This story is inspired by the 52 Ancestors prompt “Migration”, and it also covers the recent prompt “Surprise”.
Yorkshire
Joseph Lees was born 23 August 1830 in the village of
Gomersal, in Yorkshire, England. Baptised
on 10 October 1830, in Birstall Parish Church, he was the son of William Lees,
a clothier, and his wife Rachel nee Gomersal.
A clothier was someone who made and sold cloth and it was a common
occupation in West Yorkshire; I have several clothier ancestors. With the growth of mechanised mills, William
eventually moved to working in a mill as a billy spinner.
Joseph Lees was the youngest of six known children of
William and Rachel. His older siblings
were Mary, William, Samuel, Rachel Gomersal and Sarah. Joseph would not have known any of his
grandparents, three died before he was born and the fourth died when he was
less than a year old.
The Lees children all appear to have been educated, those
who married signed the marriage register with a confident signature.
In 1841, Joseph and his brother Samuel were living in the
household of a Thomas Sigston, a retired Cloth Manufacture. Next door was their
uncle, Edward Gomersal, Rachel’s only known surviving sibling. The rest of the Lees family, except for
brother William, lived on the other side of Uncle Edward. Brother William was newly married to Martha
Firth.
