Albert Parkinson and Alice French

Albert Parkinson (1870-1950) of Batley, Yorkshire, married Alice French (1871-1922) of Batley in 1895.  Both had somewhat troubled lives due to the loss of a father.  Alice’s father died when she was very young and when her mother remarried she became part of a blended family.   Alice was the daughter of  Joe French (1831-1877) and Sarah Charlesworth (1842-).  Sarah was the daughter of George Charlesworth (1796-) of Yorkshire and Ann Spinks (1796-).   After the death of Joe French, Sarah, now the widow of George Oldroyd,  was living with Albert and Alice along with sister Emma (1901).  Joe was the son of  John French (1802-) and Rachel Binns (1806-1873).  Albert’s father died when he was about 10 and at age 11 he was working as a cloth piecer.   They had two children, perhaps born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, before moving to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1906 and 1907.  Albert arrived in Halifax on March 14, 1906 on board the Sicilian, destination Red Deer, Alberta.  Alice and the children arrived in Portland, Maine and then Halifax on April 10, 1907 on board the Kensington; destination Alberta to meet her farmer husband.   A third child was born after their arrival in Canada.  On the ship manifest Alice states that she resided in Batley, so she may have returned to Batley on Albert’s departure to wait for his news of finding a home.  These children were:

• Frances Mary Parkinson (1898-1954).  In 1915 she married Arthur Fraser Patterson, a neighbor but born in Ontario), and they had one child, Dorothy Isabel Patterson (1916-), before Arthur’s death in 1923 due to war injuries   (probably mustard gas).  Frances remarried and in 1925 she and her husband, William Stanley Thomson White, moved to the USA, ending up in California.   (Photo shows Frances with her niece.  Taken in 1954, a year before her death.)
  • Her daughter, Dorothy Patterson (1916-), married James Hamilton Craddock and they had three children;  the family and grandchildren live(d) around San Rafael and Novato, California.
    • James Michael “Skip” Craddock (1940-2007) married Shirley Baroni   b. 1943
      • Virginia Marie Craddock  b. 1962
      • Laura Mary Craddock   b. 1964   m. James Myers
        • Christopher Allan Myers  b. 1982 in Novato, Cal.
      • Cynthia Marie Craddock  b. 1968
    • Dorothy Mae Craddock (1942-) married (1) Claude Earl Henrickson.  (2) John Knox
      • James Earl Hendrickson   b. 1960 in San Rafael, Cal.
      • Terri Marie Hendrickson   b. 1961 in San Rafael, Cal.
      • Edward Charles Hendrickson  b. 1964 in San Rafael, Cal.
      • John Anthony Knox   b. 1970 in San Jose, Cal.
    • William Stanley Craddock (1950-) married Jeanette Hofrichter in 1969, divorced in 1974.  (2) married Penelope Youhn in 1975.  (3) May have married Debra Ann Craddock in 1985.
• Wilfred Parkinson (1900-).  Little is known of Wilfred but the family story is that after his mother’s death he moved to the USA and changed his name.
• Roy Charlesworth Parkinson (1914-1996) was born in Edmonton and died in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where he had retired after a working life in Broadview   and Watrous.  (Note: his middle name is that of his great grandmother.)   He married Ruth Kirby (1913-1993) in 1935 and they had four children.   (See the post on Roy Parkinson.)

After Albert’s wife, Alice, died he married Ethel E. Long (1874-1961), and the family began to fall apart.  Ethel had children of her own, but  living in England, and the Parkinson children were made to feel unwelcome to say the least.  Wilfred left the family, Frances wrote to her family but the letters were never opened or responded to and Roy was made to begin paying rent at an early age and so dropped out of school and was working in a bank around the age of 15.  On Albert’s death in 1950 Frances was able to find her brother Roy after years of watching the obituary columns in Edmonton newspapers and there was a brief reunion before her death.  Roy was called upon to be the executor of his step-mother’s  will when she died in 1961 and all of the assets were returned to children in England.

Albert Parkinson may have received a land grant south of Edmonton (in Stettler, Alberta) but he began working in Edmonton as a “teamster”  a year or two after his arrival and then spent many years working in an agricultural lab.  Alice worked in a laundry almost from the time of their arrival and worked until her death.  Son Wilfred also began to work at a very early age, first in the laundry with his mother and then with the CNR.

I would love to find some photos of these grandparents.

Alice French is buried in the Edmonton Cemetery but there is no stone at this date.  Albert was also buried in the Edmonton Cemetery  with his new wife.  Stone below.