My Great-great-grandfather Thomas DARRALL was baptised on the 5th March 1815 at the Dawley Parish Church. He was the son of Benjamin and Margaret and the couple lived in Holywell Lane, Dawley.
Thomas married Eliza (MORGAN ?) and the couple lived in Lightmore, a few hundred meters from Holywell Lane. Their only son, William Darrall was christened on the 12th April 1846.
Thomas Darrall, the father, died of consumption on the 3rd February 1847 (I have his death cert). Young William (the son) went to live with his grandfather, Benjamin as the 1851 Census shows thus:-
Benjamin Darrall Head aged 61 Married Miner Born Salop
Margaret Darrall Wife aged 61 Married - Born Salop
William Darrall Grandson aged 5 Unmarried Scholar Born Salop
My query is:- Why did young William return to live with his grandparents Benjamin and Margaret? We know the William's father died of consumption. As the disease is highly contageous, did his mother Eliza (nee Morgan) also die prior to 1861 of the same complaint? I believe on the deaths of both parents, children were often raised by their grandies. Could this also be fact here? I can't seem to find the death certificate of Eliza, nor can BDM.
Can anyone suggest a direction in which to search?
Paul Darrall in New Zealand.
Thank you John for the above information. The whereabouts of Eliza has been one of my sticking points since the 90's. I have searched FMP, Family Search and other revelant sites without joy for some years but have never made the connection.
It is only over the last 12 months that I have made the connection to Eliza being a 'MORGAN' and, since then, have pursued that line of enquiry religiously.
All the 'DARRALL's' in New Zealand originate from Thomas and Eliza, all 120+ of us at last count when young William emigrated with his family in 1883. As part of my research I have followed all the William descendants here and documented their lives, relationships and deaths for my records. Unfortunately, there are some who think little about plagurising my work of 50 years and presenting it as their own with attendant errors in their transcription. Geni comes to mind.
Enough bitching. I will add your findings to my document and look to my other sticking points soon.
Thank you and Regards
Paul (in retirement, aged 76)
Paul
As Kate has pointed out, the Dayrell’s were descended from Norman knights and they spread out across England. It is pretty remarkable that your William Darrall from Dawley is the only Darrall to migrate to New Zealand and become the forerunner of all the Darrall’s who are there today. While William was descended from Dawley miners, he was the “Norman knight” equivalent for New Zealand. It would be interesting to know more about William and his descendants. Have you written any kind of historical summary about the New Zealand Darrall’s that you could share?
Regards, John
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Hi Paul
FMP shows the burial of an Eliza Darrall (born 1819) on 31 Aug 1850 in Dawley Parva. There is also the baptism of an Elizabeth Morgan 10 Jan 1819 to parents Robert and Catherine living in Little Dawley. Both of these records are consistent with the marriage of an Eliza Morgan (father Robert) to a Thomas Dorral on 01 July 1844, in Eyton, both living in Trench.
A likely scenario is that, after the death of Thomas in 1847, both Elizabeth and son William went to live with Thomas’s parents. To have lived independently, Elizabeth would have needed to work while simultaneously raising a young child. Elizabeth then died in 1850, leaving William in the sole care of his grandparents as shown in the 1851 census.
--John (in USA)