Joseph Thomas Swindale ("Tom")Son of Joseph Swindale and Mary Jane Gregg born 23rd January 1877 in Haverigg, Cumberland 1 Married Alfreda Stroym Brixley Meen on 15 August 1903 Blakenham Magna, Suffolk Children
Died 10th April 1940 in Johannesburg, South Africa 1 PersonID 05631 |
(click on picture for family group) |
Notes
(Click on thumbnails for larger image)
Picture
of Thomas and his brother William about 1880
John Stephen Swindale ("Jack") writes on a postcard to his father 17/6/1907 '...I am
going to see Tom & family at Ipswich on Sunday if all goes well.' This could
imply a long term connection with the area but there are no Swindales in the
telephone directory for Suffolk in 1996 except myself (AJS). In fact Joseph
Thomas emigrated to South Africa and died in Johannesburg.
Tom was already working in the mine at Millom as a 'weigher' at 14. By 1901 he
was working in Millom as a boilermaker. Then after,
according to Joan Shrewsbury, 'an adventurous career in the army and in America'
he married Alfreda Meen at Blakenham Magna just outside Ipswich on August 15th
1903 (when Tom was 26 and Alfreda was 20). Their 'residence' in the marriage
register is given as Blakenham Magna
but the address on a 'memento' I was
given by Joan Shrewsbury is
given as 14, New Cardinal Street, Ipswich. He lists his occupation as
boilermaker in the
marriage register.
By the birth of their second child, Thomas Raymond, in 1907, they
are living at 133 Ranelagh Road, Ipswich just a hundred yards from the works of
Reavell and Company, founded in 1898 to manufacture steam engines and
compressors and still in business on the same site as part of the Siebe Group in
1997. At this time Tom describes himself as 'Boilermaker (foundry)'. The house
is a small terraced house built in 1883 backing onto the railway. By 1910 and
the birth of their third child, John Barnard, they have moved back to 14 New
Cardinal Street, a few hundred yards away on the other side of the river, but
now redeveloped as an industrial area. (Was this Alfreda's mother's house?)
According to his daughter 'My mother left England and followed my
father who had made a home for the family in South Africa.' This would probably
have been about 1911 since there is no record of the family in the Ipswich
street directories after 1910.
On arriving in South Africa the family settled in a suburb north of Johannesburg, Norward and resided at 1, Nellie Avenue. 4
1 Information from Joan Shrewsbury
2 The Ipswich registry office could not find the birth certificate for Doris Maude
3
Information suppressed on this page for reasons of
privacy - click here for
privacy
policy.
4 Denise Munn
Sources
a)
1881 UK census
Living with his parents in Main Street,
[Haverigg?], Millom, Cumberland
1891 UK census
Living (14) with his parents at 5, Main Street, Haverigg, Millom
- a weigher.
1901 UK census,
cont
Living with his parents at 4 Crown Street Millom
- a boiler maker.
b) The birth of Joseph Thomas Swindale,
mother's maiden name Gregg, was registered in the first quarter
of 1877 in the Bootle district (FreeBMD / GRO 10b 698)
The marriage of Joseph Thomas
Swindale and Alfreda Stroym B Meen was registered in the third
quarter of 1903 in the Bosmere district (FreeBMD 4a 1759)