The Meigh Family of Barnsley South Yorkshire

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The Meigh Family of Barnsley South Yorkshire

Today I found some military records that helped find new members of the Meigh Family Tree.

I’m very excited. The record is for Matthew Broadway the Uncle of Martin Meigh my Step Grandfather.

This has allowed me to find more members of the family and better understand their story.

Grandad Martin Meigh

I loved Granddad Martin very much. He was fun to visit. He would play a game with me and Deborah where he would speak and we were not allowed to answer using the words yes or no.

I remember when we visited that he would make pies and one year he came for Christmas dinner and we were really pleased because he got a handkerchief in his Christmas cracker.

Granddad Martin was born in 1925 and this week, if he were alive he would be turning 90 years old. He died of cancer when I was just a young girl. My nana Sylvia loved him so much. He was one of the kindest men she had ever met.

The Story of the Meigh Family of Barnsley

In 1875 Thomas May (an Irish man living in Staffordshire) married Mary Keogh in Walsall Staffordshire. Thomas was the son of Martin May and Mary was the daughter of Thomas Keogh.

Thomas and Mary had four children, Thomas, James, Ellen and Martin. In 1887, the year that Martin the youngest child was born, Thomas May died at the young age of 35.

After becoming a widow in Staffordshire, Mary May remarried and became Mary Broadway. Mary had the following children, John, Matthew, Catherine, Edward, John Patrick, Robert and Ann.

Five of these children died as infants. Only Matthew, Edward and Robert Broadway lived to adulthood.

• John 1892-1893 Died in Infancy
• Matthew 1893-1918
• Catherine 1895-1895 Died in Infancy
• Edward 1897-1935
• John Patrick 1900-1900 Died in Infancy
• Robert Broadway 1901-1986
• Ann 1903-1903 Died in Infancy

Thomas Meigh

In 1987 Mary’s eldest son, Thomas Meigh moved to Cudworth, Barnsley to work as a miner. On the 27th Dec 1987, he married Annie Eliza Evans at St John’s church in Cudworth, Barnsley.

Three years later in 1900, Ellen Meigh moved to the mining village of Monckton, near Royston, Barnsley. On the 24th Dec 1900, Ellen married a Collier from Royston named Henry Roderick. On the marriage certificate, Ellen signed her named as Meigh. She also informed that her father Thomas May had been a Gardener. Ellen and Henry had five children.

• Ethel Roderick 1901
• Thomas Richard Roderick 1903
• Arthur Roderick 1907-1908
• Ellen Roderick 1910-1919
• Ida Roderick 1914
• Baby Arthur died in his first year of infancy.
• Ellen died in 1919 during the Influenza Pandemic.

The Meigh Family of Dobie Street Barnsley

By 1901, Thomas and his new wife Annie had moved to their own home at 26, Dobie Street in Barnsley. Thomas little brother Martin Meigh was also living at the address along with Thomas and Annie’s three children, Ellen Eva, Mary Elizabeth and 5-month-old Thomas Meigh.

On the 2nd Feb 1907, Martin Meigh married Annie Rawson in Carlton, Barnsley. After their wedding, Martin and Annie, moved to 22 Dobie Street, two doors down from his brother Thomas. Martin’s mother Mary and his three stepbrothers, Matthew, Robert and Edward Broadway also moved into Martins home.

Serving in the First World War

In 1914 Britain joined World War One. Within a year, Martin Meigh, his two stepbrothers Matthew and Edward Broadway and his brother in law Henry Roderick (Ellen Meigh’s husband) were enlisted and sent to war as Soldiers for the York and Lancashire Regiment.

Martin Meigh signed up on the 1st May 1915.

On 13 October 1918, the family were hit with further tragedy when Thomas and Martin Meigh’s younger half brother Lance Corporal Matthew Broadway was Killed in Action in France and Flanders.

Martin Meigh Injured in the First World War

Martin Meigh and Edward Broadway were both Injured and honourably discharged after being declared unfit due to wounds. They were both added to the Service Medals and Awards Roll.

In the same year that Martin and Edward returned home, 7 of Thomas and Annie’s children died due to the Influenza Pandemic which hit Barnsley.

Thomas and Martin’s sister Ellen also lost a daughter Ellen Roderick around the same time. The following year, Private Henry Roderick, Ellen’s Meigh’s husband passed away after returning to Royston from war.

The same year 1919, Mary Broadway, Thomas, Ellen and Martin Meigh’s mother died in Barnsley.

Thomas and Annie Meigh

By 1920, Thomas and Annie Meigh only had 5 surviving children. They had their last child Ethel in 1922. Most of the family moved to Huddersfield.

Thomas and Annie’s son Herbert Meigh stayed at Dobbie Street. He married a widowed mother Alice Hoyland of Worsborough, Barnsley and became the stepfather of four children. He must have had a lot of empathy and understanding given he lost so many of his own family members in his teenage years. I am quite proud of the fact he married and supported a grieving widow.

• Ellen Eva Meigh 1989-1918 – Died in the Influenza pandemic
• Mary Elizabeth May 1900-1998 – married William Arthur Burgin Darker
• Thomas Meigh 1901-1968
• Herbert Meigh 1903-1994- -married a widowed mother Alice Hoyland
• Martin Meigh 1908-1918 -Died in the Influenza pandemic
• James Edwin Meigh 1909-1918 -Died in the Influenza pandemic
• Richard Meigh 1911-1918 -Died in the Influenza pandemic
• Annie Meigh 1913-1918 -Died in the Influenza pandemic
• John Meigh 1915-1918 -Died in the Influenza pandemic
• Margaret Meigh 1917-1918 -Died in the Influenza pandemic
• Joseph Meigh 1918-1988
• Ethel Meigh 1922
• In 1920, Martin and Annie Meigh had their third child Mary. They then went on to have an additional 8 children.
• Thomas Meigh 1911-1995 – married Florence Cooper
• James Meigh 1914-1914 – died in Infancy
• Mary Meigh 1920-1982 – married Samuel Harold
• James Matthew Meigh 1922-1986
• Joseph Meigh 1924-1933
• Martin Meigh (my grandad) 1925-1992 -married Sylvia Airey
• Edwin Meigh 1926-1938 -married Violet Haigh
• John Meigh 1928- 2015 (Also known as Johnny One Leg died 2015)
• Herbert Meigh 1929-2013 (I went to his funeral and they had the banana boat song)
• Annie Meigh 1931-1985 -Joseph Bruce & Ronald Trigg
• Bernard Meigh 1933- May 2020 (The last of his generation to pass)
• Thomas Meigh died in 1934 and his wife Annie Evans in1939.

Martin Meigh died in Cudworth in 1949, his wife Annie Rawson died in Carlton in 1977.

Martin Meigh’s son Martin Meigh married my grandmother Sylvia Airey in 1973. They had two daughter’s Annette Martin Meigh and Carol Martina Meigh. Annette had a son called Ellis and Carol three children, Guy, Aaron and Shauna Taylor. They are my cousins.