Shepherd Family Connections in Leeds

My father-in-law was Charles Shepherd; a great character and well-known figure in the Belle Isle district of Leeds. But despite several attempts there has been no real progress on tracing this particular Shepherd family back very far. The combination of a popular surname with the limited census indexes for Leeds have severely limited what has been found. The bits that are known are -

• Charles was born 21 February 1917 at Leeds Maternity Hospital; son of Charles & Annie (nee Whitehouse) who lived at 24 Parkfield Street, West Leeds. He had a sister, Annie.
• Charles & Annie Whitehouse were married 1 August 1914 at Leeds Register Office when their addresses were 46 Hunslet Lane, Leeds and 8 South Brook Street, Leeds. The witnesses were Arthur Flockton and Joy Whitehouse. According to the certificate Charles was aged 25 and the son of Charles; Annie was aged 18 and the daughter of Joseph. But at least some of this is incorrect.
• Annie Whitehouse was born 10 November 1898 at 9 March Street, Holbeck; daughter of Joseph & Ellen (nee Drurery ?). So this makes her 15 at the time of her marriage - assuming we have the correct Annie.

• Godezonne Farm website

  Charles was thought to be born 24 November 1889 but this would make him 24 at the time of his marriage. The problem is that no matching birth entry has been yet traced for either 1888 or 1889 - so perhaps Charles' age was also out by a bigger margin (see below).
• But we do now know for certain that Charles (1889) died while serving in World War I; thanks to a family record that contained his service number. This found the Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry for Charles Shepherd and a Leeds City Council web page gave information for the 1914/18 War, Leeds Absent Voters
• Annie Shepherd (nee Whitehouse) later married Walter Sissons and had two more children; Ivy and Walter Howard.
• Searching the 1881 Census for the family of Charles has been inconclusive - there are no Leeds, nor indeed Yorkshire, families that seem likely options.
• Searching the new 1901 Census online produced 3 Charles Shepherds in Leeds - 1. Born Louth, Lincs age 13 living Potternewton, 2. Born Hunslet age 11 living Hunslet and 3. Born Leeds age 29 living Hunslet (a machine fitter). Of these the first is the nearest match on expected age but the connection of Lincolnshire was not expected. Since both father and son were named Charles this search needs to be followed up by the actual census page images when I can get a copy. Update Sep 2002 - this turned out to be the wrong family!

Added Oct 2002 - More searches threw-up another possibility - that of a Charles & Sarah Shepperd with a son Charles living in Hunslet in 1901. This would explain why we had no luck with the 1891 Yorkshire Census or with finding a birth registration for Leeds in 1889. But it also means that we need to search the births registers again for a Liverpool entry.

1901 Census Entry (Online page-id 166010, Hunslet)

Update Jan 2003

A birth registration for a Charles Shepherd (no Charles Shepperd found) in Liverpool was traced (registration 1889/March/West Derby/8b/348) and a copy has just been received - it has the right birth date! The details are -

According to my Liverpool map, Easby Road in Kirkdale still exists and is located about 2 miles north of the city centre just off Stanley Road (A567) on the way to Bootle.

This birth certificate confirms the names of the next generation of the family and takes us back a Charles born in London around 1847. Considering how long it has taken me to find the previous one this will take some time - especially since Charles and Sarah seem to have married after the 1881 Census.

Update Feb 2003

Checking through all the Charles Shepherd / Sheppard / Shepperd marriages from June 1881 to December 1888 failed to find one where the wife was Sarah Williams. It is possible that they were married before June 1881 but they have not been found in the 1881 Census CD.

Added Oct 2003 - Thanks to the kind help of another researcher the family was found in the 1891 Census at 10 Ballet Street, St John, Chester.

1891 Census Entry (RG12/2861 Page 10)

Does anyone have any links or clues that could help? If you think so - let me know.