My exploration of Genealogy

Catherine Alice Collins was my Nan. My mother’s mother.

Kate was born on 20th September 1902 in Southampton, Hampshire, England, and her parents were Edward Nash Collins and Alice Florence Furzey.

Alice was Edward’s second wife, the first was Jemima Joanna Brookman. Jemima was born in 1858 in Southampton, Hampshire, her father, John, was 51, and her mother, Rose, was 44. She married Edward Nash Collins on 27th July 1884 in Southampton. She died on 1st October 1894 at the young age of 36. They had four children during their marriage. Elizabeth Emma Rose Collins was born in 1885, Beatrice Janet Collins was born in 1887, Laura Jessie Leah Collins was born in 1888, and Ellen Maud Collins was born in 1892. They were aged 9, 7, 6, and 2 respectively, when their mother died in 1894.

Edward was only 37 when Jemima died. Within a year, he had married Alice. According to their Marriage Certificate Edward Nash Collins (38, Widower) - Alice Florence Furzey (21, Spinster) on 3 June 1895 in the Parish Church of St Mary, Southampton, both of 73 Grove St, Southampton. Fathers, Thomas Collins, Labourer and Charles Henry Furzey, Marinier. In the presence of James Collins and Kate Turpin. Alice was 17 years his younger.

Edward’s mother was Elizabeth Peninah Hills Nash and her father was Edward Nash. I have a DNA connection with Edward Nash but there is some confusion with the paperwork surrounding people with the same name.

Further reading; An article about Edward Nash late 1700 to early 1800.
This is not a story about a single person but about many people called Edward Nash.

Kate was brought up in 89 Grove Street, St Mary’s, Southampton. She was recorded as being 8 years old in the 1911 Census. Her father Edward is stated as being a House Carpenter. All three daughters of Alice, including Kate, are still living with their parents at that time, together with Jessie, an older daughter from Edward's previous marriage.

Grove Street is still there but the whole area has been redeveloped. Follow the link to see an 1870 map of the area. A map of the area around Grove Street and the Chapel Road Level crossing.
If I have remembered the reminisces correctly, 89 Grove Street backed on to the busy railway line which led to the Southampton Terminus Station and the Docks.

From the 1846 map the London and South Western Railway (known up to June 1839 as the London and Southampton Railway) had increased the number of lines at the Level crossing from two to three on the 1870 map. It has a signal box and is the beginning of the throat approaching the Terminus Station. Trains used to pass here going to the Ocean Terminal, at a later time, and thence onto a trans-Atlantic Liner to the USA.
I have even travelled from there on the Orient Express, sadly after the Ocean Terminal was closed in 1980, and subsequently demolished and replaced with a more modern, less impressive, shed.

On 09 October 1916 Bertram Harry Stephen Pomeroy, who was born on 4 July 1902, and lived at 141 Radcliffe Road, Northam, Southampton, Hampshire, started work at the age of 14, at London South Western Railway at a wage of 7/- per week (£0.35) as a Parcels Van Lad.
He was recommended into the job by Mr Bell, Parcels Clerk at Southampton. Presumably this was at Southampton Terminus Station as apposed to the then smaller Southampton West Station, which is now the main station, renamed to Southampton Central. Was it this proximity which led to Bert and Kate meeting?

He was promoted to Parcels Porter with a wage of 12/- per week (£0.60) on 17 March 1919. He was still only 16 years old. He was too young to have served in the Great War, and the railways may have been a protected occupation.

An extract from Network Rail

In 1914, the country had 23,000 miles of rail track and 4,000 stations, according to industry body Rail Delivery Group. Passenger numbers had reached more than 1.5 million.
The railway had become one of Britain’s biggest employers with more than 700,000 workers. Of these, more than 100,000 enlisted when war broke out, leading to a substantial skills shortage at home when the railway was under great pressure than to deliver forces and supplies to the front line.
By the end of the war, 20,000 railway staff had tragically lost their lives.

