William Saunders Yeo was baptised in the Cornwall parish of St John, near Torpoint on 5 November 1826 to parents John Yeo and Mary Ann Sanders.
Sheila looked into his family with correspondent Melody Sharpe in 2001. David Yaw has also researched William’s life, and has kindly sent us his Navy service record.
William spent much of his life in Ireland, where he worked as a coastguard. He married Elizabeth Smith in Ireland and had five children there:
– Elizabeth Yeo (born 1859)
– William Peter Yeo (1863–1940, married Annie Unsworth, nine children)
– Katherine Yeo (born 1865, married Sydney Gardener)
– George Henry Yeo (1867–1924, married Jane Mulholland, five children)
– Charles Edwin Yeo (1869–1967, married Alice Ball, seven children)
then moved to Bangor in north Wales where another daughter was born:
– Florence Yeo (1872–1864)
and finally to Fleetwood in Lancashire, where two more daughters were born:
– Jessie Yeo (born 1874)
– Ellen Yeo (1877–1949).
William is recorded in Fleetwood in the 1901 census at the age of 74, ‘living on own means’ (i.e. retired). His wife Elizabeth is 66 and the return shows her birthplace as Devonport. Living with them are their widowed daughter Catherine Gardener and her 12-year-old son Sidney Gardener.
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See also John Yeo, coastguard in Ireland.