Haggbridge.com – Never let truth get in the way of a good family story!

Adelaide Edgar & The Last Onion

Adelaide EDGAR, our great grandmother, was the tenth of twelve children, born 2 August 1888, to John Thomas ONIONS and Ann LUMSDON, in the family’s Price Street tenement. She was raised at No. 3 Rosary Terrace, off Holgate Road, where the family moved in the mid 1890s. The Two-up two-down terraced home overlooked the railway tracks and engine sheds where...

Bainbridge/Edgar

John Thomas Onions & The Engine Wrights

John Thomas ONIONS was born in Gateshead to an unwed mother, Martha, 21 September 1842. He was 2 years old when his mother married but was still listed as John Thomas Onions in his grandfather’s last will and testament in 1845. Until the Legitimacy Act of 1926, illegitimate children had no legal kin except their mother, a decisive impediment in...

Edgar/Lumsdon/Onions/Summers

Martha Onions & The Bastardy Laws

Martha Edgerton ONIONS was born in Oak Green, West Bromwich, Staffordshire, and baptised 22 February 1822 at All Saints Church, by her parents Jemima ABEL & Benjamin ONIONS. Martha relocated (walked) north to Gateshead with her family when she was only 4 years old. However there are no records until she is next documented in the 1841 census, age 19...

Edgar/Onions

Benjamin Onions & The Tinners

Benjamin ONIONS was born 1795 on the cusp of the Georgian and Regency Eras in the parish of Dawley Magna, Shropshire, to parents William ONIONS & Margaret KING, and baptized at Holy Trinity Church. The industrial revolution had thrust Shropshire forward as a centre for the iron industry. Dawley Magna’s ironworks used the locally mined ironstone and coal, employed hundreds...

Abel/King/Onions/Tonks

James Hardacre & Walking Pictures

James HARDACRE (1861-1947), is our 2nd Great Grandfather, from Settle, North Yorkshire. He was the fourth of six children born to Cooper & Casker, Richard HARDACRE, & farmer’s daughter, Mary CLAPHAM. James appears to have excelled at school and chose a career in teaching. After taking teaching positions in Halifax, Skipton, and Redmire, James settled in Nether Poppleton as Headmaster...

Hardacre/Hudson

The Gracia sisters & PacTel San Francisco

Eight Gracia sisters were born between 1901-1914, seven reaching adulthood, interspersed between four brothers. None of the sisters had reach the age of 18 by the time their father passed away on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918. From 1920 until the mid 1940’s six of the Gracia sisters worked as Telephone Operators and, of those, five worked for PacTel San...

Gracia

Ann Fussey’s Award for Respectable Servitude!

Our fourth great grandparents Ann SPROXTON (1797-1875) of Roos and Anthony FUSSEY (1784-1860) of Ryehill married in Sheckling cum Burstwick in the winter of 1814. The village names may appear unfamiliar but they are all in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the far east! To say the couple were productive is an understatement. Ann delivered fifteen children in 25 years,...

Fussey/Sproxton

The Gracia brothers & San Francisco Shipyard

The Gracia family of San Francisco all followed a common path in their occupations. Three out of four brothers became metal workers and six out of seven sisters became telephone operators. Their father, Emile Vincent GRACIA (1877-1918) died aged 41 from colon cancer, leaving his widow Frances with nine children under 18 years of age. The two elder sons shouldered...

Gracia

Jim Thompson’s South American Adventure

James “Jim” Thompson (1881-?), our Great Granduncle, took a leap of faith in September 1907. Married in York just four months earlier, Jim departed Liverpool bound for the southern tip of the South American continent, Patagonia. The isolated and remote location had developed a large and highly profitable sheep industry which recruited shepherds from British farms. Patagonia occupies nearly the...

Thompson

Our families and 1906 San Francisco Earthquake!

5:12am Wednesday, 18th April 1906, Northern California was struck by an estimated 7.9 magnitude earthquake, shaking the city of San Francisco for 42 seconds. 80% of the city was affected by the quake, however the subsequent four days and nights of fires caused the total destruction of historic downtown San Francisco and the loss of thousands of lives. In the...

Brandon/Gracia/Grant/Mahood/Mendoza/Thompson