The Mystery of Joseph Spencer Morton

Mysteries of genealogy

Looking for ancestors can sometimes be a bit frustrating.

I have spent years trying to find out what happened to my grandmother when she left my grandfather in 1928/9. She left him with three children, one of whom was my father, but what I didn’t realise, until only recently, is that she had another child. Did no one else in the family know about it? The child was born in the workhouse in Folkestone and finished up in a workhouse cottage home in 1939. Unfortunately, records of the cottage home were lost after 1933!

My father had been told various stories about what had happened to her but all he remembers is that she came to visit them at the workhouse in Dover, dressed up to the nines, spoke to them and left. Now aged 93, he can’t remember what she said.

Albert and Joseph Morton

You’d think it would be easier to trace my grandfather and what happened to him. He was born Joseph Spencer Morton in the Hunslet Union workhouse according to his birth certificate. In those days, if it wasn’t practical to have a home birth, then you could be delivered in a Workhouse infirmary. His father (Alfred Edward) was a journeyman boot maker (a qualified tradesman who was entitled to move around from place to place).

My grandfather had a poor home life as I found out when I saw an entry in the pages from Leeds Industrial School at Shadwell in September 17^th 1913. Joseph and his brother Albert had been found wandering the streets and market of Leeds and had slept out all night. They were said to be much neglected. He was eleven years old, about 4 feet 5 inches tall and weighed just over four stones. They weren’t returned to their parents because the parents did not ‘exercise proper guardianship’.

Joseph Spencer Morton

Little is known about my grandfather until 1918 when he joined as a reservist in the army during the First World War. When recruits were posted to a battalion on active service, they would be sent to where there was a vacancy and not necessarily his local regiment, and a large contingent of Yorkshire men were assigned to either Connaught Rangers or Munster Fusiliers after enlisting.

So he finished up in the 3^rd battalion of the Connaught Rangers which in November 1917 had relocated from Galway in Ireland to Newcastle and then became the Dover garrison in May 1918.

However, my grandfather was living in Dover after the first world war ended. The Connaught Rangers were disbanded in 1922 upon the formation of the Irish Free State. What he did after that I don’t know for certain but he stayed in Dover.

While he was based in Dover, my grandfather met a local girl and they married in 1922. Exact details were hard to trace for a while – the wedding certificate seemed to contain a few errors. His age was written down as 21 (which meant you didn’t have to have your father’s permission) but that doesn’t equate with his birth certificate - from that, he was only 20. My grandmother, Ada Elizabeth Player was only 17. His father’s name on the certificate should have been Alfred but was down as Arthur. 

Joseph Spencer Morton and Ada Elizabeth Player

It wasn’t the first time that age and names weren’t accurate. When my grandfather died in 1972, the date of birth on his gravestone said he was born in 1900, even though the birth certificate says 1902! 

Joseph Spencer Morton Headstone - 1972

When my grandmother left home, my grandfather decided he would be better off in Leeds. My great grandmother sent some money for the train fare and they arrived back in Leeds in 1929 to live with his mother and his Aunt Bella. It was still difficult to find work. My grandfather would often be away and, during one of these times, he met up with a young girl called Doris Guy who had left home. Doris got pregnant. She became my step grandmother. Years later he moved to Dover living on Connaught Park near the castle. His sons, Alan and Kenny were born there.

I remember visiting my grandfather in 1962. Now he was living in Uffculme near Cullompton in Devon. How he got there I don’t know. Some of his second family were living with him. I only remember two of them, Alan and Kenny. They were about my age – in fact, my uncle Kenny was a year younger!

My grandfather moved to Bridgwater sometime in the 1960s. His youngest son Kenny married Jennifer Lovering there in 1968 and Alan married Beryl Martin in Bridgwater, Somerset in 1971. From his death certificate my grandfather lived at 31 Edinburgh Road, Bridgwater. His wife Doris lived until 3^rd February, 1985. Her son James Arthur Morton was still living there in 2002. He died on the 12^th April 2005.

I am really interested in why my grandfather moved to Bridgwater in the 60s and who moved with him. Perhaps there are friends of the children who know more about them or James’ family would know more – it does say that he was a loving dad and granddad, but who are/were they?

This article was written by a member of the public seeking answers to his family history.

If anyone has information relating to the above story please contact me via my website - details below.

Do you have a story?  We are more than happy to host it.

Find us on Facebook.

http://www.somersetgenealogy.uk.com/