Tuesday 25 December 2012

Tombstone Tuesday - Dyson Oldroyd connections

This is a gravestone photo the OH and I took many years ago on an afternoon out to Thornhill in West Yorkshire.  I remember the day especially because the OH had taken the day off work for his driving test, which, hooray! he passed with no problems at all.  We had planned the afternoon excursion on the bus to Thornhill as we didn't have a car in those days.  It was a great day out, top deck of the bus, lovely views from Thornhill Edge and a couple of good pubs along the way.

The OH's 2x great grandfather Herbert Benson came from Thornhill to Barnsley at some point after the 1881 census and before 1890 which is when he married Annie Jones at Darton church.  I had done a fair bit of research on the family before we set off to Thornhill that day so when we were indulging in a bit of Taphophilia (that's today's new word - it means enjoying pootling around in cemeteries and rubbing/photographing/recording gravestones) I spotted the stone below and knew it was Herbert's sister Sarah Ann.

Dyson and Sarah Ann Oldroyd's gravestone in St Michael's churchyard, Thornhill, Yks
I like the stone because of the additional information about Dyson - "voluntary choir master of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Thornhill Edge".  Not often you get such detail on a gravestone. 

Recently I was browsing my friend GB's tree on Ancestry and saw an Oldroyd in her husband's tree.  On checking it transpired that his great grandmother was Dyson Oldroyd's sister.  Thus making my husband and my friend related, again! OK, through marriage twice this time, but the world keeps getting smaller!

If you are wondering why I'm posting gravestones on Christmas Day you'll find my reasons for having already had an early Christmas here.

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