Mary Ann Gilberthorpe (1821)
The 1851 census of Brookhouse
shows John Greaves, wife Mary Ann, son-in-law (old term for stepson) George
Gilberthorpe, aged 8 and three little Greaves children ,
the eldest 4yo.
Mary Ann Gilberthorpe had been born in 1821, a late child of William Gilberthorpe (1785), of Conisboro, and Mary Robinson (1786) of Laughton. William and Mary had married at Laughton in 1806, and Mary Ann had several older brothers and at least two sisters, Elizabeth (1809) and Harriet (1823). Her brother, Henry (1819) became the founder of the Ecclesfield and Thorpe Hesley leg of the family, who appear to be still farming in the Thorpe Hesley area at the present day.
Mary Anns father, William is almost certainly the same William
Gilberthorpe who was christened in Conisboro on 5th April, 1785, and
through his parents, also William and Mary, can be traced back to John
Gilberthorpe of Conisborough, who was born around 1700.
George Gilberthorpe disappeared for a while, and I
can still find no trace of him in the 1861 census when he would have been aged
around 18. He had however, like many others, become part of the industrial
revolution taking place at the time. Having grown up in an agricultural area;
his grand-father and uncles were agricultural labourers,
it was surprising to find George re-appear in the 1871 census at Handsworth in
The 1871 census record shows George, aged 29, with wife Ann Elizabeth (he had married Ann Elizabeth Scholey at Rotherham Parish Church on 6th June, 1865), son William aged 8 (more on this later) and son Edgar (my great-grandfather) aged one month.
.. more to follow including my grandfather Edgar Gilberthorpe.