Joe Bickerstaff

Hi Bruce

My Grandfather was called Harry Bickerstaff and he married Beatrice Waitley. They lived in Birmingham where Harry ran the family business which was a glass blowing factory. Harry and Beatrice had 7 children, Pat, Muriel, Mary, Joan, Barbara, Laddie (the first son after four girls) and John. John was my father and was an expert on wine and delicatessen both managing and owning his own shops over the years. Dad married Barbara Kings from Bromsgrove near Birmingham and they had two sons, myself (christened Jolyon) and my brother, Mark. We grew up in Malvern, Worcestershire.

Harry served in the first world war, where his life was saved by a silver cigarette case, which stopped a bullet on route to his heart. My Uncle Laddie used to have the cigarette case with the bullet dent, but it was sadly stolen several years ago in a burglary.

I live in London and work as a jazz pianist, having married Emma Charvet. We have one daughter aged five months, called Rosa Mae Bickerstaff (Rosie).

My brother, Mark, lives in Nottingham where he leads a business support team for an IT company.

I have lots of cousins some of whom I have never met as we are such a large family. Mainly they are based around the midlands, with some in Cambridgeshire and other places in the UK.

Hope this will suffice for now. I'll try and get some more info about my cousins and older relatives over to you when I get chance to consult with uncles and aunts.

Best wishes

Joe

To send email to Joe, write to joe (at) joeandemma.com

Deborah Nicol

I came across the web page for the Bickerstaff family and I do have some information regarding the history of the family. My husband has been doing a great deal of research in regards to the family and has some relevant information going back to the 1700's in Ireland (and England). The Irish Bickerstaff were comprised of English Bickerstaff(e)s who emigrated to Ireland in the 18th century.

First of all, my great-grandfather was Arthur Richard Bickerstaff, son of Joseph Bickerstaff and Elizabeth Bickerstaff (nee Moore) of Toronto. Joseph was the son of Arthur Bickerstaff of County Armagh, Ireland. In fact, in downtown Toronto, along Yonge Street is considered a historical set of buildings called the Joseph Bickerstaff block. Joseph Bickerstaff and his brothers were pre-eminent citizens of Toronto and the major grocers of their day.

We also have documents showing letters between Joseph Bickerstaff and Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald of Canada (archived in Ottawa) Joseph and his brothers (Thomas and Robert) were also major political forces in the early days of the province of Ontario, Canada(once called Canada West) I have additonal siblings of Joseph as well named.

Arthur Richard Bickerstaff was one of the sons and he married my great grandmother Annie E.C Swinton (who had worked as a clerk at one of Joseph's stores briefly. He married her in June 1898 in Toronto. They had 3 girls, Edna, Doris and Greta Bickerstaff (my grandmother). Arthur is listed as a London Life Insurance Agent in 1899 in Toronto. Annie Swinton was the daughter of pre-eminent citizens of Niagara on the Lake. Arthur had siblings as well. Joseph E Bickerstaff, Robert Bickerstaff, Thomas Bickerstaff and Elizabeth Bickerstaff.

Arthur and my great grandmother separated in 1922. He did manage to see two of his daughters maried (Edna and Doris) before leaving for the US(via Colorado) and died in Los Angeles California in 1948. My grandmother Greta Bickerstaff married my grandfather, Lorne J Dittmer in the early 1930's and had one daughter, my mother, Sally. She passed away in 1995. What she died of, I have, which is Waldenstroms Macroglobulinemia, a very rare and incurable cancer. We also believe my grandmother- Greta Bickerstaff had the same disease (although it was not discovered until 1944). From research my husband did on various cancers(and this disease is hard to detect) is that it is possible the same disease is passed on possibly through the Bickerstaff genes. We are trying to find out more about this.

In the meantime, I invite those to email me for any information they may have or wish to connect. I'm also on ancestry.ca and if people do wish photos, I have scanned copies of some of the above available.

Deborah Nicol
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
email: dlnicol (at) hotmail.com