Tag Archives: poulson

Family history, Poulson, Shepherd

John Walden’s unraveling starts with a boat trip

Thomas standing in for John Walden Poulson
Thomas standing in for John Walden Poulson

Somewhere in the early 1900s, Upstanding Edwin’s oldest son – John Walden Poulson, the Wastrel – transitioned from promising oldest son of a local family to an intractable problem that defied family attempts to help him.

John Walden was captain of the Knottingley cricket team – younger brother Thomas played too. When Thomas married Lily Taylor in September 1901, the newspaper write up talked of the crowds outside the Wesleyan chapel. John Walden was there with his new wife Emily, and daughters Emily, 11, and Nellie, 10, were bridesmaids. But by the time his youngest brother Charles married in 1909, John Walden had vanished, although Doris (Aunty Goggie), 13,  was a bridesmaid and Ernest (I think Gamps, who was John Ernest Llewellyn), 12,  was a page. Something had changed… Continue reading John Walden’s unraveling starts with a boat trip →

Family history, Poulson

Thomas Llewellyn Poulson marries

Thomas with the cricket team
Thomas with the cricket team

On September 9, 1901, John Walden Poulson – The Wastrel – attended the wedding of his younger brother (and fellow cricket player) Thomas. There were apparently large crowds – for a small town – outside the Weslyan Methodist Church in Knottingley to wish the young couple well and watch local sort-of celebrities!

Two of my great aunts – Emily and Nellie – were bridesmaids and Mary Ellen, the three Poulson boys older sister, made the trip from Portsmouth. This was possibly the last family event where Edwin and all of his children were there. Both weddings took place at the local Wesleyan Chapel – the picture is at the head of the post. Continue reading Thomas Llewellyn Poulson marries →

Family history, Politics, Poulson, Shepherd

Edwin & John Walden – “…determined to carry the election at any cost”

Knottingley, Yorkshire
Knottingley, Yorkshire

John Walden Poulson – the Wastrel – was growing up. At the very end of 1889 the 19-year-old became a married man, and in May 1890 a father. By the 1891 census he was Pottery Manager, versus just  clerk on Emily Muriel’s birth certificate in 1890. In the Summer of 1891 his second daughter, Nellie Gwendoline was born and he was living next door to his father Edwin on Marsh End in Knottingley.

Over the next 5 years,  business and political affairs appeared to be progressing for John Walden. In December 1892 he was elected to the Ferry Fryston (Ferrybridge) school board and was involved in Liberal politics in the Pontefract district – following his father Edwin Llewellyn Poulson.

In February 1893, Pontefract (the district in which Knottingley and Ferrybridge was situated) had a by-election for Member of Parliament – the current MP resigned when his father died, making him Lord St Oswald… Continue reading Edwin & John Walden – “…determined to carry the election at any cost” →

Family history, Poulson

Aunty Suzanne from Leeds

Ethel Suzanne as a young woman
Ethel Suzanne as a young woman

I don’t remember meeting Aunty Suzanne, but I do remember getting birthday presents of pretty – fancy – dresses from her, the sorts of clothes I didn’t normally have. Ethel Suzanne Poulson was actually a great aunt, the youngest of my grandfather’s (Gamps) five sisters.

I haven’t yet done a blog post on wife v2.0 for John Walden Poulson – the Wastrel – but Ethel Suzanne was born March 9, 1905, in Knottingley, Yorkshire, and her Mum was Emily, the Wastrel’s second wife. Just after her fifth birthday, her Dad took off for Canada and she spent a large chunk of her childhood with her maternal grandfather, John Henry Shepherd in Ferrybridge – he had variously been an inn keeper, horse dealer and farmer over the years. Continue reading Aunty Suzanne from Leeds →

Family history, Poulson

Aunts and grandparents to the rescue

Gamps, Edwin, Goggie & Millicent May
Gamps, Edwin, Goggie & Millicent May

My grandfather was very much of his generation – fought in WWI, wore a jacket and tie on country walks with his dog, said things like “if a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well” and tried to part my hair on the right (it parts on the left) because he had the idea that boys’ hair parts on the left and girls’ on the right – like shirt buttons, but not exactly! Politically he was pretty conservative – used to rail against trade unions until I told him I was joining the National Union of Students (it was mandatory at the time) when I went to university. “I’m sure you’ll straighten them out, darling” was how he reconciled that clash. Continue reading Aunts and grandparents to the rescue →

Family history, Poulson, Theatre

Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition?

Young John David William Poulson

Growing up, I thought Poulson was an unusual name – not many around us in Bromley. It was often misspelled (so you learn “P as in Peter, o-u-l-s-o-n”) or mispronounced – we said it POLE-SUN not POOL-SUN. Poulson is not only fairly common, depending on the location, but some of the people who shared the last name – and in the case of my father, grandfather and his cousin, first and last name – got themselves into trouble with the law and generated all sorts of unsavory press coverage! Continue reading Two John Poulsons, one expensive haircut; family tradition? →

Family history, Overview, Poulson

Family stories: Tales of a wastrel, immigrants, personation, mottying and so much more!

In 2007 I spent some time with Ancestry and the census records for family on both sides of the pond. There were all sorts of interesting bits and pieces I was able to unearth about Sznarwakowski, Tibstra, Poulson, Jenkins, Forster, Williams, Shepherd and other parts of our family trees. Given the time limits on release of some data – such as census records, which are held for 100 years in the UK and 72 in the US – I soon ran out of available online information and moved on. Continue reading Family stories: Tales of a wastrel, immigrants, personation, mottying and so much more! →