Due to health problems I am no longer able to offer a research service

This Family History is Dedicated to

Roy Alfred Lonsdale - June 20th 1918 - February 24th 1996
Sheila Alice Turner - January 5th 1927 - March 3rd 2001
Married February 9th 1946, Catterick, Richmond, Yorkshire

This is the history of the Lonsdale Family
whose roots can be traced back to Simonstone, Lancashire circa 1500

How it all started

Sometime in the 1970's I had taken my parents out one Sunday and was driving along the A12 in Suffolk. We had just passed a signpost when my father said, "My Grandma used to bring here on holiday". We had just passed a signpost to Kessingland. I said that we could go into Kessingland but he said he wasn't bothered and nothing more was said about it until we passed the signpost on our way back home to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. He said that she took him on holiday to Kessingland every year for a number of years. He was very young and didn't remember a lot. On the way home I asked dad more questions about his youth but he didn't say very much.

This is where I made my first and biggest mistake, I should have started looking into the family background and asked more questions but I didn't. Like so many I now regret having not asked my father more questions about his youth and his grandparents. The same can be also said about my mother.

I recalled as a child being taken to Peebles in Scotland and visiting church's in the area and mum and dad looking at church records. But that was about 1955/6. The only thing I can recall was that they didn't find what they were looking for because the records had been destroyed by fire. But I didn't ask the question.

Some years later I took the pretty route to Edinburgh taking my daughter for an interview and we passed a signpost to Peebles at which point Sarah (my daughter) said, "that's where we come from isn't it?" I shrugged my shoulders and asked her who had told her that and she replied "Granddad". Unfortunately Granddad was no longer with us.

We didn't have much time on this journey but she got the job at the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel not far from Peebles so when I took her back a week later I went into Peebles and did some research. I've been back to Peebles many times since, had letters in the local papers but have never been able to find a link to the family.

One thing I have found or should I say HAVEN'T found is my Gt. Grandmother Helen Elizabeth WILSON who according to her marriage certificate in 1899 she was 27 the daughter of a deceased fisherman named John. The 1901 census details say she was 29 born in Suffolk, Yarmouth, both equal 1872.

Yes I know Yarmouth is in Norfolk but South Town and Gorleston are or were in Suffolk

I thought I had found a possible line in Blundeston but numerous visits to Ipswich Record Office, Blundeston Parish Church and Yarmouth plus letters in local papers have proved fruitless.
My Brick Wall (Gt Grandma)

What I have found is that my LONSDALE line went back from London via Brighton to Blackburn, Lancashire. So quite where the Peebles links comes in to play I'm not really certain. The only thing that I can think of is that my Gt Grandma was the illegitimate daughter of a Scottish Fisher Girl and a Suffolk/Norfolk fisherman OR a Suffolk/Norfolk girl and a Scottish fisherman who came from the Peebles area.

If you can help with my brickwall or have any suggestions please email

If you can add to these pages, find a mistake or feel that I may have information about your family background or have information that maybe of interest please email me

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