ANNIE KINSON (nee JOHNSON) see more here
(Great Grandmother) Annie Kinson (nee Johnson) was born in the small village of Tudhoe, part of Spennymoor in County Durham. She is one of nine children raised by her parents Robert and Hannah Johnson (nee Hardy). The census of 1881 confirms she is living in Tudhoe's James Street, (where some houses still exist today) and that she goes to the village school, Tudhoe Colliery School built by the Weardale Iron and Coal Company in 1875. The attraction of better paid work in the local coal mines and the shipyards draws he father to relocate the family in the 1890's to the port of South Shields. Their first house is in Wentworth Terrace.
At 16 years old Annie leaves home to work as a live-in domestic servant to Henry Gray (a Collector of Taxes) who lives close-by in the same Wentworth Terrace. Sometime later, and it can only be speculation as to how they met, Annie finds her future husband, Arthur Charles Kinson and on Monday 11 September 1893, just before her 19th birthday, and giving a new family address of 13 Marsden Street, Annie is married in Shields' St Marks (Holy Trinity) Church.
Motherhood soon arrives but not without real tragedies. In the late 1800's and early 1900's and before antibiotics and disease-specific vaccines parents feared a wide variety of childhood diseases: measles, mumps, smallpox, chickenpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever and more.
Additionally, the shift in population from country to city that accompanied industrialization led to overcrowding in poor housing served by inadequate or non-existent water supplies and waste-disposal systems. From the time of her first child born in October 1894 to her last in October 1906 Annie lost three of her seven children (two boys and a girl).
Annie and husband Arthur continually moved houses including the two roomed "back to back" tenement house at 219 Marsden Street and then to the "luxury" three roomed terraced house at 18 John Clay Street.
These terrible losses must have made for a difficult time for Annie, not only in trying to console herself, but also having to explain such matters to her young family. Maybe life then became "a last straw situation" when husband Arthur, once of the South Staffordshire Regiment, and despite having many different low paid jobs in the town, finds himself in 1904 out of work again. Unilaterally he decides to enlist in the Durham Light Infantry Reservists and is posted to Gibraltar.
Annie, 32 years old and mother to his six children, decided (or had it decided for her), she and Arthur were to part. No divorce document has been found. (On 26 July 1910 ex-husband Arthur Charles Kinson remarries widow Elizabeth Ashby and with one son, John Robert aged 10, goes to live with her and her own three children, 125 miles away in Sheffield).
In 1907, and with Arthur Kinson now out of her life, Annie lives with or takes in an ex-Royal Navy seafarer Fenwick Slade as her lodger. Two years later a boy is born. They name him Stanley Fenwick. The census of 2 April 1911 reveals an "Ada Slade" is living at 85 Alfred Street with the father of the same newborn and with two of her own Kinson boys. It is clear that this "Ada" is our Annie Kinson!
The following year, on the 16 August 1912, Annie's 16 year old son Thomas goes to Sunderland City Centre to enlist with the Army's West Riding Regiment. He gives his home address as 26 Hyde Street, South Shields and his next of kin as Mother Annie, but is that where she was actually living? - it is not made clear. And where is Fenwick Slade? (Records later show he is at Sea regularly until his death on 12 September 1934 in the Azores, Portugal).
At 16 years old Annie leaves home to work as a live-in domestic servant to Henry Gray (a Collector of Taxes) who lives close-by in the same Wentworth Terrace. Sometime later, and it can only be speculation as to how they met, Annie finds her future husband, Arthur Charles Kinson and on Monday 11 September 1893, just before her 19th birthday, and giving a new family address of 13 Marsden Street, Annie is married in Shields' St Marks (Holy Trinity) Church.
Motherhood soon arrives but not without real tragedies. In the late 1800's and early 1900's and before antibiotics and disease-specific vaccines parents feared a wide variety of childhood diseases: measles, mumps, smallpox, chickenpox, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever and more.
Additionally, the shift in population from country to city that accompanied industrialization led to overcrowding in poor housing served by inadequate or non-existent water supplies and waste-disposal systems. From the time of her first child born in October 1894 to her last in October 1906 Annie lost three of her seven children (two boys and a girl).
