Author: Bob Thorp

Holy Trinity Thorps

Tracing the family line before Robert Thorp, Henry Thorp’s father and my 4th Great Grandfather has proved near impossible. James, my father, hit this particular brick wall early in the quest to find the family roots. I’m now in the process of exhausting various strategies to make some concrete connections back in to the 18th… Continue reading Holy Trinity Thorps

Scottish Connections?

According to my father, James Baden Thorp his mother, Alice Brownhill Thorp, maintained a claim to Scottish ancestry. From some very vague recollections I understood this to be on her father’s side: James Brownhill Paul. James Brownhill Paul was the son of James Paul and Elizabeth Brownhill. JBP was born in Sheffield, Wincobank, in 1879… Continue reading Scottish Connections?

George William Fynn’s War

Britain declared war on Germany at 19:00 UTC on 4 August 1914 (effective from 11 pm), following an “unsatisfactory reply” to the British ultimatum that Belgium must be kept neutral.  On 7 August Lord Kitchener made his first appeal for 100,000 new recruits.  A month later on 4 September George William Fynn (21 years and 355… Continue reading George William Fynn’s War

Mary Cooper (1893 – 1971)

Mary Cooper was a working class Victorian who gave birth to 8 children, outlived 2 husbands and lived through 2 world wars. Mary was born in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire 20 July 1893 to Thomas and Elizabeth Ann Cooper both of Darlaston, Staffordshire.  Her father, brothers and husbands were coal miners (sometimes soldiers); her… Continue reading Mary Cooper (1893 – 1971)

Robert Thorp (1848 – 1913) Coal Miner

Robert‘s story is extremely poignant and illustrates something of the precarious nature of life in mid Victorian England.  He was born 25 October 1848 in to a large family of  8 brothers and sisters from his father Henry’s two marriages. In the 1851 Census Robert is living with his father at North Lane, Headingley-cum-Burley –… Continue reading Robert Thorp (1848 – 1913) Coal Miner

Coal Miners

I’d hazard that most Yorkshire families don’t have to search too far before family members emerge with the tell tale blue scars that reveal their ancestors worked in t’ pit.  Or lived in or near a colliery – they were everywhere!  One day there will surely be an almighty thud and large areas of Yorkshire… Continue reading Coal Miners