The sons and daughters of John and Ann Naylor

Alan Craxford, Site Administrator

Searches of the usual resources of the internet were always patchy and incomplete. There were two or three families in the vicinity in the middle 1800s but I could never figure out which line was which. Our headway had stalled until I happened across a message left in one of the genealogy chat rooms by Brenda and Terry Radford several year before. They were looking for a family of the same name and around the same time but again this trail had gone cold and the given email address was not functional. At times like these desperate measures may be called for. I found a reference in a totally unrelated website to a couple with the same name (in the same country!) and more in hope than confidence sent them a letter. Our subsequent contact has confirmed the lineage from Edwin Naylor (my grand uncle) and has opened up a veritable cornucopia of sisters, cousins and aunts; births, marriages and other data; memories and photographs.

We have also been fascinated by the discovery of an album of photographs which was owned by Miriam and which had been partly annotated by our mother back in the 1930s. Many of the pictures unfortunately remained anonymous but must be portraits of the brothers and sisters with some of their offspring. I have made my own attempts at unlocking these secrets and this article has been added recently. In my researches I discovered a web site dedicated to the Victorian photographers of Derbyshire run by Brett Payne who lives in New Zealand. In a series of communications he has analysed these images and his results can be found in the sister article. We are hoping that we can arrange a Naylor family descendents 'reunion' later in the year to exchange notes and ideas. Maybe we can add a little clarity to this issue too.

It is now appropriate for the Naylors to have their own page on the site and I have moved the existing articles here. I am sure that there are more stories to tell and I welcome our editorial associates. I will leave the choice of content in their capable hands.

More information about other familes intermarried with the Naylors can be found on PAGE 3: The Haywoods and others

We are still searching for the descendents of the other brothers. This is the tentative information that we have about each of them so far.

Joseph

Worked as a miner and, like his father, worked up into management. He was a Colliery Deputy at Cotes Park in 1901. Also in 1901 his next door neighbour was his younger brother Alfred. Married Elizabeth Marriott in 1877. They had five children: Harold (b. 1880), Elsie (b. 1885), Alwyn (b. 1888), May (b. 1892), Hesther (B. 1893).

Thomas

Married Mary Armstrong (b. 1860, Alfreton) in 1879 (Belper 7b 606 JFM 1879) They lived initially with her father, Samuel, at Lea Brooks, Alfreton. He was also a miner reaching the position of pit deputy by 1901. They do not appear to have had children and Samuel was still living with them (aged 75) in 1901.

Maurice

We are aware that a Maurice Naylor married Matilda Byard in the last half of 1893 and that the wedding was registered in the Belper district. There are suggestions that they had two daughters, Ivy (born 1894) and Marian. We have found an entry in the 1901 census return (although they are indexed as Maylor) for the Selston District of Nottingham but this does not include any children.

Alfred

Married Ada (? surname). We assume this to have been in the last quarter of 1893. They had daughters Winifred (b. 1897) and Emily (b. 1900). Working as a Colliery Manager in 1901 and living next door to Joseph.

Arthur Could have married in the Spring of 1899 (Basford 7b 279 AMJ 1899) Wife's name either Gertrude Eaves or Mary Pinkett

Added: June 19th 2006
Updated: April 25th 2008

Terence Radford, Associate Editor

On a trip to the U.K. in 1996 we visited my aunt, Irene Leach Naylor. We asked her what she remembered of the Naylor family and she brought out the family bible which had been started by my grandfather Edwin Naylor. In it is listed the date of birth for all of his children. We took a photograph of the page. In 1997, we returned to the U.K. and my sister Margaret Radford Sheridan had found some old photographs of our mother and father and our grandparents on both sides. We returned home and through the Internet bought the Vital Records Index from the Latter Day Saints and found some interesting information on the Naylor family and my father’s family the Radfords. On yet another trip to the U.K. we purchased the 1881 British Census from the Latter Days Saints and then discovered that we could access this tool on the Web. My wife spent hours, night after night poring over records. Then we discovered another tool through Stepping Stones and obtained the Derbyshire Censuses for 1841. As time went on we discovered more and more sources of information on the Web.

The last time we were in the U.K. was in 2002 and this holiday was particularly dedicated to researching the actual records. As I had become a member of the Derbyshire Family History Society I was able to get a lot of assistance from their staff who knew exactly were to look for the information. We were very confused because there appeared to be two Naylor families from the same area who were called John and Ann and who had children with the same names. Our research stopped because we did not know which line to follow.

Recently we received a letter out of the blue, the envelope had no street address, just our name, the name of our town and the postal code. We were surprised that it even arrived. We must have had a mailman on duty that day who knew our name. The letter was from Alan Craxford. He told us that he had seen a message that my wife had posted to Roots Web a number of years ago. He had tried to contact us through our email address which was no longer correct. At first we were not sure that we were talking about the same family. After a number of emails we had to concede that Alan was right and we were wrong. We were talking about the same family. From there things have snowballed.

My Aunt Irene (Naylor) was visited by a great-nephew, Stephen Naylor. He wanted help identifying some old photographs. One of the photographs was of my 21st birthday in Nottingham. My Aunt suggested that he contact my sister Margaret who might know the names of the people in the photograph. My sister called me and I identified everyone for her. Stephen went to visit Margaret and this has opened up a whole new side of the family that I had lost contact with over the years.

I left England in 1952 to travel to Australia. I was in the Australian Army for 21 years and lived in Australia 30 years altogether. I then moved to Canada and have been here since 1983. So until my wife started researching her family, I was not very interested in looking for my family. But now I find it a fascinating, but time consuming, hobby. Now we have discovered Alan and his wonderful magazine on the family history we look forward to learning more about the Naylor family. If anyone can give us more information we will be happy to hear from you.

Terence Radford, Canada