| Father
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| George Byrd
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| Mother
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Spouse
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Louis Geonney
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| Children
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three apparently
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This page remains to be correctly ordered and split up, the data is valid however
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Martha was the only child of Mary McCulloch's first, short lived, marriage to George Byrd. She is included as she is a half sibling to Mary's later family with Hugh Edwards.
1871 The story of Martha Byrd begins when her grandmother
Martha Billows part of the Billows/Byrd family is first traced at 27 Lamport Street for the census, Martha Billows is a widow aged 30 living with her 56 year old mother Margaret Leech, her brother Henry Leech (14) and her children John R Billows (3), Elizabeth E Byrd (7), George Byrd
(5) (there also appears to be a married sister to Martha, Ellen Dixon, 19). This
George will later be Martha Byrd's father.
Later data
explains the family set-up. Martha Billows is Martha nee Leech.
She was to marry George Byrd and bear Elizabeth Byrd and Martha
Byrd's father - George Byrd. Then widowed she remarried to George
H Billows, (1866, St Michael, Toxteth Park) bore John R Billows
and was again widowed, She then married for the third time to Louis Geonney (1874). Children
of earlier marriages changed their names so that John R Billows becomes John Robert Bird (Geonney) by the
1881 census and George Bird becomes George Byrd (Geonney)!
1874 There is a marriage of Louis Geonney and Martha Billows, (West Derby 8b 714 June quarter 1874). The name Geonney is unusual, there are only four occurrences
of Geonney in the entire 1881 census (for the whole UK) and they are all the ones at Warwick Street. The certificate shows the marriage on June 9th 1874, after banns, at Church of St. Michael. Ages are given only as 'full', - Martha would have been about 34. Martha Billows is a widow. Louis is a bachelor.
Their address is Lamport Street (see 1871). Louis's father is Cloude (?
Claude) Geonney, a farmer. Martha's father is Robert Leath, a joiner. The word 'Leath' is unambiguous but must be Leech. Martha was able to sign her own name, Louis was not. The witnesses were Ann Leech and Sampson Cordon.
1881 census
data: George Bird (Geonney) is at 121 Warwick Street. He is an apprentice Riveter (in 1885 on his marriage he is also
a riveter). He is a step-son of Martha Geonney (subsequently
hiss own daughter was to be called Martha, so again seems to tie in). Martha Geonney (40) is a mariner's wife. There is no sign of her husband but he may well have been at sea. George Bird (16) is with two brothers John Robert (14) and Louis(2) John Robert is also an apprentice riveter. The two older boys are both shown as step-son (i.e. sons of Martha), Louis is shown as a son. (It is assumed that the relationships shown in the census are to husband as head of house rather than to the acting head as husband is not there. All children born in Toxteth Park). This 2 year old Louis becomes important, as he later marries Martha Bird, to whom he was step-uncle (though
sounding unusual the blood relationship is in fact more distant than a first cousin would have been).
1885 The marriage of George Byrd and Mary McCulloch was on 2nd August 1885 at The Parish Church, Liverpool. (This is assumed to be St. Nicholas, Chapel Street) George was aged 21, a bachelor, rivetter. His father is also named George Byrd, a shipwright. Mary McCulloch is aged 19, a spinster, her father Charles McCulloch is a labourer. The couple are both shown as living in Shannon Street. This was a small street (long since demolished) behind what is now the Irish Centre, between Brownlow Hill and Mount Pleasant. Both bride and groom were able to sign their names. Witnesses were Francis James Temple and Catherine Watts.
Martha Byrd was born around 1887. Her mother Mary was
widowed and re-married to Hugh Edwards in November 1889 thus Martha's
father George must have died around 1887/8, no details of his death have yet been looked for or are
known.
An Internet search for the name Geonney, suggests that it could be either Italian, or Polish, perhaps Spanish. Italian seems most frequent. In the 1871 census I have seached widely for both Geonney and Joney (using soundex) and looked at all people with the forename Louis in Lancashire. There is no trace of him. It seems that Louis Geonney may have been a sailor of foreign origins.
To include with Martha Bird is suggestion
from my mother that she may have (also?) married someone called Llewelyn-Jones and been/become a money lender.
By one marriage or another she bore at least three children.
From Gill " About Martha Bird/Byrd she married Louis Jones/Joney (*
this would be the Geonney name changed by word of mouth or intentionally
by Louis) from Liverpool they had 3 children. George, Sidney
and Irene (?)
George- last known as a chef on the QE2,
Sidney- went into a mental home,
Irene/Irlene-died age 35 from cancer left 3 children names not known this source I have in Valerie's handwriting which my nan told her many years back, Dad also remembers the names ."
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