WW1 ancestors

At the latest meeting of the East Yorkshire Family History Society Jill Boyes gave an interesting, sometimes amusing talk about researching her family’s history and finding out about those who participated in the First World War. She was lucky to have photographs, some of which showed several generations of the fami ly t ogether, which al ways makes talks more interesting.

Jill knew what ancestors were from an early age, and remembers being shown an EPNS sugar bowl and a hallmarked spoon with the initials RW for ‘Richard Wade’, an ancestor born about 1800. Richard lived in a village called Minskip, not f ar f rom Boroughbridge. So her search for one ancestral line began there. Minskip apparently was a centre for basket making, the dialect word for such a container being ‘skip’ or ‘skep’, and ‘min’ was probably a measure of corn.

Commenting that re - searching one’s family history is rather like being a detective, Jill set out to meet people, interview them, ask questions, knock on doors, talk to relatives she knew - and ones she met she had not known about – helpful strangers... we all know the trials.

Luckily, the surname she was chasing was an unusual one – ‘Mawtus’ – possibly derived from ‘malthouse’ or ‘Matttus’. Other surnames in the area which were of interest to her were Taylor, Wade and Watson.

So Ji l l and her husband began their quest at the village church, where a plaque displayed the names of those lost in Word War One. There they found various Mawtus names, and the helpful church keyholder took them to meet the house where one ancestor, a butcher, had lived.

Of particular interest was Edwin or Eddie Mawtus, born 1899, who died on the Western Front at nearly 20 years of age in May 1919; his death i s reported at length in the Minskip Parish Magazine, and he is remembered on his mother’s gravestone in the local cemetery; she died in 1942. Eddie i s buried at Fontaise au Bois, near Le Cateau. The Boyeses visited the grave last summer. Eddie is also remembered on the roll of honour of King James’ School, Knaresborough, which he attended.

Another i nteresting an- cestral trail was that of the Wright family at Northallerton. Harold Wright, the youngest of seven children, was Jill’s grandmother’s brother, and he was a signaller during the First World War. The family came from Brompton, a linen weaving village.

Jil l ’s ancestor in Northallerton ran the Nag’s Head public house, where Jill’s father was born. Also of note was Milly, who taught the piano, and played it for various musical groups, to entertain troops in the First World War, and also to accompany silent films.

Via the internet Jill met up with Christine, who knew a lot about the Wright family, and it turned out that Christine’s grandmother and Jill’s grandmother were sisters. The musical genes seem to have been passed down, because Christine’s daughters are the world famous folk singing duo The Uthanks.

Harold Wright, mentioned above, was stationed at Albert, which was pounded by the Germans and almost obliterated. Harold was taken prisoner of war, and died in captivity. He is buried in the South West Berlin Cemetery. Jill’s cousin Brian was able, with his wife, to visit Harold’s grave.

They decided to go on their wedding anniversary, on October 22, and found to their amazement that Harold had died on October 22, 1918. The cause of his death is not known, but it is possible that prisoners died from malnutrition.

We had a fascinating look at several generations of Jill’s family, and learned the value of using all the tools genealogists have at their disposal in this IT age, as well as good, oldfashioned asking questions before the older generation passes on.

The Family History Society meetings take place in Northstead Methodist Church Hall, Givendale Road, on the last Tuesday in every month, except July, August and December. Meetings commence at 7.30pm, though members are present from 6.30pm to help with family history queries.

At t he next meeting on March 31, Robin Lidster will give an illustrated talk about the Scarborough to Whitby Railway. Everyone is welcome. For further information contact Mrs P McNaughton on (01723) 369070.