Ben/Benjamin Pickersgill

[Maggie Waddock]

Hi, I've just registered with the Brit-Gen forum in the hope someone can help find my grandfather who seems to have vanished around 1936!
Born Ben Pickersgill, Seacroft, Leeds on Nov 13th,1875 to Elizabeth Rawling and William Pickersgill, he subsequently -as Benjamin-married my grandmother, Annie Boland in St. Francis Catholic Church, Holbeck, Leeds on Feb. 9th 1907. They had 3 children: John, 1909, Thomas,1910 and Mary Irene,my mother, 1912.
We know he and my grandmother ran The Cavalier pub in Leeds in the 1930's and that they subsequently spit up; he certainly did not appear in my parents' wedding photo but that could simply have been because he hadn't been invited by my grandmother( a formidable woman)
After that-nothing, but the curious - and frustrating -part is that we can find no death certificate.
While I now live in Canada , my sister lives in Yorkshire and has tried various routes to no avail. Where did Benjamin go ??

[Waitabit]

Hi Maggie,

Mar.1/4 1941..Benjamin Pickersgill..66..Leeds...9b-435.

[Maggie Waddock]

Hi back,
Sorry, I'm not up on all this research stuff. Does the info you've sent me refer to Benjamin's death certificate?

[Jan1954]

Hi Maggie.

Wendy's offline at the moment, so I'll try and help.

The information does apply to a death certificate:-

Death in the Leeds Registration district, March quarter (Jan, Feb, Mar) of 1941.
Benjamin Pickersgill, 66 yrs. The reference numbers at the end are the Volume and Page Number of the register entry; Volume 9b Page 435.

The age and location at time of death certainly tie in with 'your' Benjamin.

A copy of the certificate can be ordered online, using the references provided, from the General Register Office.

[Maggie Waddock]

Finbar, Much obliged for the info. Here's my dilemma: there are at least 2 Benjamin Pickersgills out there-maybe more,who knows?. My sister sent for what we thought was 'our' Benjamin's death certificate but the death was recorded by a son who was no relation- that we know of- to my mother or her siblings.
Benjamin and my grandmother did split up so it's certainly possible he could have started another family- but how do I find that out? I'm reluctant to 'embrace' a Benjamin who might have nothing to do with my family!! Maggie.

[Waitabit]

Maggie, do you have an idea of the year you G'Mother separated from Benjamin?, was it a divorce ?. If so he may have remarried legally,(we can then look) it's even possible to find a birth with Mothers name even if they only co-habited.
I wonder if you can somehow convey the"sons" name mentioned on the death certificate? Without perhaps mentioning the name of a possibly living person. (Iknow...I ask a lot at times)

[Maggie Waddock]

Many thanks for your reply. I know Benjamin ( can't seem to think of him as Grandad since we never met...) and Grandma were living together at The Cavalier pub in leeds in and around 1936 but, from what Mum mentioned, they had split up on one or more earlier occasions.
Divorce would have been out of the question since Grandma was a staunch Catholic. I do remember being told by a wonderful aunt-by-marriage, who was great at bringing skeletons out of closets, that he was something of a womaniser, but this could have been something passed along/invented by Grandma; who knows?
As for the info on the death certificate, that's-currently-lost but I am in the process of ordering another one. Anything else I should be doing?
I have to say that I am really thankful for all the help I'm getting from you all. Perhaps I'll find 'my' Benjamin, after all? Maggie

[Waitabit]

Meanwhile Maggie ,you keep us from fretting over our own lost Rellies who can't be found!

I guess they had their reasons for splits, still, lack of divorce wouldn't necessarily stop some-one remarrying. Been done before & still is. The Death cert. is going to be the big assist here I think. Good move Maggie. Let's hope the person who registered the death was a reliable person, not some-one who had been told 'porkies'.

[Maggie Waddock]

I tried to order the certificate on-line but, since I don't know the exact date of death- which is required- couldn't do it- trying to do the Family History stuff from Canada can be very frustrating! Happily, my sister can go over to Leeds to get it and then we might find some answers.
While I know grandma would never have bought into a divorce, I'm pretty sure that Benjy wasn't Catholic so he may well have gone ahead. The peculiar thing is that, once he'd finally left, gran forbade her kids to have anything to do with him. Rather an extreme measure?Perhaps there was a reason for it-i.e. another family-or am I fantasising?? Maggie.

[salcat]

Maggie

If you know the reference for the certificate you want, you don't need to know the actual date.

On the order page for the cert, check E&W death cert, but don't put anything in the age box. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page, check the YES box for reference known, and put in the year. It should then move on to the page for the delivery details, followed by the page where you enter the actual reference Waitabit found, and then take your money!!

Bob's your uncle

hope this helps

Sally