EDGOOSE:
In search of Ancestry
EDGOOSE, Grace Sterling
Has 54 ancestors but no descendants in this family tree.
1905 - 1971 (65 years)-
Name EDGOOSE, Grace Sterling Gender Female Person ID I9567 Edgoose Last Modified 28 Aug 2026
Father EDGOOSE, James Henry, b. 26 Nov 1905, Sunderland, County Durham, England 
d. 8 Feb 1971, Sunderland, County Durham, England (Age 65 years) Mother GREEN, Olive May, b. 8 Nov 1910, Philadelphia, Sunderland, County Durham, England d. 1 Dec 2003, Sunderland, County Durham, England (Age 93 years) Marriage 5 Jan 1946 Sunderland, County Durham, England Family ID F3245 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Biographies 
EDGOOSE, Grace Sterling (1947-2025)
Grace Sterling EDGOOSE was born on 4 May 1947, daughter of James Henry EDGOOSE (1905-1971) and Olive May EDGOOSE formerly GREEN (1910-2003)
(GRO June Q 1947 Sunderland 1a 1733)
James Henry EDGOOSE had married Olive May GREEN on 5 January 1946.
She wrote poetry. Some of her work was published by the Sunderland Echo. Some was published privately. In 1998 she began a quarterly column in the Sunderland Echo entitled "Tomorrow's Sunday".
She lived in her parents' house at 37 Weldon Avenue, Sunderland, SR2 9QB.
(Source: Electoral Roll)
She never married, and died in September 2025 aged 78.
NOTES & QUERIES:
Michael James Edgoose writes: Grace was intensely interested in family history and I met her occasionally before I moved to France in 2008. Unfortunately she had no access to the internet whilst I lived in England and I do not know whether she ever found my website which won a Guild of One-Name Studies Award in 2018.
There follow copies of the few letters between us:
A Letter from Grace dated 6 December 1968:
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your letter received yesterday. The Children's Verses were ready for the post, so I thought it better to write now.
Please don't worry about not replying to my last letter straight away. I wasn't at all offended.
We were most interested in the news about Mrs Ethellyn Edgoose, and also the information in your letter to Daddy. He has just come out of hospital, and will be writing to you early in the New Year, so I will leave him to answer most of you queries.
However I am enclosing the photo of Mary Edgoose, which was the first one in Elizabeth Edgoose's album; I must add, that there is also one in Martha's album too.
As to the photo of James EDGOOSE with his Mother? (Grandmother?) from Elizabeth's album: I have checked the address of the phographer and it is the one you mention. I am enclosing it also. Perhaps you can let us have these photographs back, when you are finished with them.
We do enjoy hearing about any new discoveries you make.
Please keep the Children's Verses as long as you may need them.
Hoping you and your family are well, and wishing you All the Best for Christmas and the New Year.
Yours sincerely, Grace.
A Letter from Grace dated 4 March 1969.
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your letter and the return of the verses.
We are in no hurry for the photographs. Daddy is much better; I gave him your message. He says it is quite alright, but of course he will be pleased to hear from when you are able to write.
You must all be looking forward to your holiday at Sedbergh. I hope the weather is kind; spring holidays quite often turn out to be more settled in this respect than Summer ones.
We love Whitby on the east coast, and have sometimes spent a Spring Holiday there.
A month or two back, there was an article in the Northern edition of the 'Viewer' about Mr Ron Edgoose and his television mast. It was most interesting: both photographs and information. A friend of mine was going to keep it for me to pass on to you --- athough you doubtless have all the information it contained already ---- unfortunately she seems to have lost it! However, knowing your interest in 'Edgooses' in print, I thought it would let you know that his fame had reached the North!
With regard to myself and possible publishers: I don't think I mentioned that I was offered a publishing contract --- for adult poetry --- by a London firm some eighteen months ago. Unfortunately I couldn't agree to the terms of the contract, so I had to turn it down.
Several years ago, when I first began to write, I spent an afternoon in the company of a professional writer, who gave me some good advice on publishing and copyright. What she said about publishers was
this: Never negotiate with publishers you knew nothing about, particularly if they are not listed in the Writers' and Artists' Year Book. Secondly, never except under exceptional circumstances, offer to pay anything towards the cost of publication.
Any new writer, however good, is unknown, and therefore needs a certain amount of 'pushing'. If the publisher undertakes the cost, he will push the work and the new writer, in order to regain his money.
If however the writer pays part --- perhaps quite a large part --- of the cost, there is then no incentive for the publisher to push at all. In consequence, the unknown writer is left, with a empty purse in one hand, and a pile of his own books in the other; which of course is a most unsatisfactory state of affairs!
I will take your advice and try some of the smaller publishers listed in the W.& A.Y.B.