Annie and husband Arthur continually moved houses including the two roomed "back to back" tenement house at 219 Marsden Street and then to the "luxury" three roomed terraced house at 18 John Clay Street.
These terrible losses must have made for a difficult time for Annie, not only in trying to console herself, but also having to explain such matters to her young family. Maybe life then became "a last straw situation" when husband Arthur, once of the South Staffordshire Regiment, and despite having many different low paid jobs in the town, finds himself in 1904 out of work again. Unilaterally he decides to enlist in the Durham Light Infantry Reservists and is posted to Gibraltar.
Annie, 32 years old and mother to his six children, decided (or had it decided for her), she and Arthur were to part. No divorce document has been found. (On 26 July 1910 ex-husband Arthur Charles Kinson remarries widow Elizabeth Ashby and with one son, John Robert aged 10, goes to live with her and her own three children, 125 miles away in Sheffield).
In 1907, and with Arthur Kinson now out of her life, Annie lives with or takes in an ex-Royal Navy seafarer Fenwick Slade as her lodger. Two years later a boy is born. They name him Stanley Fenwick. The census of 2 April 1911 reveals an "Ada Slade" is living at 85 Alfred Street with the father of the same newborn and with two of her own Kinson boys. It is clear that this "Ada" is our Annie Kinson!
The following year, on the 16 August 1912, Annie's 16 year old son Thomas goes to Sunderland City Centre to enlist with the Army's West Riding Regiment. He gives his home address as 26 Hyde Street, South Shields and his next of kin as Mother Annie, but is that where she was actually living? - it is not made clear. And where is Fenwick Slade? (Records later show he is at Sea regularly until his death on 12 September 1934 in the Azores, Portugal).
Annie meanwhile remarries at South Shields Register Office on 13 July 1915.
She becomes Mrs Annie Smith. The marriage certificate states that Annie and her groom, Albert Smith are living at 35 Somerset Street, beside the Roman Catholic Church of St Bede's. The marriage certificate states she is a widow; but which, if we discount her time "living with" Fenwick Slade and follow the life of her former husband Arthur, is not true. (Arthur has been married to Elizabeth these past 5 years).
By following the whereabouts of some of Annie's children it is clear that she remains in South Shields. This is because when son John Robert joins the Royal Navy in February 1918 he gives his next of kin and address as mother Annie and "South Shields". Then Thomas (after his marriage) changes his next of kin and address from mother Annie, Burleigh Street, South Shields to wife Ethel, Hood Street Gateshead. In 1921 son John Robert marries Maria Newham and it would seem from this point they either live with or are very close neighbours to Annie in Somerset Street. John Robert's family all recall her as "Grandma Kinson" even though she had been married to Albert Smith. But why is there no talk of her second husband, Albert?
On 30 April 1928 and at the age of 54, there is another wedding. It seems Annie goes into the marriage as Annie "Ada" Kinson, a widow. She marries Thomas Doyle (yet another seafarer) at the Sunderland Registry Office. They give their address as 1 Kendal Street, Sunderland, although this must have been a way of getting around a need to call duplicate "banns". In addition to stating that she is a widow (she is not - at least, not a Kinson widow!), Annie also states her father Robert Johnson is deceased, but can she be believed?
There is no local death record for Robert Johnson between the 1911 census and her wedding date nor is there any divorce or death certificates for her previous husband Albert Smith!This might point to why her and Thomas marry "quietly" in Sunderland.
One of Annie's grandson's (John Robert's son) recalls fond memories of Annie and Thomas from this time because on his return home on leave, "Tom" would always bring the family much appreciated food parcels. Also, and whenever Tom returned to the house on leave, Annie always gave her grandson the task of going to the pawnbrokers to get back "Grandad Tom's" clothes she had "hocked" whilst he had been at sea! During this time "Grandma Kinson and Grandad Tom" lived at 11a Back Green Street, Laygate, South Shields. The house was above the local busy shops and also next door to the even busier Alexandra Pub.
By 1934, Annie, once again, has moved house to 162 John Williamson Street off Laygate Lane.
