NAYLORS OF SOUTH NORMANTON, DERBYSHIRE

The sons and daughters of John and Ann Naylor

Alan Craxford
Site Administrator

I am one quarter Naylor. My associations and memories of the family are distinctly hazy as my grandmother died 30 years before I was born and my grandfather married again. Our mother often referred to a large family (of at least seven uncles) who lived somewhere in the Derbyshire coalfields. My sister and I have spent several years trying to trace the Naylor family bouyed by a rather faded sepia photograph of the nine children who lived into adulthood. We have recounted our knowledge of one brother (John Henry) and the two sisters (Mary and Miriam) in one of the articles on this page.

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.

Continued in column 2...

Terence Radford
Associate Editor

My interest in my family history started when my wife Brenda began to look into her family tree. My father-in-law showed us some excerpts from “The Snapper” Magazine on his grandfather. From this small beginning we started to trace back her family and of course mine was not to be left out.

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

Maurice

We are aware that a Maurice Naylor married Matilda Byard at the Congregational Chapel, Alfreton in the December 1893 and that the wedding was registered in the Belper district. 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. We know of Marian (born 1904) but there are also suggestions of another daughter, Ivy, but she has not been found.

Alfred

Married Ada Cutler. 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. By 1911 they had moved on to Chesterfield.

Arthur

Married Margaret Levick in 1901 and had one known son, Cyril. Last known whereabouts was Alfreton.

Continued in column 3...

PAULINE RADFORD CLARKE: 1929-2010
"Pauline had blonde curly hair and looked a lot like a young Shirley Temple.".

MARGARET SHERIDAN: 1939-2009
"The mayoral collar was so heavy that it kept slipping forward on her small frame.".

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF JOHN NAYLOR
"I appoint Joseph Naylor and Alfred Naylor Executors of this my will ".

RECOLLECTIONS OF LIVING IN COAL MINING COMMUNITIES
"When the wife and children were out or away then he managed to wash 'possible'".

A RICH SEAM OF FAMILY HISTORY
“John and Ann Naylor had a large family; seven sons and two daughters living to adulthood.”

RELOCATION TO LEICESTER
In the footsteps of Mary, John Henry and Miriam Naylor.

MIRIAM'S ALBUM
“It is tempting to imagine that these represent photographs taken to commemorate their engagement.”

MIRIAM'S ALBUM - A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
“I will warn you in advance that I'm going dispute some of your identifications.”

NOW THIS IS A CONUNDRUM
It has taken me some time to realise the conundrum lying dormant withinthe covers of this little book...

If you have any questions or comments about the information on this site, please contact us at AlanCrax@aol.com or brelan@videotron.ca. We look forward to hearing from you.

Page Added: June 19th 2006
Last Update: September 5th 2011

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