Notepad Tales The Smart family of West Ham, Essex ... and Vancouver & Seattle  All I know about my great great grandfather William Smart is that he was born in about 1795 not in Essex (according to the 1841 census), and that he was a blacksmith. He died in what might be mysterious circumstances in Leyton, Essex on the 9th October 1846; his death was not registered until 23rd February 1848 when the informant was Charles C. Lewis, Coroner, Brentwood (his patch would have covered all South West Essex up to the River Lea) and the cause is “in a natural way and not from any violence”. So somewhere there must be records of an inquest, and was a gap of nearly eighteen months between death and registration of the death normal? His wife Ann was born about 1793 in Linton in Cambridgeshire, but as I have not yet found their marriage, I do not know her maiden name. She lived considerably longer than her husband so makes it onto the more detailed later censuses. She died on the 28th March 1873 in the Almshouses in West Ham. Their son Thomas William Smart, my great grandfather was born in Wanstead in Essex probably in 1819 as he was baptised there on the 26th September that year. Wanstead is conveniently near the old road from Cambridgeshire - now the M11 - so this may have been a stopping-off point for his parents on their way to Hackney where their next three children, Sarah, James and Eliza, were born in the 1820s and baptised at St John's with addresses at Hackney Bay, Well Street and North Street. Two more sons, John and Joseph, were born in 1831 and 1834 and baptised in West Ham, so the family crossed back over the River Lea into Essex around 1830. In 1841 William Smart and his family - his wife Ann, and children James, Eliza, John and Joseph - are living at Chapel End in Walthamstow, Essex. William's son Thomas William is still in Hackney working as a Blacksmith in Church Street. In 1851 Thomas William Smart has moved to High Street, Bow and is a blacksmith. Living with him are his widowed mother Ann, and his siblings Sarah, James, John and Joseph. John is also a Blacksmith, while James is a Spring maker, and Joseph (at 17) is a Teacher of Music. Thomas William kept his links with Hackney for on the 26th April 1852 he married Anne Skinner there. Blacksmiths were obviously a mobile group, for Thomas William and Anne's first child - Anne Eliza Smart - was born in Limehouse on the 2nd February 1853. Their second - Sarah Ann - was born in 1856 in West Ham, Essex. In 1861 they are living at no. 5 Paul St., West Ham with his mother, and here they appear to settle. A son - George William was born here on the 8th April 1861 and a daughter Emily Jane in 1864. Anne Smart died from phthisis on 11 July 1865 in Leyton, though Thomas William “in attendance” gives his address as 5 Paul Street. (See note on West Ham and Stratford.) On the 9th June 1867 Thomas William married Mary Blair, a widow, in Hackney. Both bride and groom give South Hackney as their residence, though they were both established in West Ham. The witnesses are Theodore Audoire and Sarah Price; I haven't found out anything about Sarah Price, but Theodore Audoire married an Ellen Still in Marylebone in 1864. Mary's Blair's maiden name was Still, and she had a much younger sister called Ellen so Theodore was a relation by marriage. The 1871 census shows the Smart/Blair combined household at 9 Paul Street, West Ham. Thomas William is a blacksmith and his second wife Mary is a dressmaker. There are three Smart children, Sarah, George William and Emily Jane - Ann Eliza appears to be working as a servant in Mile End Old Town - and Sarah and William Thomas Blair, Mary's children from her first marriage. Thomas William Smart died at 8 West Ham Lane on the 23rd March 1880 from phthisis. His death was registered by "A.E. Griesel, daughter, present at death, West Ham Lane, Stratford". This is his oldest daughter Anne Eliza who had married Adam Griesel on the 14th January 1880 in Bethnal Green. His daughter Sarah Ann had married Joseph Bradley on the 16th December 1877 in Stratford, Essex. George William Smart married Mary Ann Elizabeth Carter on the 25th December 1881 in Bethnal Green, and Mary Smart, their stepmother, had married again by the end of June 1881, to John Hammond. I have found Anne Eliza Griesel and Sarah Bradley and John Hammond on the 1881 census, but no- one else in the immediate family. I know they must be in the East London/Essex area but have yet to find Mary Smart (née Still, formerly Blair), George William Smart and William John (or William Thomas) Blair. Mary and her new husband continued to live with her son William John Blair and his family. He married Annie Nicholls in 1886 and they carried on living in West Ham. In 1891 William John is a railway hammerman and they are living at 120, Vicarage Lane, West Ham; John Hammond died later that year. In 1901 they are living at 10 Frank Street, West Ham. William John Blair is a gas fitter and his son William Thomas (13) is a railway coach painter. The 1911 census throws up an interesting mystery: they are living at 34 Hayday Road, Plaistow but William John who fills in the form gives and signs his surname as Smart! I know this is him as his mother Mary Hammond is living with them, and the ages and places of birth all match. So why revert to the surname he had never used? The 1871 census is unclear on the children's surnames - I wonder whether William John (also sometimes referred to as William Thomas) was really the son of Thomas William Smart from before his marriage to Mary Blair, and also from before Anne Smart's and William Blair's (Mary's husband) deaths?           