Thomas Sancaster appears to have been born In Penrith, Cumberland around 1820. No information regarding
his birth has been found to date. On his marriage certificate to Elizabeth Fulthorp his father is listed as John Sancaster
and his occupation is given as a Miller. It maybe that his original surname was Lancaster but I have not been able to
prove this to date. There is a Lancaster family living in Penrith at about the right time.
He married Elizabeth (Isabella) Fulthorp from Dunstun beside Whickham in County Durham on 06/09/1857 in
Newcastle upon Tyne. The GRO has his name as Sangster ( I wonder what made them get married at this point). Ann Sancaster
their second daughter was born the next year. Information regarding the Fulthorp family is available on FamilySearch.com but
no direct connection to Elizabeth has appeared yet. Please look at the FIRST FAMILY page for further information on Thomas
and under Current Research about Elizabeth.
The earliest documentary evidence of the family is found in Robert their first sons birth certificate of
16 September 1840 in Close, St Nicholas area of Newcastle upon Tyne. The birth certificate gives his fathers name at Sankester,
who worked as a cartman, as he appears to have done all his life. A copy of this certificate can be seen under the Certificates
section.
By 1844 and the death of their second son John, who was born the year before and registered in Gateshead,
they were living at Rabbit Banks in Gateshead. This was on the fairly step north facing slopes on the River Tyne. This was
to be the site on the Garden Festival held in Gateshead in the early 1980s. The family seems to have stayed in the area of
Rabbit Banks and Pipewellgate for the next twenty years. In the 1861 census they were still living at Rabbit Banks and by
then the older son Robert had left home and he does not appear on the census return and he appears to have joined the army.
See http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/ls/pipewell.htm for images of the area.
By 1866 the family seems to have moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where Thomas and Elizabeth's final child
John is born in December 1865
The first of the third generation of Sancasters appears to be Thomas born in 1870 son Thomas
1848. The senior line was Robert's and his son Robert was born in 1872. he appears on the 1881 and 1891 census'
but no civil registration of his birth has yet been found. Robert married Emily Thomas from Tenby, Wales in 1866 in Wales.
On their marriage certificate it gives Roberts occupation as Private, 9th Regt. They also had a daughter Emily born in
1881 who appears on the 1891 and 1901 census'. This seems to have been his brother Thomas' daughter who Robert brought
up following the death of Thomas' wife Elizabeth in childbirth. Emily, Roberts wife died in 1892 of stomach cancer, then
the family moved back to the North East.
By the time of the 1881 census they all seem to be living in the Byker and Elswick areas of Newcastle.
As you can see from the later census information the family stays in the same area until the start of the 1900s, although
Robert (1840) is found with his family in the 1891 census living in Tenby, Wales. Then a slow dispersal starts to the wider
North East and London with one branch of the family emigrating to Canada in the mid 1920's another branch follows there a
couple of decades later as well.
Thomas Sancaster died in 1883 and Elizabeth 25 October 1894 according to her death certificate aged 75,
of senile decay.
There are many stories to tell I'm sure if you have them, tell them. This is just a general outline of
the early years of the family if anybody has some more information about the history let us know and I'll post it on here
as quick as I can.
