A short run of Oldhams

My parents celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in a couple of months from now and I've also just lost an uncle to cancer in the last few days. That got me thinking about my family tree and an oddity which hadn't dawned on me before.

My grandfather was William Oldham. He and Doris had six children, of which four were boys. However I'm now one of only two Oldhams left of my generation as my uncles generally had girls and my brother Mark changed his surname to Rosewood when he got married¹.

It gets more interesting with the next generation. My cousin Chris, the other Oldham left of our generation, and Alison have a girl and both Mark and I are childless, so even if he'd not changed his surname we would still have no Oldhams at all in the next generation.

"So what?" you may be asking yourself.

Well, my great grandfather who was also named William Oldham ran away from home at a young age and there's a suspicion that he chose the surname Oldham himself i.e. it's not his birth name. So that means there's only four generations of Oldhams from end to end. Which is kind of interesting I think.

Now the one thing I don't know is whether William Oldham senior had any other sons. He may well have done, in that era large families were the norm. So there may be other branches of Oldhams growing rapidly.

It would be interesting to know. It would also be interesting to find out the truth behind my great grandfather's story.

Whether I can unravel these things before my parents' wedding anniversary is another matter.