Aunt Janet and Uncle Bill Blades for Photo Friday

 

This is a photo of my Auntie Janet and Uncle Bill Blades.  My cousin sent me this photo, but we don't know the year or place.  Janet is my grandfather's little sister.  She was born 14 June 1898 in Salem, Massachusetts to Albert Munroe Wilkinson and Isabella Lyons Bill, my great grandparents.  In 1927 she married William John Blades, who was born 14 June 1894 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  They lived in Beverly at 111 Essex Street in Beverly, next door to her aunt Georgia and Uncle Charles Marshall, and not far from where my grand parents lived on Dearborn Avenue. This house was built in 1675 by an ancestor, William Woodbury.  It was bought by Uncle Bill in 1927, around the time of their marriage. The house was sold in 1968 when Aunt Janet was widowed and moved into an apartment for the elderly in Beverly.  

Bill Blades was a veteran of World War I, where he lost a toe to frost bite in the trenches.  There is a family story that he was General Pershing's chauffeur. His military papers list him as a driver, but there is no proof about the General Pershing story!  After returning to civilian life he worked in the automobile industry as a repairman (1920 census), and for an auto dealer (1930 census).  He joined the Masons in 1920, in Dorchester where he lived with his parents before he married Auntie Janet.

Uncle Bill died in 1962 when I was a baby.  I don't remember him.  He is buried with a veteran's gravestone at Central Cemetery in Beverly, next to Janet, who died in 1981.  They never had any children. 

Auntie Janet worked for many, many years for the Salem Electric Lighting Company (a public utility). She earned a small gold brooch every five years she worked there, and after her death my father had the pins made into mongrammed pins for the women in the Wilkinson family.  I received one, as well as my sister, mother, aunt, and cousin.  

I remember my father picking up Auntie Janet from her apartment in Beverly and bringing her to our home in Holden, Massachusetts for Easter and Thanksgiving dinners.  She was a tiny lady, and always smiling, but I never knew her well.  The only story I remember about Auntie Janet was from my grandmother: 

"And of course we were married on a Thanksgiving Day 1926.  I think the date was November 25th, 1926.  I remember that day was quite hectic but we had the family, and an Episcopalian minister married us.  We went to Boston for just a couple of days.  My sister stayed with my mother and then I kept on working.  Oh, when we went away for our honeymoon Don's sister tried to pull away his suitcase for him.  And he kept hanging on to it and he got a black eye from the door banging into his eye.  So he had a black eye on our honeymoon and people joked about that but he really didn't feel a bit good." 

1976, Aunt Janet Wilkinson Blades

at my grandparents' 50th anniversary party. 

This is the only photograph I have of Uncle Bill Blades alone

For the truly curious:

Tombstone Tuesday 2015, William John Blades:     https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/tombstone-tuesday-william-john-blades.html   

The House at 111 Essex Street in Beverly, built by William Woodbury in 1675:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/01/house-built-in-1676-by-william-woodbury.html   

Surname Saturday WILKINSON from 2011 (my lineage back to our first WILKINSON immigrant ancestor in New England, Thomas Wilkinson of Portsmouth, New Hampshire)   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/09/surname-saturday-wilkinson.html   

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Aunt Janet and Uncle Bill Blades for Photo Friday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 21, 2025, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2025/02/aunt-janet-and-uncle-bill-blades-for.html: accessed [access date]).  

Tombstone Tuesday ~ William John Blades, WWI Veteran

This tombstone was photographed at the Central Cemetery in Beverly, Massachusetts

WILLIAM J. BLADES

MASSACHUSETTS

699 CO WWI

I knew that my great uncle, William John Blades, was a World War I veteran.  He was a chauffeur during the war, part of the 699th Motor Transportation Company of the US. Army.  There were some rumors that he had driven General Pershing, but there is no way to prove this story!  When I saw that his headstone was government issued, I went over to Ancestry.com to see if I could find the application for ordering his bronze marker.  I found it at the collection labeled "US Headstone Applications for Military Veterans 1925 - 1963".  He died in December of 1962, so that was a close call!

Ancestry.com also has a collection of World War I draft registration cards, too.  That is where I found the card you see below.  It is interesting to me because it states that Uncle Bill was also in the British military (Home Guards) for 5 years before coming to America from Northern Ireland.   Uncle Bill was born in Belfast, and the Ulster Home Guard was a group that preceded the Ulster Defence Volunteers just before World War II. 

Form 1 60980                      Registration Card                           No. 55
1.  Name in full:  William John Bales Blades                     age in yrs:   23
2.  Home Address:  10 Cornwall St. Jamaica Plain Mass.
3.  Date of birth:  June 14, 1894
4.  Are you (1) a natural born citizen, (2) a naturalized citizen, (3) an alien, (4) or have you declared your intention (specify which)?       alien
5.  Where were you born?    Belfast, Ireland
6.  If not a citizen, of what country are you a citizen or subject?  Great Britain
7.  What is your present trade, occupation or office?         Assistant Superintendent
8. By whom employed?   Bailey Meter Co
    Where employed?  54 Pearl st. Boston Mass
9.  Have you a father, mother, wife, child under 12, or a sister or brother under 12, solely dependent on you for support (specify which)?    none
10. Married or single (which)?    single     Race (specify which) Caucasian
11. What military service have you had?  Rank:  Corporal    branch:  Home Guards
     Years:   5              Nation or State         England
12  Do you claim exemption from draft (specify grounds)?     no
I affirm that I have verified above answers and that they are true.
                         [signed ]    William John Blades
[on the reverse]
1.  Tall, medium or short (specify which)?   medium      Slender, medium or stout (which)?  medium
2.  Color of eyes?     blue            Color of hair?  brown             Bald?   No
3.  Has person lost arm, leg, hand, foot, or both eyes, or is he otherwise disabled (specify)?   No

....
Ward 22
Precinct 2
Boston
Mass                       June 5, 1917   [The US entered WWI on 6 April 1917]

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This is the only photograph I have of Uncle Bill Blades

William John Blades, son of John F. and Mary Blades, was born 14 June 1894 in Belfast Northern Ireland, and died on 28 December 1962 in Beverly, Massachusetts.  He married Janet Wilkinson, daughter of Albert Munroe Wilkinson and Isabella Lyons Bill, in 1927.  She was born on 14 June 1898 (they shared a birthday) in Salem, Massachusetts, and died 6 October 1981 in Beverly, Massachusetts.   Janet was my grandfather's sister (Donald Munroe Wilkinson (1895 - 1977)).  They lived for almost 50 years at 111 Essex Street in Beverly.   According to the cemetery records, Auntie Janet was buried next to Uncle Bill, but the headstone appeared to be missing or sunken.

Yes, my aunt Janet was known as Janet Wilkinson Blades!  Funny?

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/03/tombstone-tuesday-william-john-blades.html
Copyright (c) 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo