MY FAMILY HERO
Readers reveal a gem from their family tree
An unexpected find in the census gave Marion Edwards an insight into her ancestor’s character and profession
An unexpected find in the 1901 census gave Marion Edwards a fascinating insight into her forebear’s character and profession
Marion says that her ancestor, Joseph Edwards, is her hero for two reasons: “The first is that my great great grandfather was such a highly principled man, and I respect him for that. He took a stand and stood by his beliefs. The second reason is because he was clearly highly intelligent, highly skilled and beloved by many of the people he met.”
Joseph was born in 1841 in Tipton, Staffordshire, and died in 1912. “I was quite quickly able to see from the censuses that he lived most of his days in Filey, Yorkshire, where he worked as a schoolmaster. However, in the 1901 census his occupation was different. There were two words. I couldn’t make out the second word, but the first was definitely ‘artist’.”
Marion was intrigued. She found out that there was a small archive in Filey – the Crimlisk Fisher Archive – and decided to pay it a visit. “The people there were very helpful,” says Marion. “However, at first the only thing we could establish was that, as well as being a teacher, he was involved with the local chapel.”
In the hope of finding out more, staff dug out the 1899 Minutes of the Quarterly Meetings of the Filey Circuit. “I started wading through them hoping that there might be some mention of him,” says Marion. “But there was nothing and I was beginning to lose hope. The archive is only open for two hours and I was running out of time. But then, with only ten minutes to go, I came across a mention of Joseph being re-appointed as secretary.
“I ploughed on and at the end of the book was his signature! I realised that, as secretary, he’d written the minutes I’d been reading! ”
A few days later, staff at the archive sent Marion a newspaper cutting that revealed Joseph had later resigned his position as choirmaster and organist at the chapel. According to the article, there had been some unpleasantness at the chapel that “had been recently increased when Mr Edwards allowed his son to play the organ while he devoted more attention to the singing. In the opinion of most people the change has considerably improved the musical portion of the services. Among the trustees however, there were some who did not agree... and it was resolved that Mr Edwards Jnr would no longer be allowed to play the organ... after a quarter of a century of service it is hardly surprising that Mr Edwards refused to be treated like this and resigned his position”.
In protest at the trustees’ behaviour, many choristers refused to sit in the choir on Sunday and the subsequent “kerfuffle” was the talk of the town. “I just thought this was fantastic,” says Marion. “He was making improvements and everyone seemed to think this was a good thing – except for some stuffy old fools – and when they’d tried to make him do as he was told, he said no.”
Marion then turned her attention to Joseph’s artistic roots. Her curiosity was peaked further when she was given a newspaper cutting about her grandfather, who was on the stage, and this referred to Joseph as “a wellknown marine artist”.
“I was flummoxed,” says Marion. “I Googled like mad, but couldn’t find anything. Then I phoned Michael Fearon at the Filey Museum. He knew who my great great grandfather was, but didn’t know anything about the artist reference in the census.
“But about ten minutes after we’d finished the call, Michael phoned me back and said: ‘I’m in the museum and I’m staring at a picture on the wall of Filey Bay – and it’s signed by Joseph Edwards.’
“I was so pleased! And then I found a report of Joseph’s funeral in the British Newspaper Archive. It revealed that when he was buried, many of those that he had taught turned up to process through the village behind the coffin.
“Not only was he clever, principled and talented, he sounds like a good man as well.