Alfred MARGRETT
Ancestral line: Alfred 1839, Charles 1810, ?.....................Family Tree number 25
Born: 18OCT1839
the fourth of seven children of
Father Charles MARGRETT
Mother Martha MARTIN
6 Siblings: Charles 1832
Martha 1834
Eliza 1836
Henry 1843
Martha (another) 1845
William 1848
Alfred married: in 1870 probably in Canada
Spouse: Margaret Ann Moffet (but her surname is not yet discovered unless it is Moffet)
3 children:- Norman Alfred 1875
Helen abt. 1878
Laura abt. 1800?
Died: in 1935 in Canada aged possibly 96 years in Canada
Alfred is a Fridays' child as they say, born on the 18th October 1839. His father is Charles Margrett, recorded as a a gardener, and living with Martha in Brook Street, Leamington, in Warwickshire. But it was Martha who registers his birth making her mark “x” which does not necessarily mean that she cannot read and write, because making a mark is the custom in places at this time. But she has taken one month six days to get round to the formalities. Perhaps it is because she already has three other children at home, so there's plenty to worry about after the birth of Alfred.
Alfred's father, Charles, is next described as a coal dealer in 1841 (two years after Alfred's birth certificate described him as a gardener). Martha, Alfred's mother, is a bonnet maker, and you may feel that fact gives us a hint that some of her customers may be more sophisticated and affluent. It may be, of course, that her products are on-sold to a shop for retail there and not direct sales.
By the time Alfred is 11 years old in 1851 and described as a scholar, his father is now a coal merchant. That requires some capital. For a start he needs to buy quantities of coal from various sources. Different coal is required for fires having different uses. He also needs premises, most likely in or adjacent to a railway yard. And he needs regular customers and have men and carts to deliver to them. Alfred's eldest brother called Charles like their father, is a porter, which suggests that their father has some dealing with local railway staff and might have secured his job or found the job was vacant before the rest of the community. Alfred's youngest brother, William, is aged just 3 but described as a scholar.
Ten years later in 1861, Alfred is now working as a labourer aged 21 but we do not know his employer or the nature of his labouring. His brother, Henry, aged 18 is a gas fitter, Matthew aged 16 is a confectioner, and young William is still at school aged 13.
Then, after another ten years, somehow a great journey has taken place because in 1871 he is in Canada, living in dwelling house number 227, Orilla Village, Ontario. He is now married and his wife of less than 12 months is called Margaret (so Margaret Margrett's are not a modern curiosity). They married just last October in 1870. They are both aged 31, and practising Methodists. Margaret's birth is stated to have been in Canada, Ontario but of Irish origin. Over the next few years from 1875 their three children are born.
And with the usual passage of family time and human involvement, his eldest son, Norman, marries Brigitte Delia Finnerty in 1898 in the United States. In their later years, Alfred and Margaret will have also seen the births of five great grand-children and, no doubt, watched them grow. Alfred also saw Helen, their third great grand-child marry in 1931 in the USA. Perhaps Alfred and Margaret had moved with their son Norman to the States before Alfred died in 1935 aged just short of his 100th birthday.
That is the limit of our knowledge of Alfred at the moment, and the discovery of further facts must depend on future research in the Canada records. But Alfred is not the only Margrett to have gone to Canada; Stanley Beauchamp Margrett, born 1890, enlisted in 1917 in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary force and stayed in the country after serving in the forces, and regularly travelling back to the UK to visit his family until retirement. (see the page giving Stanley's history on this site.) At the present time they are not found to be related, and therefore Alfred's emigration is not a result of an invitation by Stanley.
None of the life of Alfred appears to have been published previously before the above record was created.
None of the Margrett Magazines from 1986 to 2012 included any of his experiences and therefore those experiences were not previously recorded in the public domain through the magazines deposited at the British Library under the I.S.S.N. 0269-0284 in those years.