Joseph Shakespeare (1851-1924) and Eliza Jane Spargo
My great grandfather and his second wife (I am descended from his first wife, Elizabeth Nicklin).
Joseph's father and grandfather were also named Joseph, so I think of him as Joseph III!
John Cornish Spargo (1830-1894)
One of my great-great-grandfathers. A mining engineer, he came to Birmingham sometime between 1863 and 1866, probably as a result of the collapse of the Cornish tin mining industry around that time. For a long while I thought his middle name was a nickname given him by his Brummie work mates! Actually it is his mother's maiden name. He had three wives, all from his home area of Gwennap, to which he had returned by April, 1891. Three of his 'deathbed' letters have survived from 1893 and 1894.
(Photo by Harcourt, Fox & Co., Birmingham and kind permission of Marion Serres, Salinas, CA.)
Eliza Jane Spargo (1854-1954)
Known as 'Grandma Shakespeare', even though she was actually a step-grandmother. Taken in later life in the USA.
Eliza Jane's brother Richard was my great grandfather, so she is a relative through the Spargos. Born in Cornwall she came to Birmingham at the age of about 13, went to Rome, New York in about 1924 and died aged 100 in California!
Elizabeth Bassett Spargo (1858-1935)
Eliza Jane's younger sister, she lived with her all her life - married and single. A spinster, it depends who you talked to in the family for an assessment of her: some described her as an old battleaxe; others as kindness itself. She followed her sister to the USA and died in Rome, NY.
Richard Spargo (1863-1885)
My great-grandfather. The last of his family to be born in Cornwall.
He died, in Birmingham, tragically young - at the age of 22 - of 'consumption of the throat', leaving a wife and two children.
George Nicklin and Ann Mary Colledge
My great grandmother (Elizabeth Nicklin's) parents.
Although married in Birmingham (at St. Thomas, Bath Row) their daughter Elizabeth was born in Much Wenlock, Shropshire where George had been born in 1816. Ann was five years older than her husband.
Jane Cornish (1802/3-1870)
My great grandfather (Richard Spargo's) grandmother, and one of my 3xgreat-grandmothers.
She was probably born in Gunwalloe, Cornwall, the daughter of John and Jane Cornish.
Elizabeth Bassett (1804ca - ?)
John Cornish Spargo's mother-in-law and another of my 3xgreat grandmothers. She married Richard Rowse and had a daughter Mary and a son, James, who settled in Southington, Connecticut.
Along with the picture of Jane Cornish this is one of the oldest (both genealogically and chronologically) family photos we have.
Three female members of the family had the name Bassett as a middle forename.
(Photo by kind permission of Marion Serres, Salinas, CA.)
William George Shakespeare (1878-1952)
A favourite photograph of my maternal grandfather as a young man. Some have said they can see me in this picture.
His preferred method of disciplining me would be to sit me on his knee and say 'I will be good'!
Kate Spargo (1882-1967)
My maternal grandmother as a young woman.
She had an oft repeated saying 'You might as well be out of this world as out of fashion', which comes back to me many times in modern life and middle age!
Charles Ernest Shakespeare (1875-1960)
One of my military great uncles. He joined the South Staffordshire Regiment and served in Nilgiris (South India), the South African ('Boer') and First World Wars.
He married his half first cousin, Emily Maud Shakespeare, and later became a postman.
Wellington, Nilgiris, India
Walter Joseph Shakespeare (1873/4-?)
Elder brother of Charlie and another military great uncle. He joined the West Surrey Regiment and served in the Chitral (India) campaign of 1896/7 - one of many in the 'Great Game' between British India and Imperial Russia.
All reports of him are that he was a 'woman chaser'. He emigrated to Australia with his wife, Amy Lizzie Shakespeare (his half first cousin) and their two children. Eventually he deserted her and his fate is unknown.
Rawalpindi, India
'Bert' Talbot (1917 - 2002)
Taken in England - long before he left for the USA.
A more recent photo can be seen elsewhere.
John Perkins (1881-1910)
My paternal grandfather.
He was a carpenter and builder who died at the age of 29 leaving a widow, a 3 year old son, a half built row of houses (in Cato Street, Birmingham) - and a mountain of debt. When they learned he was dying (of Bright's disease) his employees stole all his tools thinking they wouldn't get paid. My grandmother paid them all, cleared his debts and died a comparatively wealthy woman more than 50 years later.
Birmingham, 1903
William Waters (1830-1898)
I think this is my paternal greatgrandfather, Clara Waters's father.
He was a ribbon weaver in Coventry and my grandmother worked for him. She was a daughter of his second marriage. His first wife - Elizabeth Perkins - was a relative of mine.
Louisa Sanders (1846-1922)
I believe this to be my paternal great-grandmother, Clara Waters's mother, photographed in 1903.
The strong resemblance, together with the fact that she is sitting next to my grandmother on her wedding photograph, leads me to this conclusion. She was William Waters's second wife. Her sister, Eliza, was John Perkins's mother - making my grandparents first cousins.