The interconnectedness of Tonypandy Osbornes

Another illustration of how inter-connected the Osborne family was/is in the Tonypandy area emerged recently.

For Matilda Osborne, born about 1884 in Misterton to Levi (brother of 2x great grandfather William) and wife Elizabeth, the finished 1911 census records on Ancestry had been awaited to put more flesh on her husband and their children. Annoyingly it is still not clear whether his name is Edwin or Edward Sheldon, but it seems likely that he went by Edward in life, but was born and died as Edwin.

At 1911, the couple were living at 17 Bush Houses {1}, married for 6 years with 3 children – 4 more can be found up to 1923, a standard size family in this generation. So that was a few more Osbornes to track for marriages, and possible appearance in the Trealaw cemetery records.

Third child Albert, born 1910, was just one of these. A marriage in 1935, Pontypridd district, was to Ivy May Picton, so I added her to the tree. And then notice that she is already there, living at 10 Bush Houses in 1911, age 1. She is both the wife of a second cousin twice removed and a sister-in-law of a first cousin twice removed. Her sister Sophia had married another Albert, a second cousin to the first via the Osborne family, Albert James Gregory.

Not that amazing really, and I don’t think the first such instance in the tree.  However I can’t remember the last example, so its not that common.

Notes

1. For more on Bush Houses, see A snapshot of Bush Houses in 1911. This now needs updating with the above connection. Typically, the Sheldon family places the terraced street in Blaenclydach, while the Pictons think it is Cwmclydach. The Gregorys, at 12 Bush Houses, go with Clydach Vale. Anyway, adjacent to Tonypandy in the Rhondda.

2. Ivy and Albert appear to have moved to Wells area of Somerset as their likely offspring are registered there:

• Olive M Sheldon born 1937
• Margaret R Sheldon 1939
• Edward J Sheldon 1941

Plus both Ivy and Albert’s likely death registrations are Mendip district, which incorporates Wells.

Update from 1939 register records (checked June 2016). In September 1939:

• Elizabeth Sheldon, older sister to Albert, is probably in Wells district with husband John Parsons (quarry labourer) and daughter Margaret (b 1928 Pontypridd district).
• Ivy and Albert, a general labourer, are in Rodney Stoke with 2 children.