Andrew Openshaw contacted me yesterday with some pictures he has of the Snowball family.

The first picture shows Jane Ann Snowball (left) with her sisters Isabel and Sarah Ann.  Jane Ann looks around 16-18 in this picture, so I think it dates from the late 1870s.

Isabel and Sarah Ann were twins born a couple of years earlier than Jane Ann.  Andrew comments:

Jane Ann, Sarah Ann and Isabel were all good with a needle and thread. Isabel is listed in the 1881 census as dressmaker lodging in Howden le Wear. I think my Aunty Jillian might have a photo of their work.

The second picture is of the whole Snowball family.  Andrew emailed:

The Snowball family photo, attached, is one that holds many secrets. The only person, Sally (Sarah) Brown, that would be able to name all of them in one go is long since dead. So, I cannot tell you anything about the people in it at present. But rest assured I am trying to find out anything I can.

The photo was obtained from the handbag of Sally Brown, nee Finn, when she died. She did however confirm with various relatives before her death that it was a Snowball family photo. Sally Finn was the daughter of Sarah Ann Snowball. Sarah Ann fist married a gentlemen called English who died, she took in a lodger to help make up for the loss of her husband’s income and eventually they married having a daughter called Sally. Sally Brown was my father’s maternal grandmother.

I would estimate from the ages of the Children that the photograph is c1870.  Would the splendidly bearded gentleman in the centre be Thomas Snowball?

Finally there are two later pictures, Andrew says both are of Isabel Allen (nee Snowball).  The second of these photos has previously been provided to me as that of Jane Ann Snowball.  Clearly they can’t both be right.  What do you think?

See Flickr Collection at http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/sets/72157608912691810/

http://www.snowballfamilygenealogy.com/histories/RalphSnowball.php

Originally uploaded by timsunter

Address is given as High Street, Howden. Isabella was 32 years old when she died and cause of death is given as “Phthisis 3 months”. Joseph Sunter is the informant and also gives his address as High Street Howden.
Phthisis is the old term for TB.
The certificate is evidence which would indicates Joseph and Isabella were living in Howden in 1883 – just a few hundred metres from where Jane had given birth to Charles Hull Snowball.
When Isabella died Charles must surely have known Jane with her young son. I now suspect it was at Howden, rather than Bishop Auckland where Jane Ann and Charles met.

1877 Hannah Pedley Sunter Birth

Originally uploaded by timsunter

Hannah Pedley Sunter was born to Joseph and Isabella Sunter in 1877 in Bishop Auckland.
I ordered this certificate to find out where the Sunter’s were living in Bishop Auckland and to further investigate what the relationship was to Jane Ann Snowball and the Hulls. There had been a suggestion that the Hull family set up Joseph as a furniture salesman in return for taking Jane off their hands.
Isabella died early in 1883. Joseph remarried to Jane Ann Snowball later that year. This certificate shows that before the marriage Joseph was working as a ‘Grocer’s Warehousman’ and living in Edward Street, Bishop Auckland.

I remember from my year working in the archives that the reading of names can be very difficult.  Here is a good example.  The transpcription of the 1901 census showed Jane A Sunter as coming from Leadgale.  The 1891 Census transcription has it that she is from Seadgate.  In fact I believe the answer is a mix of the two.  There is a Leadgate in Consett, not far from Stockton on Tees and relatively near to Charles Sunter’s birthplace at Howden Le Wear.

Interestingly, Charles is missing from the household in the 1891 Census, even though he must have been 9 at the time.  The reason for this may well be that the Census is based on who is staying at the house on Census night.  It is quite possible that Charles is simply not present on that night.  A search through the Ancestry.co.uk website doesn’t throw up any further suggestions of where he might be.

New now in the family tree search is my great grandfather, Joseph Sunter.    The listing on the census is:

• Joseph Sunter, 42, Furniture Salesman, Yorkshire, Gunnerside

• Jane A Sunter, 28, Durham Seadgate

• William Sunter, 19, Catcher on Shipyard, Yorkshire Gunnerside

• Grace E Sunter, 6, Scholar, Yorkshire Redcar

• Dorothy H Sunter, 3, Yorkshire Redcar

• Gertrude Sunter, 1, Yorkshire Redcar

• Cleva I Sunter, 1/12, Durham Stockton

• Elizabeth Snowball, Sister-in-Law, 27, Dressmaker, Durham Seadgate

The family is living at 21 Grove Street, Stockton on Tees.