws of the elderly couple, seated in the middle, save for 3 individuals. And those very 3 individuals are those with whom I have the closest link.

Description of the photograph

The formal shirts and ties suggest a special occasion – or perhaps just best clothes for the photographer? The pictures on the wall aren’t surprising when we come to understand that the family were Catholic.

We could try to obtain clues as to the date. I’m not an expert on using clothes and hairstyles to date photographs, but there are many out there who have these skills. Nevertheless I still think I’d guess the clothing dated from between the two World Wars. If we had nothing else to go on, we might try to use the light fitting. A 1926 catalogue has similar examples https://archive.org/details/ResidentialLightingEquipment/

John SKEVINGTON (1857-1933) and Eliza COOPER (1858-1934)

The couple in the middle are John and Eliza SKEVINGTON, born and raised in Nottingham. Just prior to their marriage in 1882, the 1881 census reveals John to be a lace-maker and Eliza a cotton winder. Thirty years later the 1911 census shows the couple still living in Nottingham with John still working as a lace-maker. This same census also records that the couple had 7 children, all of whom were still alive in 1911.

Emigration to Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA

I don’t know the catalyst for the family’s move to America. It was almost certainly for economic opportunity, but whether they followed a friend or relative, and whether the initial plan was for them all to go I simply don’t know yet. Data from Statistica shows 5 main waves of migration from Great Britain to the United States between 1840 and 1940 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1044929/migration-great-britain-to-us-1820-1957/. The SKEVINGTON family migrated during the fourth of these, in the years immediately before the First World War.

John and Eliza’s second son William Henry SKEVINGTON was the first to sail to America, leaving in April 1909 as a 23 year-old, single, grocer. His younger brother Arthur, a labourer, emigrated in 1911, and then in 1912 John and Eliza joined their children; John travelling with the couple’s youngest son, Henry Walter (known as Harry), on the Lusitania; Eliza travelling with the couple’s two daughters Elizabeth and Mary Theresia.

In 1920 the census shows the SKEVINGTONs living in Fort Wayne, Indiana – about 150 miles east of Chicago. William has married Hilda DAVIES (whose family had emigrated from Great Britain in 1909) and is working at an electrical works (GEC). They have an eighteen-month-old son John. Next door Arthur is head of the household, working as an upholster at a furniture store. His parents, brother Harry and two sisters Elizabeth and Minnie complete the household. The three children are all working at the knitting mill (Wayne Knitting Mills – America’s largest producer of silk hosiery). This accounts for John and Eliza and 5 of their children. Where are the other two?

Brittain SKEVINGTON remained in Nottinghamshire. He’d married in 1910. By 1921 he is working as a grocer’s assistant 20 miles north of Nottingham and with his wife, Kate and two children Winifred Mary, aged 8 and John Arthur, aged 4 months. In October 1922 they left the UK to join their family in Fort Wayne. Brittain joined his brother at GEC.

John George SKEVINGTON – John and Eliza’s eldest child – never left England. He married in 1913 and worked his way up in the grocery trade so that by 1921 he was living in Sheffield working as a grocer’s manager for Lipton Limited. He married my great-aunt May BEVERS in 1913 and their son Harry SKEVINGTON, born in 1914, went on to marry my mum’s sister. In fact it was May BEVERS who then facilitated my Mum’s 1961 meeting with May’s nephew, the man who went on to become my father.

My relationship with the photograph and who’s in it

It was my American cousins who first shared this photograph with me sometime in the 1990s. Helpfully someone had typed up a key, naming all the people. From a family historian’s perspective these legends are both invaluable and also require caution. Who added the names and when? Mistakes might easily multiply. As years pass and one list is copied by many it is all too easy to come to believe it must be true.

I don’t know who compiled the list of names for the SKEVINGTONs. I do know it is over thirty years old. The original is neat and typed, suggesting a level of care and diligence… but mistakes are still possible. However, if we take the legend as being accurate, then we have:

Back row, left to right:

William Henry SKEVINGTON (Bill)	1885-1958	2nd child
Helen NOLL (wife of Harry)	1896-1952	note 1
Henry Walter SKEVINGTON (Harry)	1895-1981	6th child
Matilda NOLL (Tillie, wife of Arthur)	1892-1983	note 1
Arthur Cooper SKEVINGTON (Art)	1892-1968	5th child
Kate Evelyn HALL (wife of Brit)	1887-1956
Brittain Joseph SKEVINGTON (Brit)	1887-1962	3rd child
Winifred Mary SKEVINGTON	1912-1975	d. of Brit, note 2

Middle row, left to right:

Hilda DAVIS (wife of Bill)	1890-1962
John Arthur SKEVINGTON	1918-1989	s. of Bill
Patricia May SKEVINGTON	1930-1995	d. of Bill, note 3
Mary Theresa SKEVINGTON	1898-1959	7th child
Eliza SKEVINGTON	1858-1934
John SKEVINGTON	1857-1933	note 4
Elizabeth Frith SKEVINGTON (Betty)	1890-1958	4th child
John Arthur SKEVINGTON	1921-2009	s. of Brit

Front row, left to right:

Robert Ernest SKEVINGTON	1923-1997	s. of Bill
Thomas Henry SKEVINGTON	1925-1993	s. of Bill
Elizabeth Louise SKEVINGTON (Betty)	1926-2020	d. of Bill
James Joseph SKEVINGTON (Jim)	1925-2019	s. of Art
William Arthur SKEVINGTON (Bill)	1921-1945	s. of Art, note 5

Notes

1. Helen and Matilda NOLL were sisters
2. Winifred became a nun: Sister M LEONARD
3. Patricia May SKEVINGTON was born in July 1930
4. John SKEVINGTON died in March 1933
5. The inscription on William Arthur SKEVINGTON’s grave reads: In memory of our son killed in Belgium Jan. 8, 1945 during the Battle of the Bulge. 289th Infantry Regiment, 75th Infantry Division

Dating the photograph

What can we say about the date of the photograph? From note 4 we know it was taken before March 1933. Note 3 requires us to take a view on Patricia’s age in the photograph, which I would put at 1 year, plus or minus a few months. This dates the photograph to the middle of 1931.

A useful question to ask about any large family photograph like this is often, ‘Why was it taken?’ or, ‘What was the likely occasion?’ John and Eliza SKEVINGTON would have celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary on 24 December 1932, but the photograph must be before this. Looking through the birth dates of all the individuals listed there doesn’t appear to be any obvious anniversary. Even the two children born in 1921 were winter babies. Easter Day fell of 5 April 1931. John Arthur SKEVINGTON – the only child standing – turned thirteen on 11 July 1931, so perhaps his Confirmation? There is nothing conclusive here.

Tidying up a few loose ends

The 2 daughters, Elizabeth Frith and Mary Theresa never married. Henry SKEVINGTON and Helen NOLL had two children, but both were stillborn, one in 1926 and one in 1933. None of the other couples in the photograph had any more children after 1931.

And finally, although John and Eliza’s eldest son John George never left England, and died in 1945, his wife May and son Harry moved to Fort Wayne in the early 1950s. I have around thirty US cousins (direct, once and twice removed) descended from Harry’s marriage to my mum’s sister.

Bibliography

1. 1920 USA Census. Indiana, Fort Wayne, Allen. 1 April 1920. Roll: T625_422; Page: 14B; Enumeration District: 77
2. Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960. Available at http://www.findmypast.co.uk
3. United States, Passenger and Crew Lists. Available at http://www.findmypast.co.uk