Week 9 (February 26th -March 3rd ): Disaster


From Amy Johnson Crow - Our ancestors were no strangers to hardship and loss. We should remember those stories as much as we remember the stories of triumph. Our ancestors faced any number of disasters — natural, personal, financial. Perhaps you've had a disaster in your research. How did they (or you) overcome it? (Or maybe they didn't?)

Where I thought last week’s theme was hard this weeks has been even harder. I honestly couldn’t think of any “disaster” linked to any of my family. Yes, I had Irish ancestors but none that I could link to the potato famine, I haven’t found any that were on sinking ships like the Titanic, no bankruptcy that I knew of and I was very close to saying “this theme is a “disaster” as I can’t do it.” Then as I was really losing all hope of being able to do a good story, I received a “hint” on ancestry linked to a distant relative – the husband of my 3rd Great Aunt, George Cousins to be precise. Now I know not all ancestry “hints” are correct or useful etc, but this was linked to a newspaper article that linked to what I had for George’s work, so I started looking for the newspaper article, and with help from people on forums we have found the article (as well as a 2nd one linked to the one form Ancestry.).

George Cousins, was born in 1844 in Thirkleby, Yorkshire. He died in December 1897. He married my 3rd Great  Aunt Eliza Richardson in 1871 in Weaverthorpe, Yorkshire, they had 9 children of which 3 died young.


George had a few different jobs – at age 16 he was a servant, at age 26 he was a farm labourer and then at age 36 a cart driver. This last job is where his story and “disaster” began.

On the 1881 census (left) George is listed as a “Cart Driver”, it doesn’t say where at though.

On the 1891 census (see below) George is listed as “Drayman”, again it doesn’t say where at.




However, this mystery of employment location was solved when I received the “hint” on Ancestry linked to a newspaper article that another person linked to George had shared (Well I say shared, they had copied the text to a word document and pasted it as a story.) I went looking for the actual newspaper article and couldn’t find it, so I asked on a couple of forums for help, a lady couldn’t find the article I was on about but found a follow up article possibly a day or 2 later than the original. Another lady on a different forum managed to find the original as well.

Both articles refer to the “disaster” surrounding George’s death, which happened linked to his place of work at “John Smith and sons, Worsted Spinners, Fieldhead Mill, Bradford. He worked for Messers Carver & co Carriers. He was delivering to John Smith and Sons (he didn’t work for them).


The article that came up as a “hint” is as follows below, it states where the “disaster” happened and how it happened, all linked to the dray horse going the wrong way and George falling off the dray cart. I already had the date of George’s death but not the cause, so this article is very helpful and gives lots of information. The cause of death is listed as “Apoplexy” (which is bleeding of internal organs, and in this case linked to a head injury). The medical dictionary states it as:  Apoplexy: A venerable term for a stroke, a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), often associated with loss of consciousness and paralysis of various parts of the body.


The follow up newspaper article (below left) is slightly different to the original article (left), but again it has a lot of information on it as it gives some detail of his health prior to his death.

George’s death was a “disaster” that happened, I just hope that he didn’t suffer and that he died quickly.


I have found an image on google of a man on a Dray cart, linked to the textiles industry – it is NOT George but shows a similar type of cart he would have used for his work prior to his death.

I also found on Google an image of John Smith & Sons factory in Fieldhead Mill, Bradford where his accident leading to death occurred which I have also attached below.

I’m not sure what I expected to find linked to a “disaster” but I don’t think it was what I found.

















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