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WW2 Memories

I was born in 57 Lonsdale Avenue, Bournville Estate, Weston in January 1945. My sister    Marion was born in 1936.

Our house was damaged in the first heavy raid on 5^th January 1941. Marion remembers being under the kitchen table with Mum at number 57, and seeing the back door and windows pushed inwards. The table was the safest place in a German bombing raid, if they couldn’t reach the air raid shelter. There was house damage very nearby in Lonsdale Avenue and Stonebridge Road. Nine people were killed on the Bournville Estate and others injured.

My family had to move out for a year before it was repaired. For some time they also had an evacuee teenage girl, Joyce, from London living with them, whose independent attitude caused Mum worry, but she then returned home.

Mum told me that a line of bombs fell that night, and if there had been one more in the sequence, it would have hit our house directly. 

Derrick Norton                                                                      

It's nice to be able to give something back, Pat. And - let's be honest - a diversion from banging my head against my own brick walls. A one name study of SMITHs from anywhere strikes me as a very scary prospect.

Dave

Wow, Now why didn't I think that Noah SMITH junior, might have been in a Workhouse?  I'm sure you've found the right one - thank you. I wonder why he was in there?  The marriage to Elizabeth MOTSON looks promising too. Another puzzle is why he returned from Bristol if it was him who died in the Dursley area in 1877.  I think I'm in danger of getting bogged down with this SMITH family when I should be concentrating on my own SMITH connections in this area!  Many thanks for your help Dave - you are always so generous with your time and I am grateful.  I'll let you know when I start a one-name study of the SMITHS in the Dursley area!!

Ok.

I've scoured the GRO looking for a possible Stephen SMITH or HORWOOD born around 1840 but without success.

I can't find Esther anywhere.

I think Noah junior (born 1832) was in the Dursley Workhouse in 1841 and was an apprentice mechanic in Bristol St George in 1851. I think he married Elizabeth MOSTON in 1852 in Bedminster and they had a son John in 1854. In 1861 and 1871 they were in Bristol (St Philip & St Jacob) and he died in 1877 in Dursley.

One of the witnesses to Noah senior's marriage was Enoch SMITH. This might have been his father. There is a marriage of Enoch SMITH and Ann DAINTON in Dursley in 1806, Enoch was baptised in Dursley in 1786.

I've put all of the relevant sources in a mini tree on Ancestry. If you'd like an invitation let me know. Or you should find it (with many others!) if you do a search on my username (daveerasmus). 

This doesn't answer all of your questions unfortunately, but it might take things forward a little.

Dave Erasmus

That's fantastic - Thank you Dave.  But the mystery deepens!

Looking at the 1841 Census, Sarah SMITH is with her mother Ann HORWOOD, in Cam and she has with her a 1-year-old Stephen SMITH.  This isn't her son Stephen who married Susan - he was born in 1843.  Who was this Stephen and what happened to him?

No sightings of her husband, Noah SMITH or their two children Esther and young Noah yet.  All help gratefully received.

I like a mystery. Do you know where Sarah and the children were in 1841? Do you know whether either of the children married? Any marriage certificate might show the status of their father and his occupation.

Dave Erasmus