The Murfin-Shaw and Padgett Families

My Dad and his Mum

Mary Ann Shaw, nee Garfitt, with Frank Shaw, aged 3

Genealogy wasn't my thing, it was Dad's idea to start researching the family. Spike Milligan says it's a sense of our own mortality that makes us want to start saving the planet in old age, and unearthing the past might have a similar motivation - but there were those who felt Dad might have an ulterior motive, like discovering a crock of gold in the form of an unsuspected rich branch of the family. It couldn't have been pure chance that led him to be an accountant!

picture shows Dad at the age of three, with his Mum, who didn't live long after this picture was taken. From a well-to-do family, she married beneath her - they expected better than the village policeman. Her name was Mary Ann Garfitt, 1892-1919. She was the daughter of Henry Garfitt (1855-1930) and Sarah Bone (died 1936). Dad - Frank Shaw, was born on 2 March 1915, and died on 14 November 1996.

Me and my Mum

Mary Shaw, nee Ingle,

with Valerie Mary Shaw

Frank was a bright lad and passed his 'scholarship' to Salts Grammar School, Shipley, Yorkshire. Frank's home life was a bit bleak, the curse of drink had hit his father, Stanley Frank, and nights at home were a bit of a no-no. Frank passed the Oxford Entrance Exam, but had no hope of taking it up, as he was needed to provide income for the family.

Frank went to work at Butterfield's in Shipley, where he was apprenticed as an accountant, or 'stool-harsed Jack'. Here he met the Ingle lads, William (Bill), Rob Roy and Jack, family connections of the Butterfields through the female line. This being so, they could not expect management posts, though guaranteed employment for life. 

Mary's parents, Arthur Ingle and Mary, nee Padgett

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The Ingles - Arthur and his wife Mary, nee Padgett - kept open house and a good table for anyone the lads brought home, so Frank became a frequent visitor.  There were two daughters, Edith and Mary. Edith, the elder, was already courting, but Mary was not spoken for. Frank spent his summers out walking or cycling with the Ingle brothers, but in the winter he stayed close by the Ingle fireside, where he loved to chat with Mary's mother long into the evening, after Mary had gone to bed. Eventually Frank and Mary began 'walking out', and were married on September 30, 1940, with Bradford under bombardment. On the day Mary went to Bradford to collect her wedding dress, she found the streets blocked off. The shop where the dress was had received a direct hit. The dress survived, and the wedding took place as planned.  On June 14 1941 their first child, Valerie Mary, was born - that's me. 

John Malcolm, 1944

Frank and Mary went on to have two more children, nicely spaced as was the fashion in those days. John Malcolm was born in 1944 and Geoffrey Arthur in 1947. 

John married Jenny Lawrence of Bingley and they have six children - Michael (11.1.76), Simon (14.2.77), Antony (13.10.79), Alison (3.12.82), Rebecca Mae (13.12.86) and Andrew (1989).

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Geoffrey Arthur, 1947

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Geoffrey had a common-law marriage with Pamela Reffell, of Hastings, of which there are two children, Morgan (20.10.69) and Owen (11.3.71) Shaw. This marriage lasted seven years. Pamela took the name Shaw, and entered another common law marriage with Donald, a Scottish farmer near Tain, where she now breeds sheep.

Geoffrey later married Amanda Champion, and they have three children, Max (1979), Chloe (1982) and Alexa (1985). The family took the name Shaw Champion.

Valerie married Alan John Salisbury, a Royal Naval seaman, on 21.12.59, and a daughter, Diana Mary Elizabeth (known as Dinah) was born on 4.11.60. A son, Graham John, was born on 5.3.63. Valerie later divorced Alan John and married John Graham Kirkham on (or about!) 12.3.69. This marriage also ended in divorce and there was a further marriage to Robert Carl McElhaney of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on 23.4.81, another divorce and then marriage to Wolfram Bruno Thome, of Freiburg, Baden-Baden on 10.10.87.

Val, Dinah, Graham

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Diana, Richard Smith, 

Ben and Joe

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Graham married Clare Skelly on 10 October 1987. Nicholas was born on 9 April 1990, Matthew on 23 October 1993.

Graham, Clare Skelly, Nicholas and Matthew

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Did Frank find the crock of gold? Were there any forgotten branches of the family that had made good? Find out here