George William Smart Great-uncle George William Smart was a surprise when I found him on the 1871 census living at 9 Paul Street, West Ham in the extended (and I suspect complicated) family of great grandfather Thomas William Smart and his second wife Mary Blair (née Still) and her children. By the time of the 1881 census his father had died and his stepmother was planning her next marriage. Although I can’t find George on this census he can’t be far away as he married Mary Ann Elizabeth Carter in Bethnal Green on the 25th December 1881. I have found her in 1881: she’s living with her parents and brothers at 7 Cross Street, West Ham. Her father is a railway signalman and the family are from Yarmouth in Norfolk. Her brother Ambrose is a Smith like George, so I wonder if that is how she met her future husband. In 1891 George and Mary Ann are living at 71, Victoria Street, West Ham with three children: Marguerite Ann, Thomas William and John Arthur. George is working as a Blacksmith as his father and grandfather had done before him. On the 8th March 1900 the family sailed from Liverpool for Halifax, Nova Scotia on board the Vancouver. George’s occupation appears to be Farmer - a possible misreading of Farrier. By the time of the 1901 Canadian census they had crossed the continent to arrive in Revelstoke, British Columbia where George is once again working as a Blacksmith. Revelstoke is in southeastern British Columbia and is located about 400 miles east of Vancouver. The town was founded in the 1880s when the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) was built through the area, and this is presumably how the Smarts crossed from east to west. On the 29th August 1904 Mary Ann died in Vancouver, and George married Johanna Heffernan on the 29th January 1912. Johanna had arrived in Canada from her native Australia in 1910, having spent a year in Washington State on the way. Born in Bega in New South Wales in 1876, she was the oldest of the twelve children of Thomas Heffernan and Johanna Beck who had married in Bega in 1875. On the 26th May 1915 George and Johanna’s son Desmond Francis (though the two names were sometimes reversed) was born in Vancouver. In the meantime George’s son Thomas William had married Ethel May Hale (30 June 1908) and his daughter Marguerite Ann had married Thomas Kennelly (10 May 1911), both in Vancouver. I can’t find any of them in the 1911 Canadian census, except perhaps George’s son John Arthur who is a Lodger, and a Merchant in Vancouver. But thanks to the  British Columbia City Directories 1860-1940 I have found details of the Smarts in Vancouver from 1902 to 1916. The directory entries show their employers, occupations and residences and the culmination must be in 1908/1909 when the family are working together as blacksmiths under the name of G W Smart and Sons. A full list is at the bottom of this page. 1916 brought a big change for George and Johanna: they decided to move to the United States. George went first - probably with his son John Arthur - on the Princess Charlotte sailing from Vancouver and arriving in Seattle on about the 8th February 1916. He set about finding work and a place to live: when Joanna and baby Francis Desmond arrived on the 24th May 1916 they stated that they were going to join him at 911 Seneca Street, Seattle. On the 7th November 1916 their second son Lloyd George Smart was born in Seattle, and on the 4th February 1918 George became an American citizen. In the 1920 census George, Johanna and their sons are living in Director Street in Seattle and George is working as a Blacksmith: as most of his neighbours are employed in the Shipyard I guess he was also using his skills in shipbuilding. John Arthur Smart has married and is also in Seattle with his wife Elizabeth and children Florence and Arthur, and is working as a blacksmith. On his Draft Registration card from 1917 John Arthur gives his occupation as Blacksmith working for Skinner & Eddy Shipbuilding Co., his address is 1515 Forrest St., Seattle and he is already married. Strangely he gives his place of birth as Kent, England - but as he was only 10 when he left England he probably only had a hazy idea of the geography: like his father he was an Essex Boy. In 1930 George and Johanna are living at 3948 Eddy Street, Seattle; George is a blacksmith in the shipyards and Johanna is a cook in a restaurant. Desmond and Lloyd are aged 16 and 14 respectively and are still at home with no occupation. John Arthur (or Jack as he appears in this census) is now a house carpenter, and he and Elizabeth have gained another daughter, Eunice born in 1922. George died between the taking of the 1930 census and early 1933 for in that  year Johanna visited Australia with Lloyd, presumably to pay a final visit to her father who aged 97 was to die the next year. "Thomas Heffernan, the oldest man in the district, has died aged 98. He selected land near Bega in 1867." Sydney Morning Herald, 31 October 1934. On their return - they travelled on RMS Niagara - through Vancouver in transit for Seattle on the 30th May 1933 she gives details of herself and Lloyd: she is a widow, aged 57 and a cook, and their address in Seattle is the same as in the 1930 census. She also says she has previously lived in Vancouver from 1910 to 1916 and gives her address there as 235 Templeton Drive; Lloyd is noted to have poor vision. They both give USA as their nationality but Irish as their race or people. In addition Johanna says that she was naturalized by marriage in  May 1922 Superior Court, Seattle, Washington. Johanna possibly visited Australia again in 1947 - but this time she flew via Honolulu. Johanna died on the 18th May 1956 in Seattle. Sources: Canadian and US censuses, Naturalization and Draft documents on Ancestry. English censuses, passenger lists and border crossings on Ancestry and FindMyPast. Births, marriages and deaths from FindMyPast, Ancestry and FamilySearch. Note on West Ham and Stratford. “WEST HAM. This parish lies in the hundred of Becontree; and is bounded on the east by Eastham; on the north by Wansted and Leyton; on the west by the river Lea, which separates it from St. Leonard's Bromley, Stratford-Bow, and Hackney, in Middlesex; and on the south by the river Thames. The village, in which the church is situated, lies a little to the south of the high road, and four miles from Whitechapel. The populous hamlet of Stratford extends along the road towards London, as far as Bow-bridge. Plaistow, another large hamlet, is about a mile east of the church. Upton, another hamlet, lies nearly a mile north-east. This parish is divided into three wards, called Church-street, Stratford-Langthorne, and Plaistow wards; each of which has a churchwarden and overseer.” Environs of London by Daniel Lysons, 1796. GoogleBooks. 1902 Henderson's BC Gazetteer and Directory - Vancouver Smart, G. Blacksmith. Van. Eng. Works 616 Princess 1903 Henderson's BC Gazetteer and Directory - Vancouver Smart, George, blacksmith N. Thompson & Co, h 636 Princess Smart, T., apprentice Van. Eng. Works, h 616 Princess 1904 Henderson's BC Gazetteer and Directory - Vancouver Smart, George, blacksmith N. Thompson & Co, 334 Alexander 1905 Henderson's City of Vancouver Directory Smart, George, blacksmith, lvs 271 Victoria Drive 1906 Henderson's City of Vancouver Directory Smart, George W., blacksmith, lvs 271 Victoria Drive 1907 Henderson's City of Vancouver Directory Smart, George W., blacksmith, lvs  271 Victoria Drive 1908 Henderson's City of Vancouver Directory Smart G W of G W Smart & Son h 2126 Eaton Smart G W & Son blacksmiths 56 Alexander Smart Thomas W of G W Smart & Son lvs 2126 Eaton 1909 Henderson's City of Vancouver and North Vancouver Directory Smart George W of G W Smart & Sons h 2126 Eaton Smart G W & Sons blacksmiths 56 Alexander Smart Thomas W of G W Smart & Sons lvs 2126 Eaton Smart John A benchman E H Heaps & Co. lvs 2126 Eaton 1910 Henderson's City of Vancouver and North Vancouver Directory Part 2 Smart G W blksmith Ross & Howard h 2126 Eaton Smart John A confectioner 1066 Pender W res 2126 Eaton Smart John E carp h 2126 Eaton Smart Thomas W blksmith E H Heaps & Co h 225 Templeton Drive W 1911 Henderson's Greater Vancouver Directory Part 2 Smart George W blksmith 142 Alexander h 2126 Eaton Smart John A confectioner 1066 Pender W Smart Thomas W blksmith E H Heaps & Co h 225 Templeton Drive N 1912 Henderson's Greater Vancouver Directory Part 2 Smart Geo W blksmith Letson & Burpee h 2126 Eaton Smart John A carp r 2126 Eaton Smart Thos W blksmith E H Heaps & Co r 2598 Eaton 1913 Henderson's Greater Vancouver City Directory Part 2 Smart Geo W grocer h 2126 Eton Smart John A grocer r 2126 Eton 1914 Henderson's Greater Vancouver City Directory Part 2 Smart Geo W grocer 235 Templeton Dr N h 2126 Eton 1915 Henderson's Greater Vancouver City Directory Smart Geo W grocer 235 Templeton Dr N h same Smart John A carp r 235 Templeton Dr N 1916 Henderson's Greater Vancouver City Directory Smart Geo W blksmith h 235 Templeton Dr N Smart John A carp r 235 Templeton Dr N Bradleys        Return to top of page Return to top of page Return to top of page George William Smart Home