Joseph Lacey & Jane Shearstone

Here is some information received from Shirley Stallard on Joseph & Jane Lacey. Thankyou to Shirley for sharing this.

Joseph and Jane moved to West Chinnock Somerset in abt 1851 and then moved to the Isle of Wight in about 1855 where they settled ; their first 4 children were born in Somerset [Louisa 1850, Sarah 1852, Robert 1853 and Joseph George 1854 ] and seven more children were born in the Island [ Ellen 1856, Jane 1858, Charles 1860, d.1871, John 1861, d. 1863, Alice 1864, Frank Henry 1866 and Frederick William 1868.

Most of their children stayed on the Island ;one, Robert Lacey, b. in 1853 in West Chinnock, Somerset, returned to Somerset to his mother's family in East Coker in about 1870 , and became a thatcher; another Ellen, married a Scottish soldier, William Kay, stationed in the IOW and emigrated to Canada in the 1880's. [NOTE: apparently Ellen took the above photos with her when she emigrated to Canada].

Joseph was a Bricklayer and brewer and died in 1907. Jane died in 1913

My Gt grandfather Joseph George, b. in West Chinnock in 1854 married an Island girl, Lucy Leal [so she became Lucy Lacey!] and worked on the Railway most of his life, as a Goods Guard and then as a Signalman; they had 8 children who all stayed on the Island ; Archie Jabez Lacey, b. 1896, died in Gaza in 1917.

Joseph George died in 1934 and Lucy in 1938 .

My Grandfather Joseph Lacey b. 1874, also worked on the Railways in the Island for most of his life, starting as an engine cleaner [as they all did] and ending as a Wagon Examiner, and married 3 times, with 6 children. His first wife Annie Occamore died in childbirth in 1897 ; he had 4 children by his second wife Alice Morey, before she died in 1912 and 2 sons by his 3rd wife, Florence Higgins [from Oxford] . Florence died in 1948 and Joseph in 1962 .

My father Leslie was the youngest child, b.1917. he and his brother Alfred [b. 1915] did not become railway men but both became butchers.

Joseph had joined the Salvation Army at some time and played in the Band; both boys learned to play instruments through the SA as children and played all their lives. Both lived in the Island all their lives apart from their War service. Alf died in 1989 and Dad in 1997.

I was born in the Island [one of 5 children] but moved away to Shropshire after my marriage [Still miss the sea though!]

We manage to get back about twice a year and in March this year my cousin Ann [nee Lacey, Alfred's daughter ] organised a get together of descendants of Joseph and Jane in the Island - it turned out to be a fun day [about 45 - 50 of us made it ] and I met some cousins I'd never seen before.

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