Charles and Susannah Witts

This is the last resting place of Susannah and Charles Henry Witts. Susannah died first, in 1936 and Charles outlived her by more than 20 years.

Susannah was born in Stratford, East London, but grew up in West Ham where her father worked as a paperhanger and painter. In the 1901 census Susannah, then aged 20, was recorded as working with her father, also as a paperhanger and painter.

Charles Henry Witts was born at Stratton Green and was baptised at St Margaret’s Church. He was the son of Charles Neville Witts and his wife Caroline.

By 1891 the Witts family had moved to 68 Medgbury Road. Charles Snr had a job in the Works as a Boilermaker’s Assistant, but guess what I found 12-year-old Charles Henry doing? He was working as a paperhanger’s boy.

Charles Henry married Susannah Cleminson in 1905 in her home parish of West Ham, but they obviously decided they didn’t want to carry on the paperhanging and painting business. By this time Charles Henry was working as a stationer and the couple lived at 35 Curtis Street from the time of their marriage to Charles Henry’s death in 1958.

Susannah died on January 11, 1936 at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Stratford.

Now while I was researching this family on the Ancestry website I had a bit of luck. I found a family tree with photographs but unfortunately it was a private tree with the information withheld but I emailed the person who had set up the tree asking her if she could let me have a scan of the photo of Charles Henry and Susannah. Well she did better than that – she let me have access to the tree and permission to copy all the photos!

So here we have Charles Henry and Susannah with their two children, Winifred and George, and Susannah’s father (the paperhanger and painter). The second photo is of Charles Henry and Susannah in later life with a baby who is thought to be one of their grandchildren,

Look how women’s fashions changed during Susannah’s lifetime.

So, then I started searching the cemetery registers for other members of the family who might be buried here in Radnor Street. Charles and Susannah’s daughter Winifred died in 1988 aged 80 and she is buried here with her husband Victor in plot C1684. Then we have Charles Henry’s brother Ernest, he died in 1962 and is buried with his wife Ivy and two members of her family in E7909. Ernest also worked as a stationer. Here’s a charming photo of them with their baby son Peter.

This is Julia Crook nee Witts, Ernest and Charles Henry’s sister. Here she is with her husband Sidney Crook and two of their daughters. Their eldest daughter, Lilian Florence Crook, died aged just 4 months old and is buried in a public or pauper’s grave with seven others in C263. The second photo is of Sidney and Julia Crook in later life.

Sidney died in November 1967 and Julia in March 1968 and they are buried in plot C1685.

But that’s not the end.

This is Caroline and Charles Witts, the parents of Charles Henry, Ernest and Julia (plus at least three other children). Charles died in 1927 and is buried with Caroline who died in 1940 in grave plot D341 with another woman (possibly their daughter Annie Maria who died in 1935).