The Dadge family

As you will see the front of the headstone with all the family details on it is gradually coming away. This is caused by frost getting into the stone and you will see many headstones like this in the cemetery. Sometimes the whole front comes away in one sheet.

Fortunately there were enough details left on this one to allow me to piece together the family history.

Elizabeth Mary Dadge was born in 1871 the daughter of William Dadge, a smith’s striker, and his wife Martha.

From 1881 to at least 1901 the family lived at No 3 Brunel Street, a town centre street that has long since vanished. For most of that time William had his brothers Albert and George lodging with the family. As young men they worked as iron dressers in the Works, then labourers until in 1901 Albert, then aged 41, was working as a storekeepers assistant. William meanwhile worked as a striker into his 60s.

Sadly, little is known about Elizabeth who died very young. As an unmarried young woman we can safely assume she didn’t die in childbirth, but without ordering her death certificate her cause of death is unknown. Next on the headstone is her sister Jane who died four years later at the age of 26, again unmarried.

The last name on the headstone is William George Dadge the girls’ brother. At 15 years old he followed his father into the railway works to begin a 6½ year boilermaker’s apprenticeship. However the UK Railway Employment Records show that he absconded in January 1888.

I can’t find him on the 1891 census records. This may be due to a transcription error. Perhaps he called himself George. That and a spelling mistake would make it very difficult to find him.

Anyway, by 1901 he is back home with his parents living at No 3 Brunel Street where he is working as a joiner. In 1905 he married Agnes Brown and by the time of the 1911 census they were living with their baby daughter Winifred on the Hursley Park estate, Winchester where William was employed as estate carpenter.

In the last years of his life William was back in Swindon living at 74 William Street. He died on January 21, 1936.

I don’t think this stone will weather many more winters, but with the use of the cemetery records and online genealogy sites, the family will not be lost.