Teddie Richardson 1907

This is the 1907 death certificate of Edward William Richard RICHARDSON, Prestwich, Blackley, County of Manchester. The record states that he died the third of February 1907, at 4 _____ Road at Blackley, North Manchester, age 7 years. He was the son of Edward William Henry RICHARDSON, bricklayer journeyman. He died of tuberculosis meningitis, 3 days. His father was present at his death. This certificate was obtained by Lynn Richardson on 17 May 2007, and contributed here.

Little Teddie RICHARDSON is finally remembered, exactly one hundred years later. I first heard about him in the early 1950s when I was petitioning my parents to buy me roller skates. All the other kids in my neighborhood of west Baltimore had them and were skating up and down the sidewalks. They were the metal clip-ons that attached to the bottoms of one’s shoes. That is when my father spoke of a cousin in England, who fell and hit his head and died, therefore he did not want that to happen to me. I don’t remember if I knew the child’s name or if I just assumed that the unfortunate little fellow fell while roller-skating. Even then, the story came to me second-hand from my mother who told me that is what my father had said. Eventually, I did get my roller skates, and I did fall and hit my head and was taken to the hospital for stitches.

In February 1957, when I was gathering family history on the RICHARDSONs from an elderly aunt of my father’s in Canada, Aunt Flo, she wrote about “seemingly” the same child whom she described as Teddie:

My eldest brother name Edward William Henry Richardson born March 19th 1869. He married at No 8 Trilby Rd Forest Hill S.E. He also was a bricklayer. He moved to Manchester & brought up his family there of Teddie Rosie Harry John Daisy Tassy Richard. Teddie met with an accident & died at the age of eight. My brother Edward was always called by his last name Harry. He died Nov 1934. 

In the 1980s I began corresponding with a grandson of Harry RICHARDSON, Tasman RICHARDSON, and when I mentioned young Teddie who had died as a child, he wrote that none of the siblings in that family had ever mentioned him. In the past year, Lynn RICHARDSON of Manchester, England has contacted both me and Tasman through the RICHARDSON pages here. Her children are great, great grandchildren of Harry, and it was she who finally found that Teddie did indeed exist and now we know his birth and death dates and his full name. As Tasman wrote, it only took one hundred years, 1907-2007!

The image, Teddie Richardson, was originally uploaded by barneykin. It is posted here from Neddy’s favorites.

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