George Edward Jones & Florence May Whitehouse

George Edward Jones was born in 1880 in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire and he was my great grandfather, my mums grandad. She knew very little about him, especially his name as he was dead before she was born. I also know very little about George. It took me years to identify him as my mother relied on stories from her mother Ethel who married Georges son, Moses in 1929 and he was classed as dead on their marriage certificate.

In the 1901 census George was employed as a coke burner while in the 1911 census he was employed as a coal miner stoneman below ground. This is the fact, now for the family myth. I was told that George went to South Africa to work in the diamond mines and was killed in a collapsed tunnel. All that was found of him was his pocket watch and nothing else. So far I have been unable to confirm this and I have been unable to find his death record, so it remains, a mystery........

Florence was older than George, having been born, in Longton, in Staffordshire in 1877. They met and married in Hemsworth (coincidence) Yorkshire. They had 6 children, George Edward Jnr in 1903, Annie in 1904, Elisa May 1905, Moses 1909, Emma 1915 and Josiah Harold born 1919. My mum remembered Elisa and Emma and I knew Josiah better know as Jo until his death in 1983. It was through Jo that I found Florences maden name which enabled me to find the family.

The problem with the Official Birth Deaths and Marriages records is that they start in 1837 but the mothers' maiden name isn't recorded until the second half of 1911. Therefore it becomes very hard to trace the family members. Because Jo was born in 1919 Florences maiden name was recorded and from that I got the relevant census. So George Edward Jnr and Annie were a suprise to me as mum had never mentioned them.

Moses and his wife devorced in the early 1940's so mum had very little contact with him. However, she remembers going to see her grandmother Florence whenever she could. Florence died in 1942.