The Maddock Family History
More than 15 years ago I started my research into the family of my maternal grandparents. My Grandmother Laura Davies (m. Maddock) lived with us when I was a child and when I was 10 years old she died under rather tragic circumstances. One of the reasons that sparked my interest in her family was a story that Laura’s mother Ada Florence Maddock (m. Molyneux) had taken her own life. That and the fact that my grandfather Harry Davies dies soon after the first World War leaving Laura with two young children to care for. Again according to the family story Harry had suffered from shell shock and never fully recovered.There were no pictures of Harry and unfortunately, we still have none, the only personal belongings we have were a single medal and an army discharge card.
My brother Andy soon became involved in the research and over the years we have spent many hours unravelling the lives of our relatives. Although the project continues to be a joint effort, Andy has spent many hours and a good deal of time and effort carrying on with the work and designing this website.
I started with Laura’s story (my grandmother) first, as I did not know where Laura was buried, and this saddened me. They were no relatives that we had contact with who were still living, so I was unable to find any more out from the family. As a child our family were close to Laura’s sister in law Annie Maddock and her daughter Mary who later became Mary Reeve. When I started in 2004 there were of course not as many online resources available, however I started with Ancestry and soon found Laura and her family on the 1901 census as I was familiar with the area that the family lived. Both the Maddock’s and Davies families lived in the Northwich area,The Maddock’s lived close to the town centre and the Davies family in the village of Lostock Gralham. The Davies family had previously lived in Runcorn and Harry’s second wife was from the Runcorn area.
Both Northwich and Runcorn have the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey canal running through the towns and both families worked on the waterways. Laura’s father worked on the waterways for over 30 years and died due to an accident whilst unloading cargo from a ship. Harry’s father, another Harry worked on the docks at Runcorn.
I remembered that my grandmother had been cremated and 1966, the year she died there were only two crematoriums in the area Altrincham and Chester. I was sure that the funeral had been at Altrincham but being only ten at the time I could not be certain. I cannot really explain why I never asked about this in later life except to say that as Laura had disappeared whilst out walking the circumstances were never discussed and it never felt right to question my parents. I do however remember going out in the car with my parents and younger brother looking for her and I also remember seeing the police in the canal looking for her. I also recall the day the police came to the house to tell my parents they had found Laura.
A search of the cremation registers through Deceased Online showed that Laura had been cremated at Chester and her ashes are in a communal plot. It seems a little ironic all the time I spent thinking about where Laura was buried and all the time she was close to me.
Credit: Sue Byrne