Organ family

Andrew J Plaster has written ‘Organ Family History of Berkeley and North Nibley’, an exhaustive history of the family.

John (1831-1866) Baptised at St Martins, North Nibley

George (1833-1920) Baptised at St Martins, North Nibley

Isaac (1836-1885) Baptised at North Nibley Tabernacle

Sarah Elizabeth (1838-) Baptised at St Martins, North Nibley

(Jane) Ann (1840-) Baptised at North Nibley Tabernacle

In 1841, the siblings, plus an older brother, James, were living in the area of Southen Farm. Their father Henry was a sawyer, married to Ann (nee Roberts). Ann died two years later, shortly after the death of their last child, Emma. In 1851, Henry married Elizabeth Lewis in Gloucester.

In 1851, the couple were living in Nibley, with James and Isaac. George was an apprentice to Daniel Baglin, a tailor, in Coaley, Sarah was a servant to Hester Woodward in the village, and John was living in Alkington, at Baynham Farm, as a servant to Prudence Lawrence. Ann disappears from the record.

In 1861, John was lodging in Newport with William Philpott and his family, who had also come from North Nibley. He married Ann Comley, later that year, but sadly died in Newport Workhouse in 1866, aged only 30, and was buried the the new cemetery, in unconsecrated ground.

George also moved to Wales and was working as a labourer in a brick works in 1861. His address was Brick Works Terrace, Eglwysilan. In 1858, he had married Augusta Smith, from Dursley. Ten years later, the couple were living in Leonard Stanley, where George was working as a platelayer on the railway. The couple were still living there in 1881.

Augusta died in 1890 and, the next year the widowed George was still living at Severnwaters, in Leonard Stanley, and working as an agricultural labourer. Frances A. Smith, a woollen cloth picker, was boarding with him, along with her 5-year-old daughter, Lily Gertrude. George was living alone in 1911 and died, aged 87, in 1920. He was buried in St Swithun churchyard, with his father and wife.

Isaac enlisted in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and was discharged in 1865

In 1871 he was living in Clapham, lodging with Mary Bird, and working as a brewers servant. A decade late, still in Clapham, but lodging at a different address, he was working as a general labourer.

In 1883, he married Emma Sarah Bird, but died two years later, aged only 49. He died of consumption, at the consumption hospital on Fulham Road. He was buried at Brompton Cemetary.

Which leaves Sarah, who could have married William Fowler in Gloucester when she was 14 (legal at the time, with the consent of her parents), but who subsequently disappears from any records.