Copeland

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Mary Copeland

born 1844 Wexford, Ireland

married 1862 Liverpool, England

William Anderson

Mary Anderson

born 1863

William Anderson Copeland

( 1866 - 1935 )

married

Bridget Comerford

   Mary Copeland, according to the 1871 census of Scotland, was born about 1844 in Wexford in Ireland. Her father was a Robert Copeland, whose occupation was cooper. According to information on the birth certificates of her children, she married William Anderson, a merchant seaman in Liverpool in April of 1862. Unfortunately though, I have been unable to find a record of this marriage on the Civil Registration Index and the Index of Marriages at Sea, so I am not able to verify that this marriage took place. As I have never located William Anderson on any census return, I do not know when or where he was born, and by the time of the 1871 census return of Scotland his wife Mary is listed as being widowed.

   The children of Mary Copeland were born in Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland. The 1871 census of Scotland places them in the nearby village of Ecclesmachan. After this, I can find no trace of Mary Anderson nee Copeland, except a mention on her son's marriage certificate, where she is not listed as being  deceased.

Mary Copeland 1871 census

Ecclesmachan, West Lothian, Scotland

Marriage reference to William Anderson

Ecclesmachan, West Lothian circa 1900

William Copeland

( 1866 - 1935 )

born Bathgate, Scotland

married 1890

Bridget Comerford

( 1869 - 1942 )

Susan

born 1891

married

William Buchanan

Mary

( 1893 - 1928 )

married

Hunter Craig

William

( 1894 - 1973 )

married

Lily Brown

Alice

born 1897

married

William Taylor

Edward

( 1898 - 1968 )

married

Jane Davidson

Albert

born 1901

married

Agnes Blair

Alexander

( 1903 - 1966 )

married

Ada Smith

Robert

( 1906 - 1979 )

married

Rhoda Dudhill

Eva

( 1909 - 1993 )

married

Eric Harpham

   William Copeland was born as William Anderson on the 7th June 1866, at Main Street in Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland. He married as William Copeland on the 10th November 1890, at Broxburn Catholic Church in the parish of Uphall, West Lothian to Bridget Comerford. She was born in 1869 at Roslin, Midlothian to parents James Comerford & Susan Daly. Why William later changed to use his mother's family name is unknown, although interesting to note, his father William Anderson's name  is missing from his marriage certificate, replaced by the name of his grandfather Robert Copeland.

   The 1891 census of Scotland puts William & Bridget in the village of Pumpherston in Mid Calder, Midlothian. At that time, William was working as a shale miner, while Bridget would have been pregnant with their first child. Ten years later, on the 1901 census William & Bridget had moved further north, and were living in Falkirk, Stirlingshire with six children. Sometime around the late 1910's, they moved to the village of New Woolford's in Lanarkshire. They then moved again, sometime around the late 1920's to Bolsover, near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, England. With them went their children, William, Alexander, Robert and Eva.

Of the remaining children; Susan, Alice and Albert stayed in Scotland; Mary unfortunately died in Falkirk on the 14th October 1928, of heart problems following child birth; my great-grandfather, Edward Copeland lived in Douglas West in Lanarkshire and later Edinburgh, before moving to Coventry in England sometime during World War 2.

   William Copeland died at Stanfree, near Bolsover, Derbyshire in 1935 under tragic circumstances. After losing a leg in a railway accident, and apparently suffering from continual daily pain, he took his own life. On the 10th May 1935, William committed suicide by inhalation of coal gas, causing death by carbon monoxide poisoning. A coroner's inquest was held the next day, but upon writing to them, I have discovered that the pre-war records have not survived.

   Bridget also died in Stanfree, near Bolsover in 1942 aged 73.

William Anderson Copeland

BIRTH certificate 1866

William Copeland

MARRIAGE certificate 1890

William Copeland 1901 census

Falkirk, Stirlingshire

William Copeland

DEATH certificate 1935

Edward Copeland

( 1898 - 1968 )

born Pumpherston, Midlothian

married 1919

Jane Davidson

( 1897 - 1983 )

Margaret

( 1920 - 2005 )

married

Dennis Keatley

William

( 1921 - 1973 )

married

Gladys Mulcahy

Edward

born 1924

married

Mary Hornsby

Jane

born 1928

married

Kenneth Woodhouse

Alexander

( 1930 - 2005 )

married

Carol Akerman

   My great-grandfather Edward Copeland was born on the 25th July 1898 at Pumpherston, Mid Calder, Midlothian in Scotland. He married Jane Davidson on the 28th November 1919, at 85 Hanover St, in Edinburgh City centre.

   During the early 1920's, he and his family lived in the village of New Woolford's in Lanarkshire, where Edward was a coal miner. Sometime during the late 1920's, they moved to Douglas West, also in Lanarkshire. In an effort to keep his son's from entering the mining industry, they later moved to the city of Edinburgh, and lived in Murdoch Terrace in Dalry, where Edward became a box maker.

   After the onset of World War 2, they moved to England, and settled in Coventry in the West Midlands. Edward died of lung cancer, on the 18th April 1968 aged 70.

Edward Copeland

BIRTH certificate 1898

Edward Copeland

MARRIAGE certificate 1919

Edward Copeland and wife

Jane Copeland nee Davidson

Jane Copeland

born 1928

Douglas West, Lanarkshire

married 1950

Kenneth Woodhouse

born 1927

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