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The Torlay’s

Here is a link to a spreadsheet detailing all of the Torlay’s I have found in the Census returns from 1841 to 1901 - The Torlay Family.xls . You will need access to Microsoft Excel to open this document and the similar spreadsheet for the Shackell’s. I am working on a way of putting this type of document on the site which will not need a specific piece of software such as Excel.

The Shackell’s

Similar to the above Torlay spreadsheet, this one is of the Shackell’s found on the English Census returns of 1881 to 1891 - The Shackell Family.xls.

AS with most of the documents I have traced during my research, a couple of interesting bits of information appear on the 188/1891 census documents.

Firstly, the 1881 return confirmed the misspelling of Shackell and it is shown here as Sheckell in my Great Great Grandparents listing in 1891 at 11 York Street (although in the 1881 Census the name is spelt correctly). This misspelling caused me quite a lot of difficulty in researching the Shackell side of the Family Tree, in fact it took me over 18 months to bridge the gap between my Great Grandfather Frank Shackell born 1882 and his parents Frederick & Elizabeth Shackell (shown here as Sheckell). I had searched through the Birth Registers for both Scotland and England many times, trying countless variations of spelling for Shackell, searching a period of about 10 years both before and after I thought Frank Shackell had been born. All my searches came to nothing and I began to think that was the end of the road in terms of getting any further back on the Shackell side. Fortunately, about half way through the 18 month period, the Mitchell Library in Glasgow bought a full set of the English indexes for Births, Deaths and Marriages, which meant I could spend a lot more time searching for Frank Shackell in the indexes. Eventually, I decided to start my search again but this time searching for the same variations of the spelling for Shackell, but also using the other vowels. After searching from 1872, I couldn’t believe my luck when I found a Frank Sheckell born 1882 in Hull, the mystery was solved and since then I have managed to trace the Shackell line back to 1793. I presume that Frederick Shackell was illiterate and therefore as with many people the spelling that appeared on official documents such as census returns and birth certificates was left to the official completing the form and how they felt the name should be spelt. If he could write, maybe he just preferred the Sheckell way of spelling, but at that time it wasn’t unusual for someone to be illiterate. The birth certificate for Frank Shackell shows his birth was registered by his mother Elizabeth Shackell and the handwriting appears to be entirely in the hand of the Registrar. The Sheckell spelling only appeared for this one generation, there are other variations I have found during my research, including Shackles, Shackle and Shackel, but they were a bit easier to trace.

You will also see that the two households at 2 and 3 Eshelbys Place in 1881 were living together at 11 York Street in 1891.

I haven’t added the 1901 information to the spreadsheet, but here is a copy of one of the actual returns as written back in 1901 (1901 Frederick Shackell - Hull.tif). This one is of the family of Frederick and Elizabeth Shackell, with the young Frank now shown as 19 years old and with the correct spelling of Shackell! You can also see that Frank has started his musical career and is now listed as being an Organist Pupil Student, later in life he used to play the organ at dance halls etc in Glasgow (along with wrestling on the side).