Glassby Family History Can You Help

Can You Help & Reader Information?

In this section I will list from time to time areas of research where I am stuck or am unable to make progress in the hope that a reader may be able to help. Also, I will list information here supplied by readers which I may or may not have had time to study

Reader Information

Information From Kevin Flanagan: Kevin Flanagan is descended from the Glasby family from Birmingham. He has a marriage certificate from August 10th 1860 which is the marriage of George Barton ( a zinc worker) aged 21 to Martha Glasby aged 19. Their fathers where both named John. John Barton was a coppersmith and John Glasby a gun maker. Both fathers were alive at the time of marriage, which was held at St. Peters Church in the parish of St. Peter in Birmingham. There is no address but George and Martha,s daughter Priscilla Barton was born 14 years later, on the 23rd December 1874 and she is Kevin Flanagan's great grandmother, She is listed as living at 1 Court Bishopgate Street (St Thomas District), Birmingham. Martha signed the birth certificate with an x and George was still a zinc worker. Priscilla Barton married James Tattersdale and settled in Hull and all her children stayed in Hull except her daughter (also called Martha)
Tattersdale who settled in Birmingham and married a Thomas Leek and they have descendents in Birmingham today.

Can You Help?

I am trying to find a photograph of A 8.4 Richard Glassby (b. Mexborough 29 DEC 1841 d. 9 MAY 1897) who was for many years the Station Master at Crowle. He worked for the M, S & L (Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool Railway Company) and it is likely that there is a photograph of him somewhere in railway records. He married Clara Rebecca Cock in 1867. They had 4 children, but Clara Rebecca died young in 1877. It is possible that one of the present day descendants of his 4 children have family photographs including a picture of Richard Glassby.
A second area of interest is Arthur Ronald Glassby as recorded in Chapter 4, section D 5.

The marriage certificate of Arthur Ronald Glassby to Kathleen Taylor on 5th July 1969 in Pontefract gives some interesting insights. Arthur Ronald Glassby (33), a chemicals labourer (father Arthur Glassby, a School Caretaker, deceased) married Kathleen Taylor (22), a widower, whose father was John Vickers. They both came from or were living in Knottingley; Arthur Ronald Glassby was living at 16 Northfield Avenue, Knottingley and Kathleen Taylor at 16 Southfield Road, Knottingley.

The first point is that if Arthur Ronald was 33 in 1969, he was born in 1936. But there is no record of an Arthur Ronald Glassby in the birth records in England for 1936. Was he born overseas? Secondly, Ronald is not a name used by the Glassby’s in the UK (except that is for my wife’s father, Ronald Glassby). Arthur Ronald Glassby’s father Arthur was dead in 1969 at the time of the marriage.

Kathleen Taylor was a widow at 22, and her father was John Vickers i.e. Kathleen’s maiden name was Vickers. I have found the marriage of Kathleen Vickers to Donald Taylor in 1966, and the death of Donald Taylor in 1969. It was shortly after his death that the then Kathleen Taylor married Arthur Ronald Glassby.

In the records there are three children named Glassby whose mother’s maiden name was Vickers i.e.
- Katharine Louise Glassby (Vickers) born 1974
- Bernadette Glassby (Vickers) born 1976
- Andrew Thomas Glassby (Vickers) born 1978
It is reasonable to assume that these are the children of Arthur Ronald Glassby and Kathleen Taylor née Vickers. We cannot find any record of an Arthur Ronald Glassby dying in England after 1969. Nor can we find any marriage of these three children. The eldest would be 30, and you might have expected at least one of the three to marry. This makes us wonder whether Arthur Ronald Glassby and the three children went overseas.

We then found a marriage of Kathleen Glassby to a John Beckett in 1981 in Pontefract. We have not obtained this certificate, but wonder if it is the same lady. This could be explained by Arthur Ronald Glassby dying, or possibly their divorcing. Who was Arthur Glassby, Arthur Ronald Glassby’s father, and how does he fit in to the family tree?