The Sycamores

A Memory of Knutsford.

My grandfather, Gerard Murgatroyd, was born in a house in Knutsford called "The Sycamores" in 1879. I live in Montreal and my father died in 1949 when I was two. My grandfather died before my parents met and there was no love lost between my mother and her mother-in-law. As a result I had virtually no information about my father's side of the family. A cousin on my mother's side is the family genaeologist and told me that my grandfather was born in Knutsford. I had the most wonderful experience of travelling to Knutsford in 1987 to see what I could discover. I went to the town hall and explained why I was there. The very kind man there said, "Oh, you need to talk to Kath Goodchild, our local historian!" Luckily, Kath was at home and came directly over, carrying a census from 1881.
We had a lovely time looking it over and found my grandfather AND his parents AND five siblings, Henry, Eleanor, Emily, Theodore and Dorothy, living at The Sycamores! I was beside myself!! When I was a child my mother used to tell me that I had "21 cousins in England", but that was like a fairy tale to me as the odds of us travelling to England were about as good as going to the moon! We found the house, as it still had "The Sycamores" stamped in concrete on the wall at the entrance to the grounds. I was too shy to knock on the door. Sadly, the next census Kath had, had no record of the family at all. After going to St. Catherine House in London and with much help from Kath, I found out that my great grandfather, Henry Murgatroyd, had died at 41 of pneumonia in 1884, and my great grandmother, Sarah (nee Lowe), had moved away. The only concrete information I have about any of my grandfather's siblings is that the youngest daughter, Dorothy, married Eric Gleadow Storrs in 1900 and moved to Rhodesia! It was a bit of a dead end back in 1989 but I'm about to launch another search for my second cousins with the help of the internet. If you have any information at all that might pertain to my family, dear reader, please contact me at murgie@videotron.ca. I would be so thrilled! Thanks for reading all this! Carol

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