4. Two weddings and two funerals…an introduction

This is the fourth posting on the timeline of William’s life and is intended to serve as an introduction to some family events that took place from when he was apprenticed to the printer William Braithwaite in Stokesley at the age of thirteen through to his arrival in Middlesbrough in around 1855 to continue his apprenticeship under Joseph Richardson.

A task of particular interest in considering the weddings was to determine or at least, best guess, at how the parties involved might have met. If a wedding is defined as ‘a marriage ceremony, especially considered as including the associated celebrations’ then these postings largely refer to marriage ceremonies as there is little or no information available concerning any ‘associated celebrations’

Similarly, the ‘funerals’ are more accounts of deaths than funerals as there is no record of the conduct of the funerals except as to where they took place.  The four important family events related in the following postings;

4a. William’s sister’s wedding to John Campion in 1854

4b. Two funerals or rather deaths in 1858 (to follow)

4c. William’s wedding to Mary Ann Culf in 1862 (to follow)

As the relationships involved in these family events are quite involved the genealogical chart above shows some key relationships.

[If the chart does not show clearly on your device – click on it once. It is possible to copy the chart and paste it into Microsoft Word – preferably in landscape mode]

Starting at the top with William’s grandmother, Elizabeth Burnett before she married Joseph Baylieff – the dotted line (indicating illegitimacy) on the right-hand-side leads to William’s mother, Hannah Burnett and then to William and his siblings. After she married Joseph Baylief – the solid lines lead to her other children and her grandchildren. Although the Elizabeth and Joseph’s children are given the surname BAYLIEF – John BAYLIEF married as BAILEY as did his sister Louisa.

Towards the left and in parallel with William’s mother are his (half) Aunts and Uncles and in parallel with William are his half cousins. People who feature in the two weddings and two funerals are highlighted as red. The preparation of this posting once again owes a great deal to the work of Bill Burnett (yorksburnett.com) who has been unstinting in his support.

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