Further Speculation about William T. Slater's Yorkshire Roots

When William T. Slater, one of my maternal third great grandfathers, applied for citizenship in Jefferson County, Indiana, he stated he was 27 years old and a native of  "York County, England."* We've never been able to definitively trace William's antecedents to a specific location in Yorkshire so when this book came to my attention** I decided it might be worth a try:

[Yorkshire surnames: Are you a Brook, Haigh or a Hirst? Find out where your name came from 

The Huddersfield Examiner: 20 Dec 2015]

I first looked on worldcat.org hoping to find it in a local library but the nearest copy is 629 miles away in Salt Lake City and Amazon's vendor's asking price is $135. Fortunately I was able to find a bookseller in England for a fraction of that, although it turned out I had to pay extra because it's a brick of a book.

When my copy arrived I couldn't wait to see if Slater rates an entry. And it does! (However, Tiller which we believe to be his middle name, doesn't appear.)

According to Mr Redmonds this although this surname can be found thinly spread in many other English counties, it's in "the Pennine area where the name was exceptionally common: Lancashire, West Riding [Yorkshire], Staffordshire, and Derbyshire."

Concentrating on the West Riding this list of Slaters in Yorkshire that Christine found via FindMyPast several years ago hasn't changed materially.***

[findmypast.org]

Christine notes that the Wakefield individual died the in 1815 and I found that the Thornton William Slater was enumerated there in the 1851 English Census which leaves the one erroneously listed as born in Morley. Looking at the baptismal record the actual parish of birth was Leeds and the family's abode was Mill Shaw [Millshaw] a hamlet in Beeston which was a center of woolen cloth manufacture and is still considered an industrial area.

[Ancestry.com. West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Original data: West Yorkshire Nonconformist Records. Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield, England:

West Yorkshire Archive Service.]

No occupation was listed for William Slater [Senior] but the only time that column seems to have been filled was only when the father was identified with a trade like mason, cordwainer, or clothier which is very seldom. Apparently being a mill hand wasn't deemed worthy of note. The initials purported to be the "Signature of Parents" are all in the same handwriting all throughout the register which would seem to indicate that none of the couples were expected to be able to sign their names.

I've found baptism records for four other children of this William and Mary Slater: Joseph (born 1789 in Churwell); Isaac (born 1790 in Millshaw); Betty (born in Beeston 1794) and Benjamin (born in 1806 in Mill Shaw).****

There's no proof that my ancestor was the William Slater born to this family but I think it's a definite possibility. To someone growing up in the bleak atmosphere of an early Industrial Revolution woolen mill town  and facing a future of unrelenting toil might well find "taking the King's shilling" an attractive idea since the bounty offered could equal several months pay.*****

However he found himself on board one of the over fifty ships comprising the British naval fleet invading Louisiana in 1815, it's clear that William Slater chose to end his military career then and there.

*Christine posted about her discovery of this record here.
**Sadly I don't remember who/where I saw the reference to this book so I can't give them credit.
***Except for the addition of a William Slater born in Whitby, North Yorkshire, in 1790 whom I'm ignoring for now.
****So far I haven't found other records for any these people.
*****Leeds, located 50-60 miles from the nearest port, wouldn't seem to be a likely place for a naval press gang.



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Hill Freeman Warren (1896 - 1956), MD

We've been searching for my grandfather James Chappell Warren Jr.'s older brother "Henry H." for a long time.

[Year: 1900; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Johnson, Texas; Roll: 1649; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 0053; FHL microfilm: 1241649. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.]

As Christine wrote in a post focusing on their father James Chappell Warren Sr. in January of 2015:

"His son Henry was not on the 1910 Census but Nannie counted him as still living.  I am unsure of Henry's fate as I don't find him after the 1900 Census."

As you can see in the 1910 U.S. Census, although only two were still living at home, Nannie stated she had three surviving children at the time.

[Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Johnson, Texas; Roll: T624_1569; Page: 17B; Enumeration District: 0042; FHL microfilm: 1375582. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, Washington, D.C.]

His maternal grandfather was Henry Hill Freeman so we assumed that Henry's middle name was probably Hill too but never found a trace of that name in subsequent censuses, military or school records, or Texas death records. In our family tree Henry's profile ended in 1900. What happened to him?

Last Sunday night, since I planned to write about my great great grandmother Nannie Freeman Warren in my Monday Is for Mothers post, it seemed a good idea to take another look for her oldest son. I knew from experience that trying to locate a Henry H. Warren had proved fruitless so I decided to see what an Ancestry.com search for an H. Warren would turn up.

[Ancestry.com]

Well, the age was right and we thought there was a "Hill" in his name but Connecticut? However the next record, from Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007 database, was dispositive:

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:

Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.]

I had found my missing great uncle!

We still haven't found Hill Freeman Warren* in the 1910 U.S. Census but we know where he was in 1915--studying medicine at Vanderbilt University. We even have a portrait of him.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 (database on-line).]

[Detail of above yearbook page]

Hill was active in college sports. How good was he? A student representative speaking for Vanderbilt's Medical Department at a Faculty-Senior Dinner on April 16, 1915, said in part:

[Vanderbilt University Quarterly, Volume 15. page 114.

Source: Google Books]

From records published during World War II listing retired naval officers we learn than Hill enlisted as an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Navy on August 20, 1917, was ranked a lieutenant on June 6, 1920 and left the service on October 22, 1923.

[Ancestry.com. U.S., Select Military Registers, 1862-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: United States Military Registers, 1902–1985. Salem, Oregon: Oregon State Library.]

From the 1920 U.S. Census we learn that Hill was then living in Newport, Rhode Island, with his Connecticut-born wife Grace (Morris) Warren.

[Year: 1920; Census Place: Newport Ward 5, Newport, Rhode Island; Roll: T625_1670; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 59; Image: 1095. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

The couple's firstborn, Morris Hill Warren. was born in 1921 and their second child, Elizabeth, came into the world on May 20, 1923, only three weeks after my father Tracy Stuart Warren's birth in Texas.

By the 1930 U.S. Census, Hill, Grace and their family were settled in New London, Connecticut, and he was a general practitioner. His mother-in-law Grace (Morley) Morris was living with them. (They owned their house but didn't have a radio.)

[Year: 1930; Census Place: New London, New London, Connecticut; Roll: 282; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 0026; Image: 317.0; FHL microfilm: 2340017. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.]

All five of  them were still living together in New London in the 1940 U.S. Census and Hill was now calling himself "Physician & Surgeon."

[Year: 1940; Census Place: New London, New London, Connecticut; Roll: T627_524; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 6-44. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.]

And the Warrens are listed in the 1945 New London City Directory.**

[Ancestry.com - U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995]

As i knew from the first post-1900 record I found, my "lost" great uncle died on October 13, 1956 in Hartford, Connecticut. So far I haven't located his obituary or place of burial.




*He appears never to have used his first name as an adult.
**Checking the listings, Grace Morris was still living with them.



© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.