Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi All

This is my first post in the L&SWLG Forum!


I have a relative (George Denson) who was born in 1894 in Liverpool. He was a wireless operator in the merchant navy. In 1918 he married Alice Quarton (born 1891, Everton, Liverpool) and they had 2 children born 1919 and 1920. They lived in Shaws Road, Southport, Merseyside.

George died in the first quarter of 1936. His widow alice remarried in 2nd quarter 1936 to William Hamilton Laurens. At most there was 6 months between Georges death and Alice remarrying.

George was buried in Liverpool, not Southport. Alice lived in the same address in Southport with William until her death in 1968 and William lived there until shortly before his death (when he move to a nursing home) in 1979.

I have found out that William had a radio engineers business/shop in 1924 in Old Swan, Liverpool (from London Gazette bankruptsy records) and he is listed as wireless operator (retired) in obituaries etc.

How can I find out more about this story?

How common was it for a widow to remarry so quickly?
As both George and William were wireless operators, is it likely that they were friends/colleagues? How can I confirm this?
Why was George not buried in Southport like Alice and William? Was george estranged from Alice when he died? How can I confirm this?

I know its difficult because I'm not interested in vital statistics so much as the back story but can anyone give me any suggestions or leads to follow up.

Thanks

Barry

ps. see my website at http://familytree.densonclan.com/getper ... ree=Denson for details on the 3 individuals listed above.

Mr Denson died in the Liverpool North district. The marriage to Mr Laurens took place in the Liverpool South district.

I presume you have the death certificate. What is the home address of Mr Denson? As they were living in Liverpool I would expect him to be buried there. Mrs Denson marries later the same year. She may have known the new husband as a friend of her husbands or she may not. It may have been that she need someone with a wage to bring up her family. I don't think there is anything odd in the timing. Many widows and widowers did marry soon after the death of the husband or wife.

As she marries in Liverpool it was presumably after that she moved the Shaws Road. What is her home address on the marriage certificate. Shaws Road is actually in Birkdale a mixture of mid Victorian small houses and later council houses.

When the couple died in the area it would be logical for them to be buried together in Birkdale Cemetery (Liverpool Road) which is the nearest to their home address.

To find out about William's shop you would need to check directories for when it was there. You could also check Southport directories to see if William did anything similar in Birkdale. These would also enable you to see when the couple arrived at Shaws Road.

The Southport diorectories are at Sefton Local History at Crosby library - they are not on line

They also have some Liverpool directories and there are more at Liverpool Record Office. Again for the tiime you want they are not on line. For any obituaries in Southport you need the Southport Visiter the local newspaper which is on film at Crosby library.

I have ordered the death cert for george and the marriage certificate for Alice and william, but as yet they haven't arrived.

You are right that shaws Road is in Birkdale. Alice is buried at Liverpool Road but William was cremated at Southport Crematorium.

Looks like another visit to Liverpool is on the cards!

Hi Barry
Just to say a very warm welcome to our Forum.

Cheers
Tina

1938 Gores/Kellys Directory has a
Wm Laurens broker 24 Durning Road Edge Hill
Tina

(off topic, I remember my Mum telling me how so many were killed in the blitz at the Durning Rd shelter)

Tina wrote:1938 Gores/Kellys Directory has a
Wm Laurens broker 24 Durning Road Edge Hill
Tina

(off topic, I remember my Mum telling me how so many were killed in the blitz at the Durning Rd shelter)

Hi Tina,
Re 'off topic': 166 people were killed in that one tragedy at the Durning Road shelter in November 1940.

http://www.liverpoolblitz70.co.uk/2011/ ... ning-road/

DS

I've just got the marriage cert back for alice and william and it lists BOTH of them as living in Durning Road.

Death Cert not arrived yet.

Found a good site which lists the names of some who died in the Durning Road Bombing.

http://liverpoolremembrance.weebly.com/ ... elter.html

Death certificate for George has just arrived.

He died on 18th march so that means there was 2 months and 14 days between his death and Alice's remarriage.

Also George is listed as living at 48 Ling Street, his occupation is Taxi Driver and he died from Pulmonery Tuberculosis.

Just looked on the map and the two addresses are about 1/2 a mile away.

Not sure what concusions to draw or where to look next.