Another grandchild recalls how in the latter 1930's, each week on a Friday, Grandma Kinson would visit her parents (John Robert and wife Maria) at 52 Canterbury Street to collect from them a weekly subsistence payment of 10/s, a generous sum given that wages were probably no more than £2.10/s per week! This arrangement may have come about due to the death of Annie's husband Thomas on 23 February 1938 from severe bronchitis.
That next winter, 1939/1940 was one of the coldest and snowiest on record with particularly cold weather during December through January. Temperatures fell to the lowest for at least 100 years. Annie, now aged 65 and living a meagre life and for whom life had had its "ups and downs" passes away at home of broncho-pneumonia and cardiac failure on New Year's Day, the 1 January 1940.
Her son John Robert, at times seemingly the only consistent person in her life, was present at her death. Annie Doyle (nee Kinson) was buried in Harton Cemetery, South Shields on Thursday 4 January 1940.
She becomes Mrs Annie Smith. The marriage certificate states that Annie and her groom, Albert Smith are living at 35 Somerset Street, beside the Roman Catholic Church of St Bede's. The marriage certificate states she is a widow; but which, if we discount her time "living with" Fenwick Slade and follow the life of her former husband Arthur, is not true. (Arthur has been married to Elizabeth these past 5 years).
By following the whereabouts of some of Annie's children it is clear that she remains in South Shields. This is because when son John Robert joins the Royal Navy in February 1918 he gives his next of kin and address as mother Annie and "South Shields". Then Thomas (after his marriage) changes his next of kin and address from mother Annie, Burleigh Street, South Shields to wife Ethel, Hood Street Gateshead. In 1921 son John Robert marries Maria Newham and it would seem from this point they either live with or are very close neighbours to Annie in Somerset Street. John Robert's family all recall her as "Grandma Kinson" even though she had been married to Albert Smith. But why is there no talk of her second husband, Albert?
On 30 April 1928 and at the age of 54, there is another wedding. It seems Annie goes into the marriage as Annie "Ada" Kinson, a widow. She marries Thomas Doyle (yet another seafarer) at the Sunderland Registry Office. They give their address as 1 Kendal Street, Sunderland, although this must have been a way of getting around a need to call duplicate "banns". In addition to stating that she is a widow (she is not - at least, not a Kinson widow!), Annie also states her father Robert Johnson is deceased, but can she be believed?
There is no local death record for Robert Johnson between the 1911 census and her wedding date nor is there any divorce or death certificates for her previous husband Albert Smith!This might point to why her and Thomas marry "quietly" in Sunderland.
One of Annie's grandson's (John Robert's son) recalls fond memories of Annie and Thomas from this time because on his return home on leave, "Tom" would always bring the family much appreciated food parcels. Also, and whenever Tom returned to the house on leave, Annie always gave her grandson the task of going to the pawnbrokers to get back "Grandad Tom's" clothes she had "hocked" whilst he had been at sea! During this time "Grandma Kinson and Grandad Tom" lived at 11a Back Green Street, Laygate, South Shields. The house was above the local busy shops and also next door to the even busier Alexandra Pub.
By 1934, Annie, once again, has moved house to 162 John Williamson Street off Laygate Lane.
Another grandchild recalls how in the latter 1930's, each week on a Friday, Grandma Kinson would visit her parents (John Robert and wife Maria) at 52 Canterbury Street to collect from them a weekly subsistence payment of 10/s, a generous sum given that wages were probably no more than £2.10/s per week! This arrangement may have come about due to the death of Annie's husband Thomas on 23 February 1938 from severe bronchitis.
That next winter, 1939/1940 was one of the coldest and snowiest on record with particularly cold weather during December through January. Temperatures fell to the lowest for at least 100 years. Annie, now aged 65 and living a meagre life and for whom life had had its "ups and downs" passes away at home of broncho-pneumonia and cardiac failure on New Year's Day, the 1 January 1940.
Her son John Robert, at times seemingly the only consistent person in her life, was present at her death. Annie Doyle (nee Kinson) was buried in Harton Cemetery, South Shields on Thursday 4 January 1940.