Richard Ashman

My great-great grandfather James Richard Ashman is listed on the 1891 census as living in Morley, Yorkshire and born in Uppingham, Rutlandshire. On the 1901 census he is living in Salford and place of birth has a ditto sign below the neighbour who was born in Ireland. I thought this was a mistake and was convinced he was born in Rutlandshire (I even sent my brother, Matthew on a photo trip to Uppingham as it was only a few hundred miles out of his way when driving home from a job he was doing) until I saw the 1911 census which clearly states he was born in Ireland, written in his own hand. What intrigues me is why the clearly stated Uppingham birthplace when as far as I can tell he didn’t have anything to do with the place.

Thanks to a kind man in New Zealand I have now found the 1871 census and it is clear that he was born in Ireland although it’s not clear why. His family were born in fairly dispersed places. The next two brothers were born in Kent, the following one in Croydon and the younger two in Yorkshire where they were all living at the time of the 1871 census. It could be that the father, James Ashman was in the army, although he was a miner, aged 40, in Yorkshire at the time.

Apparently, their mother, Mary Ann died in 1874 and the younger children were brought up by a family in Salford. Richard and his brother Daniel went to the Morley area for work.

Richard is working in Morley in 1881 and he married Rachel Almond in 1882. My great- grandmother Laura Ann Ashman was born in 1883. There are many photos and lots of memories of this handsome, jolly, enterprising woman. In fact, one of my uncles has published a novel about her husband's time in WW1 and the family left behind in Salford. Made in Myrtle Street by B.A. Lightfoot, Ranelagh books 2009 http://www.ranelaghbooks.co.uk/

Laura Ann was born in Morley but by 1901 they had moved over to Salford as so many people did at the beginning of the century. She married Edward Clunie and the rest, they say, is history.