Amelia Kaye (1851-1893)

My second person to be a topic of a blog is my great great grandmother Amelia on my maternal line. How often in family history, do birth, marriage or death certificates get passed down the line for several generations, probably not often?

Amelia Kaye was born in a village of Briestfield, Grange Moor, near Flockton, West Yorkshire on 4^th November 1851 to parents William Kaye a Carpet Weaver and Louisa Mountain. She would have been named after her grandmother, William’s mother. Below is a piece of paper I find fascinating mainly due to how old it is and the fact that is has been passed down the generations between each mother and daughter. It has been lovingly looked after. My grandmother did cello tape the back of the certificate where it was folded so as to preserve the front.

It would be nearly 2 years before she was baptised at the parish church of Flockton on 4^th Sep 1853 according to Findmypast website which had no image just the transcription. She lived with her parents throughout her childhood and into adulthood, firstly in Grange Moor and then the family moved north to the town of Liversedge, which is where she can be found in both 1861 (Ref_2) and 1871 (Ref_3) census, aged 9 and 19 respectively. In the 1861 census, her sister Sarah Ann who would have been 12 years old when Amelia was born had married Solomon Whitehead the previous year, was also living with Amelia and her parents. In the 1871 census with the address of Morris building, Mill Bridge reveals that her occupation was a cloth weaver. There were several woollen mills in the Liversedge area which forms part of the textile focused industrial region named Heavy Woollen District.

By 1873, she married a carpet weaver James Silk from Kidderminister, Worcestershire. James’ father Samuel was also a carpet weaver. I would imagine, James went from Worcestershire for work in Yorkshire. They married on the 26^th July 1873 (Ref_4) at the parish church of Birstal.

James and Amelia remained in the Liversedge area for first few years of married life. There they had 2 sons Samuel in late 1873, William in 1876 and my great grandmother Mary Louisa in 1878. Sadly she lost her father William in 1874 and then her mother Louisa in 1879. This probably prompted them to move down to Kidderminster where James’ family came from.

So by the 1881 census (Ref_5), they are living in Dudley Street Court in Kidderminster. Throughout the 1880s, the couple had a few more children Harold (1880), Frederick (1883), Emma (1885) and James (1888). The 1891 census (Ref_6) show the complete family in East Street, Kidderminster with 2 older sons as Mill hands and rest at school or at home.

Sadly in 1893 on September 8^th, Amelia passed away aged 41 at 54 East Street. Her eldest daughter Mary Louisa aged 15 took over looking after family for a few years. Amelia would never see her 2 eldest Samuel and William marry a couple of sisters Mary Annie and Emma from the Hardwick family from Stone, Worcestershire or see sons Harold and James emigrate across the pond to the states in 1907. Mary Louisa, Fred and Emma went on to move up to the Birmingham area. Husband James remained in the Kidderminster area, marrying a second time becoming a widower a second time in 1911.

As with most family history research, some of the ancestors have short lives but left an indelible mark in some way for the next generation. Certificates passed down really show this. Her name was also passed down to Samuel and Mary Annie’s daughter Dorothy Amelia Silk.

References

Ref_1 Birth certificate GRO reference 4^th quarter 1851 Dewsbury Union Vol 22 Page 121

Ref_2 1861 Census RG9 Piece number 3405 folio 49 pg 42 (from Ancestry)

Ref_3 1871 Census RG10 Piece number 4592 Folio 81 Page 47 (from Findmypast)

Ref_4 Marriage certificate GRO reference 3^rd quarter 1873 Dewsbury Vol 9B Page 861

Ref_5 1881 Census RG11 Piece number 2899 Folio 32 Page 16 (from Findmypast)

Ref_6 1891 Census RG12 Piece number 2314 Folio 77 Page 38 (from Findmypast)

Ref_7 Death certificate GRO reference 3^rd quarter 1893 Kidderminster Vol 6C Page 135