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Randall connections with
Watford and Canada, Early 20th Century
May, 2013
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I helped Marina (marina3290
@t telus.net) of
British Columbia, Canada, with her
Potton relatives some
time ago and she recently wrote
I have enjoyed
your genealogy site so much and have found more items related to my
family. You have helped me with my Potten
ancestors and thanks for getting me in touch with Linda a
while ago, who has a relative in common with me. She was able to
help me with some really interesting stories about Rev.
Henry Potten who I had always
wondered about, so very much appreciated.
My
Randall ancestors were all
bricklayers from Buckland Common,
Buckinghamshire from at least 1795 until my gr-grandfather
Reuben Randall (who was married
to my Gr-Gran, Dora Potten),
came to Canada
in 1899 when he was 15. He arrived in
Montreal
by ship from Liverpool and met
his older brother and they rode the train (mostly illegally!) and
walked all the way to British Columbia
to work at the Coldstream ranch
in Vernon.
Buckland is a very strange shaped
parish, perhaps four miles long and on a hundred yards or so wide in places,
with the parish church being in the Vale of
Aylesbury linked by a thin strip of land to
Buckland Common - on the top of the
Chiltern Hills. I am not surprised with the
Randall connection with bricklaying as
there were many brickworks on the top of the Chilterns in the area. There
was a brickworks at Cholesbury (next to
Buckland Common) which only closed in
the last 50 years, and when walking my dog some years ago I discovered the
remains of extensive brick pits on Tring Common,
on the Hertfordshire side of the county
boundary. The brick works at Bovingdon,
Herts, south-east of
Ashley Green, is also in
Hertfordshire, and is still
making bricks.
I found a
postcard on the page titled Abbots Langley
that had been addressed to Miss Edie
Randall who was my Great Aunt!
Reuben's sister. She came to
Canada and lived at Coldstream
Ranch with her brother Reuben
and their mother Emma (Thorn)
Randall (who was from
Hawridge).
Edie married and lived out her
days in Canada. Her sister
Gussie was probably the writer
of the postcard.
The
card she refers to is this one, of Abbots Langley,
and I sent her a copy of the back of the card
I added that in 1901 the occupants of
45
St Mary's Road, Watford were Charlotte Bray
(52, married, born "Harridge"
[pronounced Harridge, written
Hawridge],
Bucks) and four
children. John (22, bricklayer's labourer)
and Sarah (19) had been born in
Chesham, Bucks) while
the 11 year olds, Alice and
Nellie, had been born in
Watford.
Offa is an
extremely rare Christian name so I attempted to identify him. His parents were
apparently John Hawes and
Jane Redding, whose marriage is recorded in
the Amersham,
Bucks, registration
district in April-June 1878. The birth of Offa Alaric
Hawes was registered at
Amersham, Bucks,
April-June, 1884. In 1891 John (42,
bootmaker), Jane (35) and a large family,
including Offa (7) - all born in
Chesham), were living
in Ashley Green, Bucks
(on the Hertfordshire
border near Berkhamsted).
By 1901 John was a widower and the family
had moved to 53 Shaftesbury
Road, Watford. Offa A Hawes
departed for Halifax, Canada
on 17th March 1904 on the Allan Line ship Ionian, apparently married with a wife
- but I can't find the marriage.
Marina replied, sending a number of
relevant photographs:
Hello Chris, so nice
to hear from you with all the information on the postcard that was sent
to Edie Randall. I am hoping to be
able to send on the information to some of
Edie's descendants, so thank you so much for that!!
I have spent some
time looking through all my information, looking for a link to
Offa. So far I have only found that
he was born the same year and place as my gr-grandfather
Reuben Randall, 1884 in
Chesham.
The writer of the
postcard, Charlotte Bray was my
gr-gr-grandmother Emma (Thorn)
Randall's sister. So Charlotte
would have been sending a message to her niece Edie
One other interesting
thing, I knew that I had seen Charlotte's
return address, 45 St. Mary's Rd. Herts somewhere before. As I was
looking through all my paperwork, I found that while
Reuben was in the war, my Gr-grandmother
Dora (Potten)
Randall, who I have written to you
about before, gave her address as his next of kin, the same
45 St. Mary's Rd. Watford, Herts.
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Reuben Randall in 1916
- In the middle of the back row in picture taken at Apres |
Reuben
and Dora had only one child, my Grandpa
Ivan Randall. He told me that when his
Dad, Reuben went to the war he was only
3. He and his mother Dora, went to
England and stayed with various relatives.
One of the places they stayed was with Reuben's
aunt Charlotte, and they also stayed
with Dora's brother Rev.
Harry Potten in
Swindon Wilts. The picture dates from this period.
The other picture is of
Edie (to whom the card was sent) and her
sister Gussie
I
suppose Offa
could have been a friend or cousin somewhere down the line. I looked up his
address on Google Earth and it wasn't too far from the
St. Mary's Road address.
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These are
pictures that were in my Grandpa's collection that were from
Watford area I think.
May look familiar to you?
This is definitely
Ironbridge Lock (Number 78) on what was then known
as the
Grand Junction Canal where it runs through
Cassiobury Park, Watford.
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This scene, with children
by the side of a canal, with thatched cottages in the
background, could well be somewhere on the Grand Junction
Canal in Hertfordshire but I don't recognise it.
Do You?
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This has now been
identified as the Queen's
Head, Pinner.
This is a view of
Thames with Windsor
Castle in the background - and definitely not
Hertfordshire |
February 2015
Mrs Allen writes from Berkshire: :My
husband is also a descendant of Randall-bricklayers of B Common+
unbelievably I also had relative sent to Canada as homechild in 1907 and
ended up in 102nd CEF - same regiment as Reuben Randall. I know that Reubens
descendant has put his photo on 102nd CEF website-so have I for mine - Abraham Abel, both in same regiment signed Vernon same time and also both on
Coldstream ranch. Not sure if you know of
102nd CEF website but I'm
sure that the army photo you have online of Reuben is that regiment, my
relative though is not in photo with him.
If you can add to the information given
above tell me.
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Jamuary 2013 |
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Page created |
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February 2015 |
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Update |
