As noted in episodes 18 and 19, Thomas Alderson [1866-1916] was the son of George Alderson (1825-1894) and Elizabeth Pounder (1832-1878) [see tree below to get an overview of the cast of characters].
As a 14yo, Thomas Alderson had helped out on the farm. But before the next census, he was out on his own, working for the railway. Thomas married Monica Arrowsmith [1864-1901] late in the summer of 1890. I don’t know how long they knew each other, how they met, or even the exact date of their marriage. Thomas and Monica married in Great Ouseburn, Yorkshire and subsequently lived in Starbeck just northeast of Harrogate. This was only about 15mi southwest of where the first Arrowsmiths we can identify in Monica’s family, Richard Arrowsmith [the Huntsman of an earlier episode] and wife Elizabeth Webster, had lived from about 1730.
At the time of the 1891 census, Thomas and Monica were living with her brother Peter
Arrowsmith. It was a working class neighborhood (based on the occupation of his neighbors: stone mason, railway worker, blacksmith, bricklayer, laborer at the water works, locomotive engine cleaner, cabinet maker, railway engine stoker). Many of the neighbors worked for the railway. Monica was listed as a dressmaker.
By the time of the 1901 census Thomas and Monica had moved 25 mi to the south and were living in Great and Little Preston just southeast of Leeds [A in the map below].
Their home was listed as “Station House.” Someone from each of the families living there worked for the railway, so it appears to be company housing. At this point, Thomas was working as a “signalman,” although by 1911 he was a “ticket collector.” This latter term presumably referred to what we call a “conductor.” Dad had said that his grandfather Thomas Alderson was a “conductor.”
Cleary Family History 