Can you help to solve this family mystery?
IWONDER if your readers could help me solve a family mystery? My maiden name was Shaw and I know my father’s family were all born and brought up in Yorkshire, but I had never been to Yorkshire until 2017, when I planned to visit my family graves at Salendine Nook Baptist
Church.
I had the grave numbers but despite that we could not find my grandparents Jabez Henry Shaw (1872-1944) and Mary Ann (nee Pickup) 1876-1916.
We did find my great grandfather, Robert Mac Shaw, who was Mayor of Huddersfield in 1900. He has a fine column near the church itself and several children are buried with him, but not my grandfather.
I am not sure when my grandfather left Huddersfield, some time in the 1920s I think, when he went down to London and then retired to Bournemouth with his second wife Lilian Pearson
It was his wish to be buried with his first wife, Mary Ann, and so he was in January 1944.
It seems their grave could have been in the land which was bought by the council from the baptist church for the widening of New Hey Road somewhere about 1960 or 1970, and therefore the bodies, presumably, had to be exhumed.
But, my question is, what was done with the bodies and, for that matter, the headstone?
I feel there would have been some form of recognition of their lives, being upstanding members of the church and the town.
Jabez was a councillor at some stage and both he and his wife died well before the road widening. Perhaps someone is tending a nearby grave and can give me its position?
I have written and spoken to many people over the last two years including the church at Salendine Nook, the Baptist Church of West Yorkshire and Kirklees Council, all of whom have been unable to help me.
This is despite the fact that money must have changed hands for the land purchase and an exhumation order is an uncommon event, requiring special permission, but they can find no paperwork.
The local Family History Society have done all they can but have also drawn a blank, so I still don’t know the answer.
As I am the last member of my family and am now 82 years old, I feel time is running out and I would like to solve the problem and leave the family tree in order for future generations.
Therefore I would be most grateful if someone, somewhere could throw light on this rather fascinating story.