The Waterworth Family History

For Margaret
(1941-2006)

Margaret Ann Harper died in St. James Hospital, Leeds on 10th May 2006, six weeks after undergoing a complex operation to remove one of her diseased kidneys. Margaret was a Wife, Mother, Sister and Aunt, so her death affected each of us in a different way.

Margaret was very interested in looking back into her family history and had tried (with some success) to identify and date a lot of photographs which came into her possession after the death of her Mother (Lydia Mary Wright) in 2000.

I had seen some of these photographs over the years but at the time they had little significance other than as historical records. The advent of the Internet and the wider availability of public records meant that my Brother Ian Harper could research the family more closely and managed to compile a very detailed list of members going back five generations. Given that our Grandmother Lydia Mary Wright was the youngest of thirteen children this was no mean feat.

Our greatest discovery was a small brown suitcase containing hundreds of photographs and documents which had been passed down and collected over the years. The most important record is the only photograph of the entire Waterworth family taken around 1916 showing all surviving members in one place. Once again, I had seen this photograph many years ago when we had tried to identify each member with the help of our Grandmother, who at that time was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Ian Harper's research, additional information gathered by myself and Barbara Hawe, together with contributions from Eileen Janssens (nee Waterworth) means that in 2007 we can now positively identify all of the people in this photo.

Although far from finished, It has been a fascinating and revealing journey for us all which I think has been enormously helpful in how we deal with the death of Margaret, who began all this, and who is now sadly no longer able to see the results.

For me the project has also been a very therapeutic exercise as Margaret and I went through a lot together in the last six months of her life which, to a large degree, we kept to ourselves. I had decided to become a living donor and underwent extensive tests to verify the suitability of one of my kidneys for transplant. Unfortunately I was rejected when it was discovered I had a condition that meant removing one of my kidneys may have an adverse affect on my future well-being.

So, simply, this website is a record of all the information, pictures and memories we can gather on the Waterworth family and it's descendants for the past 150 years. It is therefore not only important as a historical and social document, but as a place where surviving family members can visit and see where they fit into this dynasty!