Jane - my mum's "Granny Higgie", and my great-great grandmother - was born Jane Howarth, on 3 Sept 1865, in Leeds, the daughter of James Howarth and Jane (formerly Bowes).
The family moved between various industrial towns in the north of England, presumably going where the work was. They're in Leeds for a time, and also living in the Rochdale district of Lancashire, where Jane and her siblings started work in their teens, in the cotton mills.
Jane lost her mother when she was young, and she and her siblings lived with their aunt and uncle. Later, as a married woman, in the period 1913 - 1917, she again had to endure great loss.
My mum has writtten her childhood memories of Granny Higgie, sitting in the summer sun outside her house "with a large white handkerchief on her head, knotted in each corner - a familiar form or summer headgear in those days". Mum remembers a large lady who didn't move far. Considering Jane's earlier life, it's not surprising perhaps that in her sixties she was happy just to sit in the sun.
Jane, aged 5, is living with her mother and two sisters, Mary and Selina, and brother John, in Castleton Nearer, Lancashire. Her mother's marital status is given as married, but her father James isn't present. They seem to be living as a self-contained household within a larger household, with John and Isabella Bowes. John and Isabella were our Jane's maternal grandparents.
The eldest of Jane's siblings, Mary, aged 13, is working as a Cotton Winder, as is her mother, in Lancashire's well-known textile mills.
Jane and her siblings are living with their aunt and uncle, the Shepherds, rather than their parents. I've not yet been able to find definite records of death of either of Jane's parents, though the indexes have a likely match, for the death of Jane's mother, in 1876.
The Shepherds have two daughters and a son of their own, as well as apparently looking after their three nieces and two nephews.
Since the 1871 census, our Jane has two new siblings - William H Howarth, born Rochdale, about 1872, and Bertha Howarth, born Rochdale also, about 1874.
They are living in Wardleworth, still in the Rochdale district of Lancashire, still near the textile mills. The Shepherds' daughter is working as a Cotton Weaver, while the Howarth girls, Mary and our Jane, are working as Cotton Winders. Jane's brother John is working as a Warehouseman.
The marriage certificate records that Jane Howarth, daughter of James Howarth, a Fitter, married William Higinbottom on 31 March 1888, at St Chad's, Rochdale. Witnesses to the marriage were Joshua Webster and Mary L Howarth (Jane's sister).
Jane and her daughter Annie are living in Gateshead. Jane is listed as married, but William is absent from the household, and I've not been able to trace him. They're living in a 2 room household, on what looks like Monk Street. Why they're in Gateshead, and why William isn't there, remains a mystery at this point.
The family are living at 11 Salisbury Crescent, Sculcoates, Hull. William still hasn't appeared. The head of the household is Jane, aged 35. Her marital status is still "married". They must have had some contact with one another, as since 1891 Annie has been joined by brother Fred, aged 7 (b1894). His birthplace is given as Hull.
The family headstones in a cemetery in Hull record the losses of these years. On 28 December 1915, Frank Higinbotham, younger son of Jane and William, died aged 9. The death certificate states the cause of death as (1) Tuberculosis of Lungs and Intestines (2) Asthenia.
Eighteen months later Jane lost her husband, William, who died aged 57. The death certificate states that cause of death was a tumour of the chest wall. He too died at home, in Ada's Terrace, in June 1917.
Three months after this, Jane also lost her eldest son, Fred, who died on 15 September 1917, in France, in the First World War.
In this decade too, her daughter Annie's marriage broke up, and Annie left her children. Jane took in the eldest child, my grandmother Doris.
This photo was taken in the early 1930s, apparently on a visit to the beach. Jane Higinbotham (nee Howarth) is sitting on the left of the photo. Next to her, also seated, is Edgar Lamb, brother of Marcus. My grandmother Doris is standing behind them.
Jane died on 22 Jan 1943, in Hull, and is buried alongside her husband, and her son Frank, in the cemetery in Hull. Also buried there, only three years after Jane died, was Doris Lamb, the granddaughter she brought up.