Herbert Wilfrid ‘Wilf’ Albrow (1908-80, third from left, front row) on a working men’s club outing in the Yorkshire Dales
The Albrow family of Suffolk, London, Manchester and Leeds
The connection
Liz is linked to the Albrows via her mother Coleen Albrow, b1936. Liz’s uncle, Leslie Albrow of Otley, has traced his family back to the late 1700s in Norfolk.
The name
The Albrow surname is probably a place name. The most likely candidate is Alburgh, three miles north-east of Harleston, Norfolk. Another possibility is Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast, but this is less likely given the concentration of Albrows in Norfolk in the 1600s.
St John’s church, Reedham, where Jeremiah Albrow (1743-1822), Liz’s 6x gt grandfather, is buried. The village was central to the family for three generations.
Liz’s grandfather and great grandfather, both known as Wilf, in a works photograph c1914-15. They were employed by Green and Smith electrical contractors in Royds Lane, Leeds. Young Wilf is at the front, centre, wearing a flat cap, and his dad is bare-headed, top right.
Water flowed in the veins of the early Albrows and many were wherrymen on the Norfolk Broads. The last mariner we know of was Nathaniel, who spent census night 1871 in a lodging house in Leith. He was presumably part of the Lowestoft fleet that fished off Scotland and Iceland.
The earliest mention we can find of an Albrow is a Robert Alborough, who was christened on July 17 1694 at St Julian's Chapel, Norwich. We cannot be certain that he is an ancestor.
Nathaniel Albrow (1832-1903), Liz’s 3x gt grandfather had a colourful life. He looks to have run a beer house in Bungay, Suffolk, before becoming bankrupt in 1866 and spending a short time in Ipswich jail. He then became a mariner before joining the Post Office and moving with his family to London.
Edgar Ernest Wilfrid “Wilf” Albrow (1886-1958), Liz’s great grandfather, was born in West Ham, London. His father Edgar Nathaniel (1865-97) trained as an electrician and the family moved to Manchester. Edgar Nathaniel died aged just 32 and young Wilf moved to Leeds between 1901 and 1906.
Herbert Wilfrid “Wilf” Albrow (1908-80), Liz’s grandfather, was born in Leeds and became an electrician. In 1935 he married Doris Elvidge. During the Second World War he was in a reserved occupation and volunteered as an air raid fire-watcher.
Odds and ends
In 1773 Jeremiah Albrow I, Liz’s 6x gt grandfather, was the victim of a theft when a Cornelius Jekyll stole a pig and five chickens. These were found hidden on Jekyll’s boat and he was transported for seven years.
Highlights
William Albrow, Liz’s 5x gt grandfather, died in 1860 and left several properties in Kirtley, Lowestoft, to members of his family