Hello!

I am trying to find more information about my grandfather John William MacHale (McHale), born 21 Jan 1902 in Sheffield to William and Margaret MacHale.

I found this record below through the Sheffield Indexers page :

http://www.sheffieldindexers.com/SchoolsIndex.html

"McHale, John Wm (Student, dob 21 Jan 1902).
Parent or guardian name(s): ~ (~), of Cottage Homes.
Admitted to Owler Lane Junior Mixed School, Grimesthorpe, as of 9 May 1910,
until 14 Apr 1910, for leaving: Left Homes. Previously attended Carlisle St Cl."

I wonder how I can find out more about his guardians at the Cottage Homes and the rest of his school records while he lived in Sheffield.

Any help anyone can provide on this or where to look for further information about John's time in Sheffield would be most helpful. All pointers gratefully appreciated!

Many thanks for all responses.

Hi Liz,
There is a lot of background information online about the Fulwood Cottage Homes. Simply google it.
You are unlikely to find any other school information. Our site has many schools records, but they represent less than 10% of all the schools in Sheffield. The records for most of the schools are simply not available.
The records for the Cottage homes are available at Sheffield Archives. If you cannot go there then you can download a search form online and pay for a search. That should give you the followings info.
Date of entry to homes, names of parent(s) or guardians, date of leaving homes. There may be reason for entry to homes and there should be info on to whom he was released from the homes (eg parent or guardian)
That one record you have found is already very informative in that it gives his previous school. Clearly he was not in the cottage homes for very long.
Dave

This would have been the cottage homes attached to Fir Vale (Sheffield Union) Workhouse. He would have been an inmate there due to family circumstances.
See - http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Sheffield/

Email me if you need extra info
Lyn

Hi Lisa,

In 1911 William MacHale is a boarder living with the Askew family in south Sheffield. Occupation: Tram Motorman for City Council. Status: Married but no sign of wife Margaret.
Ref:Family Search

In 1911, along with numerous other children, there is a
John William Askew alias William age 11 who is a scholar living at Children's Cottage Homes in Sheffield Park, foster mother/guardian Mary Colley.
Ref:Family Search

There is a death record for Margaret E. McHale in 1911 Sept qtr. Sheffield age 40 which is a good fit for her birth c1871.
This would also account for William being described as married on the 1911 census which would have been taken April 2nd.
Ref:Free BMD

So to hazard a guess, It seems likely that John William and William were taken in by the Askew family, or at least boarding with them.
HAPPY HUNTING:sleuth_or_spy:

The 1911 census you mention with Mary Colley as foster mother is one of the Fir Vale Workhouse Foster Homes and I do not think it fits in with John William Mchale.

Lisa,
Thank you for the email. I want to be sure the forum is kept fully informed .
The school admission you found on this site for your grandfather clearly has a problem because it says he registered at Owler Lane School on 9.5.1910 and left on 14.4.1910, not possible without time travel. Elaine has checked the original and our transcription is correct, so the error was made in the original register. However, there is some light. It is almost certain that he was admitted on 9.5.1910 because he is in the middle of a whole block of children who were registered that day and they received consecutive registration numbers. On the other hand, the column for leaving has very variable dates, with ,unsurprisingly, no order in them. Therefore I believe that the error is in the leaving date. Clearly the year of leaving must be correct because you know that he was in County Mayo with his mother and older sister on 2.4.1911.
Lyn has identified that he was in the Fir Vale cottage homes, not Fulwood. Unfortunately the registers for that institution are not extant, so you are unlikely to get more information.
It looks as if he was in the workhouse system for a very short period, possibly just a few days and certainly no more than a few months.
His sister Mary Josephine would have been short of her 11th birthday in May 1910, so she should have been at school.
At that time the school starting age was 5, so presumably your grandfather started at Carlisle Street school in 1907 and in 1910 some family circumstance caused him to enter the Workhouse system, but only for a very short time. Presumably also his sister went to the same Carlisle St school, staring in 1904.
As far as I am aware the Carlisle St school registers are not extant.
Dave

Dave - sorry to correct you but there are the Children's admission registers for the Fir Vale Cottage homes at the Archives that gives some details of admission and the dates they left, also who brought the child in etc. Very difficult to read. There are also the minutes of the Guardians minutes kept there with copy minutes also at the Local Studies library. In these are some records of the Children's Homes Committee which sometimes mentions some - not all of the children. The homes opened in 1894 and were closed just prior to WW1 when they were all moved to Fulwood though I understand that some of the Scattered Cottage homes out in the community continued to be foster homes until around the 1950s.
It is the admission registers to the Workhouse side itself that are no longer in existence.
Lyn

Lyn, thank you. No need for apology. I knew about the Workhouse records And wrongly assumed they would contain the admission registers for the homes. So that is good news for Lisa who can, after all, get what she wants from the Sheffield archives
Brilliant
Dave