I wonder if some kind person could tell me please if St Thmas Cemetery Brightside is still there and if so where is it please?

Regards

John

Hello John

The church building is still standing on Holywell street it is now the Greentop Community Circus. I have photographed the headstones in the graveyard. Is there anyone in particular you were looking for ?

Tony

It is Gershon Turner grave number 343

Hello John

I have checked my collection of photographs but I do not have one for Gershon TURNER.

I wondered where you found the grave number ? The reason I ask is there are two plots that have the number 343 (Old part and new part) As luck would have it I have a picture of them both.

OP 343 has the names John and Jane Elizabeth ALLCROFT

NP 343 Gertrude POTTER

Cheers

Tony

I found it on the burial part of this site so I wonder if its a transcription error as the other name in the grave as you say is Allcroft. Does anyone have the burilal books for this church or would I have to contact bereavement services again.

Hi

According to the original burial record on FMP, Gershon Turner is buried in grave 343. He is buried with John Allcroft d.1891 and Jane Elizabeth Allcroft d.1907. There is a headstone which only mentions John and Jane Allcroft.

343 IN LOVING MEMORY /OF /JOHN ALLCROFT,/ WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE APRIL 30th,
1891. / AGED 70 YEARS. / "THY WILL BE DONE."/ ALSO OF JANE ELIZABETH ALLCROFT,
/ WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE JANUARY 25th, 1907, /AGED 83 YEARS.

This is from St Thomas' MI's downloaded from Genfair.

Sue

Thank you for the information Sue, I know have got to work out if he is related somehow to the Allcroft family or was he just a friend as I know he was not married and also was illegitimate.

Hello John

You may have noticed both of the mens address at burial was recorded as Hunsley St Grimesthorpe

Jane Elizabeth did not show in the same grave as her record showed OP as the Section

As always, you are welcome to a copy of the headstone photo if you think it is related

Cheers

Tomy

Its only distant. The mother of Gershon was called Sarah Ann Turner and Sarah Ann also had another child out of wedlock called Matthew (b 1851 in Bradfield) Matthew married Sarah Dronfield and on FMP it says his father was called Joseph which we know is not true. A relative of mine thinks he knows where Joseph came from.

We think Matthew had the middle name Greaves and living near Sarah Ann circa 1851 was a Joseph Greaves, what we are not sure about is is the father of Gershon also Joseph or could a marriage have been on the card and Joseph Greaves died.

Matthew and Sarah (Dronfield) had numerous children two of which Agnes and Ann married Simmerson brothers another Turner Jessie married my grandfather Vincent Ewart Simmerson in 1925 but Jessie is not related to Agnes or Ann (well not as I am aware of if she is its going back a very long way)

I think Jane Elizabeth probaly had the maiden name Turner but as yet I have not dekved into that area

Thanks for your assistance

John

John,

Well if anyone can track down the link, you can.

It looks possible to me because I think that Jane Elizabeth was born Jane Elizabeth Turner: in the marriages listed in the Sheffield Iris of Saturday 10 June 1843 “On Monday”… “Mr John Allcroft, tilter, to Miss Jane Elisabeth Turner”.

Also the Allcrofts were living at 41 Hunsley St in Grimesethorpe in the 1881 census. That's also the address given for Gershon Joe Turner in his burial record.

If there was a family link between Jane Elizabeth and Gershon's mum then she might have taken him in if he was ill?

Cheers,

Andrew P.

Cheers Andrew, I have just found the marriage on FMP and I have a feeling that Jane Elizabeth Turner (I had just had Elizabeth on the tree) is the sister of Sarah Ann their father was called Matthew so that neatly ties the connection.

I have the parents of both Jane elizabeth and Sarah Ann as Matthew Turner and Sarah Turner who married at Ecclesfield in 1823 and Sarah was born in Devon. Could some kind soul check please to make sure I am on the correct line.

John,

I couldn’t find anything much that would be useful to you, particularly relating to the generations before Gershon. You'll have seen the census records already, but I had trouble finding them. It all looks consistent with your research to me.

Eventually I found Gershon in the 1861 census, with his mum and gran (Sarah head, widow, laundress) in Middlewood. Gershon and Matthew are listed as grandsons of Sarah, and Sarah Ann and her brother Henry are there too. Sarah’s place of birth is given as Devonshire then a place which looks like Huntingdon to me. I must be wrong about that, and it’s probably unhelpful (the only “Huntingdon” I can find in Devon is Huntingdon Warren, which was one farmhouse and a rabbit warren on a foggy, rainswept hillside in the middle of Dartmoor).

In the 1871 census Gershon shows up as “Wife’s son” living in Middleweood with Sarah Ann, now Sarah Ann Berresford, and her husband George Berresford, a quarryman born in Derbyshire. Sarah, mother-in-law, is there too, place of birth Devon, but now 78 years old compared to only 60 in 1861.

Incidentally, could Matthew’s wife be the Sarah Turner who shows up in a death notice in the Sheffield Independent of 26 August 1876? TURNER — Aug. 25, Sarah, relict of Matthew Turner, late of Middlewood, aged 81.

Cheers,

Andrew.

Possibly not looked into that I did find a marriage of a Matthew Turner (snr) to a Sarah Turner in Ecclesfield in 1823 just need to work out if its the correct line.

Hi John,
I was interested in this post as I have both Turners and Dronfields/Dranfields in my family. It seems that Matthew and Sarah got married in Chesterfield in 1883 and then Matthew sadly dies in 1891. Sarah then goes on to marry a Richard Henry Allison in 1992 in Sheffield. I found them in the 1911 living in Sheffield with Agnes, Ann and Jessie.

Lois, The daughters of Matthew, Agnes and Ann, married into my family tree surname Simmerson so thats where the connection ties in with me. The confusing thing is I have is that my grandmother on my father's side who died before I was born Was a Jessie Turner but she is from a completely different family of which I have traced.

All I am doing, whilse we are in Lockdown and I can't work because I work in a pub, is trying to fill in some more blanks on my family trees to at least try and keep my mind active.

John

Me too John, Turners are very prolific especially in Sheffield and surrounding areas I'm afraid. Luckily one of mine had an unusual first name Hevers! However I found it spelt all different ways in Censuses- Evers, Evens etc. I even have a book called The Turner Story, Bringing the News to Sheffield. I have a distant cousin on here whom is directly related to this family but mine too are another line.

Lois, have you by any chance got the exact dates of birth for Matthew Turner b 1851 and Sarah Dronfield b 1859 please?

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