William and Julia from Preston, England

Louise and Arthur Luckraft very kindly sent me a wonderful family portrait, taken about 1917. It shows Helen (b. 1898), Edward (b 1904), Henry (seated b 1897), Albert (b 1901), Steven (b 1910), with William (b 1869) and his wife Julia Ann (Thompson b 1873). Arthur is the youngest son of the seated Henry. You can see the tree of William, who originated from Preston, on the website; the Preston tree.

Louise writes that William and Julia both came from Preston. They were married in St James Roman Catholic Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1896, and the Luckraft family still attends this church, where many were married and baptised.

This family emerged from the Dean Prior Luckrafts, through a Richard Luckraft, who went to work in Kidderminster and then to Preston, where he married Ellen Hoskisson, and they had their first child, also Richard, in 1837. The son Richard married Elizabeth Halliwell (whose father was named William) in 1866, and their son William, shown in this photo, was born in 1869.

Though William and Julia had emigrated to America, where they were married in 1896, William served in the British Army in the Boer War, and later in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces in World War I.

William and Julia lived on Vial Street in the south end of New Bedford, before buying their own wooden-framed and clad home on Thatcher Street, just a few blocks away. This home, built in 1895, still stands and remains in the family, being the home of Art and Louise.

Art and Louise are wonderful correspondents and keep me in touch with their family news.