The 1901 census for the village of West Meon in Hampshire records 43-year-old George Yeo at ‘George Inn Yard’ – most likely a building on the site of the George Inn. His occupation is given as ‘railway navvy’, so he might have worked on the Meon Valley line, which ran between Alton and Farnham via West Meon, or have used it to travel further afield to work.
George appears not to have been able to tell the census enumerator where he was born [note 1]. Listed with him are his wife Rose (age 40) and his children John (5), Elizabeth (2) and Rose (three months).
The family moved to Glamorganshire about 1910 [note 3] – the 1911 census for Llanfabon records George and his family at 8 Wingfield Crescent. George’s age is 50, his birthplace Barnstaple, and he works in a stone quarry. 47-year-old Rose Yeo is listed as his wife, and his seven children are John (age 16), Hetty (12), Rose (10), Emily (8), George (6), Mary (4) and Thomas (1 month). Also listed is boarder Jesse Woodcraft [note 4].
The 1911 return, which was completed by the householder, states that George and Rose have been married for 12 years but this is clearly a false statement as they were not married [note 5].
The 1911 return also states that George and Rose have had seven children and that they are all still alive. These children were:
– John Reuben Yeo (1895–1916, birth and death registered as Remnant [note 2])
– Kathleen Elizabeth Yeo (1899–1983, birth registered as Remnant, recorded as Hetty Yeo in 1911, married Thomas Henry Purbrick)
– Rose Yeo (born 1900, birth not registered)
– Emily Yeo (1903, married John A. Probert)
– George William Yeo (1905–1983, married Ella Rosina Morgan)
– Mary Ann Yeo (1907–1988, married Thomas Henry Coles)
– Thomas Yeo (1911–1981, married Ann Thomas).
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Notes
1. ‘NK’ is entered in the column for his place of birth. He was born in Tawstock in 1857 (birth registered at Barnstaple as Abraham George Yeo, son of John Yeo and Elizabeth Brace) and died in Wales in 1932 with his age inaccurately recorded as 73 and his name as George Yeo.
2. John died while serving with the army in Greece.
3. From a letter Rose wrote in 1923 to George’s brother John Yeo in the United States.
4. Jesse Woodcraft’s age is not legible in the 1911 return, but he was about 30 as the 1921 census for Llanfabon records his age as 40.
5. Rose was born Rose Emily Marshment in 1863 (birth registered at Epsom in the fourth quarter, so her age as given in the 1901 census is inaccurate), had married Jesse Remnant in Croydon in 1883 (their marriage certificate records her as Rosa Emily Marshment) and Jesse was still alive – he lived until 1934. Rose died in Wales in 1943, with her surname recorded as Yeo.