Judith (Sidaway) Brooksbank

Ancestors

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Judith Brooksbank [send private message]

My name is Judith Christine Pallant Brooksbank. My surname at birth was Sidaway. I was born and grew up at Marske-by-the-Sea, Yorkshire, NR - North Riding - as stated on my birth certificate. My mother's birth name was Hudson. My Hudson ancestors were sailors based at Stockton-upon-Tees which was a seaport in the days of sail. The Potts family were fishermen who fished out of Redcar. The Proctors were scientists and the Barnards were silversmiths and artists. My father's Sidaway ancestors were chain makers for many generations; heavy work without much financial reward. According to Family Search my father was directly descended from the grandparents of William Shakespeare, making him a first cousin 12 generations back of mine so I am checking this out, of course.

The Sidaway family lived in the West Midlands where they worked with iron: chain making and nail making. However my grandfather Sidaway became a dentist, having studied in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and in Germany. As a young man he was losing his sight and went for pioneering eye surgery in Switzerland which restored his sight and made his career as a dentist possible. When he had lived in Newcastle he converted to Judaism. We lived next door to him at Marske, in the days when front doors were not locked during the day, so I often used to visit him and my Aunty Greta who looked after him (because he had suffered a disabling heart attack not long before I was born). We used to have New Year's Day tea gathered around a round table in the downstairs bedroom where he lived, along with our Titchmarsh cousins. Aunty Greta made wonderful mince pies. The only ones that can match them are - erm, mine.

My parents were both teachers; they met because they were both hockey players. My father, George Evelyn Pallant Sidaway. was very artistic and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of heraldry, cathedral architecture and history. He did drawings for an archaeology dig which were sent to the British Museum. He was baptised as a Christian when he was seventeen and added the name Evelyn after an uncle. He painted, drew, made models, did beautiful calligraphy and designed scenery for school plays, which we helped him to build, along with the boys from the school: the reward was that he provided everyone with fish and chips at the end of each session. One year they put on Murder in the Cathedral. I was tasked with buying 42 yards of black tape for the cathedral window. I went everywhere in Marske and acquired about 7 yards in total, so my father had to get more of it from all the shops in Redcar, Middlesbrough and everywhere around. No easy option of internet shopping then! The result was stunning: intricate tracery with backlit panels of transparent jewel colours. The audience gasped when they saw the scenery.

My sister Julie told me that our father used to entertain troops along with a local grocer during World War II with a hilarious comedy double act.

My mother had great knowledge of wild flowers, birds and trees. After she retired she did a lot more painting. As a student she had acted in productions of Pygmalion and The Mikado where she took lead roles. She enjoyed country walks and gardening. She rode a bicycle and could swim. As a young woman she had ridden a motorbike with her brother Maurice and his friends; I think that was very unusual for a woman in those days.

My mother's father was William Hodgson Hudson. He had been an engineer's draughtsman and helped to design the plant at the iron and steel works at Teesside. After he retired he ran his caravan park at Redcar with the help of his son, my Uncle Bill.

Both my grandmothers had died before I was born. My mother's mother, Florence (Proctor) Hudson was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers).

I enjoy painting, singing, writing poetry and baking. I have been a bit of a campaigner on the rights of disabled people and refugees and our local woodland. I had no idea I was partly descended from refugees until I looked into my family tree.

My mother is partly descended from French Huguenot refugees. Her 3x great grandparents were Edward Barnard (father of the silversmith Edward Barnard) and Mary Gastineau. Mary and her father, Charles Gastineau, were born in London but Mary's grandparents, Mathurin Gastineau and Jeanne Chaboussant, were born in France in the Pamproux area, quite near La Rochelle (a town where Huguenots were besieged by the king's forces). They came to England as refugees during the 1690s and married in London. Their births are recorded as being in France but their marriage and deaths are recorded as being in London. Mary's mother was Rebecca Terrier and I think she was also of Huguenot origin. The surname Terrier is listed by the Huguenot Society as being possibly Huguenot.

On my father's side of the family there are two surnames which could possibly be of Huguenot origin, but I don't know much about them. They are Artiss and Pallant.