30 January 2009

William Eric Neale c1907

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  • Subject: William Eric Neale
  • Date: 20 Jul 1910
  • Photographer: Unknown
  • Found: UK

At first glance you would think this one would be an easy one to identify but again I only have a 'probable' not a 'positive'.

I found two birth registrations that fitted the bill:-

Births Sep 1907
NEALE William Eric Lincoln 7a 476 Lincolnshire
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Births Dec 1908
NEALE William Eric Woodstock 3a 1020 Oxfordshire

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Going by the date on the photo the first one in 1907 seemed the most likely. Both of them are listed in the 1911 census index. The first one was aged 3 living in Lincoln and the second one aged 2 living in Witney, Oxfordshire - 2 Apr 1911 was the date of the census so the first one still seems the most likely.

The Lincolnshire William Eric Neale's parents were Herbert Edward Neale & Margaret Eleanor nee Hayward, they were married in 1893 in Lincoln. In 1901 they were in Lincoln but with no children at home, in 1911 their only child at home was Wm Eric and the census says they had been married for 17 years, somewhat of a surprise I would say!

I was slightly confused with the word 'Cromer', is it a place, the name of the father in the photo, what? When I looked up a place named Cromer there are two in the UK, one in Hertfordshire and the other in Norfolk. In the 1911 census there are quite a few Neale families living in both places but none of them with the name William aged 3 or thereabouts.

From that I guess that seeing that the Cromer in Norfolk is on the coast, not that far from Lincoln, that they may have been on a holiday when the above photo was taken, what a shame there is no photographers logo on it.

Herbert Edward Neale was a Mechanical Engineer with three servants in 1911 so it looks like they were comfortably well off, he certainly looks like it in the photo - if it is him of course.

You will find more information on the Neale family of Lincolnshire in my Strangers in a Box database.

References:
ancestry.com
FreeBMD
International Genealogical Index

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1 comment:

J. D. Newman said...

I had a great great uncle that would have been that age, who lived in the UK. I assume his name was William Neale. My great grandmother, his sister, was Nell and her maiden name was Neale. The big thing I remember was her 80th birthday present/surprise in 1985 was all the family pooling the funds to shout her younger brother Bill (how old I don't know) to come out to New Zealand to see her.

Probably a fairly common name, and he might have been way older than two years from my great grandmother.

jasondnewman@hotmail.com