The first deployments
Britain declared war on 4 August 1914 and by the end of the month, the railway had transported almost 120,000 servicemen to Southampton, where they would board boats to France.
The first train carrying members of the original expeditionary force left Waterloo station on the morning of Sunday 10 August, arriving into Southampton station at 8.15am.
Over the next three weeks, a train full of troops would reach the docks every 12 minutes, 14-hours a day.

All travelling past Kate’s family’s backyard

Bert was promoted to Motor Parcels Vanman with a wage of 59/6 per week (£2.975) on 15 February 1923. Just a short time before his wedding.

Kate and Bert married on 21 May 1923 in the presence of: Edward N Collins, Alfred D Pomeroy, Neville Lovett, and L A Collins, at St Marys Parish Church, Southampton, just a stones through away from Kate’s home.

Kate had Rheumatic fever and was very poorly at some stage. I am not sure, but I think it was as an adult, possibly after she and Bert married. She moved from home and was looked after by relatives.

About 1935 Kate and Bert lived in 77 Radcliffe Road, Northam, Southampton, and by 1938 had moved to Oakley Road, Freemantle, Southampton, away from the town centre and docks.

That was short lived though, as by the time of the 1939 Register, on 29 September 1939, they had moved back close to Southampton Terminus Station and Grove Street. They were living at 5 Western Terrace. Western Terrace was off Chapel Road, opposite to Grove Street, approx. parallel to the railway and Nelson St. The houses were probably railway cottages. The Chapel Road railway gates were at the start of Western Terrace. Bert is recorded as being a Motor Driver, possibly for the railway driving the three-wheel mechanical horse, a predecessor to an articulated lorry, as he was known to have done that about that time. Living with them were Bessie and Laura Tyler. Bessie had the same birthday as Kate, 20 September, but 1918 not 1902. Bessie was a shop assistant and Laura a hide cutting machinist.

The mass evacuation of children and other vulnerable people took place in early September 1939, before National Registration on 29 September that year, according to the National Archives. Kate and Bert had two children at the outbreak of war. Peggy Alice Mary, my Mum, born on Kate’s birthday, and Edward (Ted) Bertram Dan Pomeroy, Peggy’s younger brother. They were both evacuated to Bournemouth, to a large house with servants and big garden, but relocated as Ted became ill. The 1939 register has them both living at 1248 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, with Mr Albert W Boyle and Mrs Dorothy V Boyle and their son, also at school, Francis W Boyle. This, as I understand it, is the relocated address. This explains why Kate and Bert’s children are not with them in their 1939 Register Record, at 5 Western Terrace.

One of Kate’s half-sisters was Laura Jessie Leah Collins. She was born in October 1888 in Southampton, Hampshire, her father, Edward, was 31, and her mother, Jemima, was 30. She married William Thomas Tyler in March 1918 in her hometown of Southampton. They had three children during their marriage. Her husband William died in 1924 and she died in June 1936 in Southampton, Hampshire, at the young age of 47. The three children were Bessie Frances Tyler, born on 20 September 1918, Joan Augusta Tyler, born on 7 July 1920, and Laura Florence Tyler, born on 18 July 1923 They were aged 17, 15, and 12 respectively when their mother died. Kate and Bert took them all in as their own following the death of Laura Jessie Leah. My understanding is that they were never formally adopted, just family looks after family. Apparently, Joan worked in the BAT tobacco factory near Millbrook, near Regents Park Road in 1938, not far from Oakley Road, Freemantle, Southampton. However, Joan is not with them in the 1939 register, just a year later. She is recorded as being in 24 College Street, working as a slide cutting machinist, living with the Prondley family. Less than half a mile away from Western Terrace. Joan might have been a bit rebellious and had moved out by 19 years of age.

Interestingly, there is another Pomeroy family at number 9 Western Terrace.

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