I expect you will soon have your new car; and we all hope you have an enjoyable holiday!
With best wishes to you and your family. Grace
A Letter from Grace dated 25 April 1969:
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your last letter and the photographs you returned.
The article you were sent on Ron Edgoose was probably very much the same as the one I saw.
We were pleased to hear how you enjoyed your evening with [name redacted], and most interested in what you said about my Aunt's wedding dress. Did you know that my cousin Eleanor was married in that dress too? Perhaps you took a copy of her wedding photograph, if so you will be able to compare them.
The weather over Easter was most kind; it certainly improves one's impressions of a district when the sun shines.
We hope to go to the flat near Wooler, the last week in May; from what I have heard they seem to have had a pretty hard winter up there!
Your collection of "Tomb-stone" photographs must certainly be growing. We had noticed photos of more than one Minister in the old Albums, but of we didn't know whether or not they were Edgoose's.
I am enclosing another poem: it was in the Sunderland Echo on 29th March.
Our Best wishes to you all. Grace.
A letter from Grace dated 10 August 1993:
Dear Michael,
It seems quite a long time since we met [name redacted] and you again, at Uncle George and Auntie Greta's Golden Wedding. I hope all goes well with you. The reason for writing to you, is that I was going through my great, grandmother's photograph album -- Martha Ellen Taylor, dated Sept. 20th 1867 --. You may remember seeing it years ago, when you came north to Sunderland.
The photographs were back to back, and some of the pages felt extremely thick. I eased the phographs
out, and found parts of letters, and pictures hidden between them. The letters, unfortunately had been cut to fit the pages, and are fragmentary, though they are none the less interesting for that. They are from my great, grandfather, James Edgoose, to Martha Ellen before they were married.
The above 'find' made me feel that I would like to write a short article about, "The Treasures Hidden in my Great, Grandmother's Photograph Album". I therefore went through all the information you sent my father in the 1960's, and also the letters you wrote at the that time.
I wondered if you would allow me to use some of the information which you gathered then, and indeed, if you would be kind enough to verify the following facts from your store of 'Edgoose Information'.
Martha Ellen Taylor, born 1841 or 1842.
James Edgoose, born in Gedney in 1836 (I think more likely in 1837).
I have a copy of their Marriage Certificate, dated September 17th 1868, at Wisbech; which you had copied on 7 August 1967. I understand that James Edgoose was at that time living in Walsoken. Do you have any details of how he met Martha Ellen Taylor? I also have a Birth Certificate for John James their son, registered March 1875; but I understood that they had only one son, my father's father, John Holborn;
also one daughter, Elizabeth.
I have photographs of both my great grandparents, taken at different times.
You also sent my father details of the collision, off Scarborough, between the ss Houghton, and the J.M. Strachan - Scarborough Weekly Post, Friday August 20th 1886. There were also details from the Lloyds Casualty Reports of 1867,
relevant to two vessels named Houghton: Quote: Lowestoft January 26. The "Sultana", schooner, of Portsmouth, master Meades from Sunderland, has been assisted in here, having run into and sunk steamer "HOUGHTON". Unquote.
Second extract: Quote: Extract from Lloyds Casualty Reports 1886:
London, August 20. (Friday) - Yesterday morning Captain Swinson and the crew of steamer "Houghton", of Sunderland, have landed at Sunderland, their vessel having sunk on Wednesday night off Scarborough after colliding with steamer "J.M. STRACHAN" of London. The latter vessel was badly damaged. The "Houghton" was on a voyage to Dieppe with a cargo of coal. The weather was very thick at the time of the collision. UNQUOTE.
Presumably the sceond report refers to my great, grandfather's ship. Did you prove that he was on the crew list? Incidentally whose permission would I have to obtain now, to reproduce the newspaper cutting if it proved necessary?
You also mention in your letter of 24.11.68. that the accident took place before James was married, and while he was presumably still living in Walsoken, QUOTE "but it does not explain how Martha remembers saying goodbye to him and then seeing him again in old clothes" UNQUOTE. How did you know she had seen him after the accident?
Going further back, to the previous generation: I have a photograph which I think you copied from one in Martha Ellen's album, of James Edgoose's mother, on the back of which my father has written, Mary Edgoose, nee Holborn, my great, grandmother; which of course would make her my GREAT, GREAT Grandmother.
I also have a copy of a Birth Certificate for John James, her son, dated October 1839, naming John Edgoose, father, as Veg. Dealer, registered ast Holbeach. I gather from one of your letters, that Mary Holborn and John Edgoose, had a `shotgun´ wedding. Was the above John James the result!?
Have you any details of the wills or inventories of any of the following?
John Edgoose, my great, great grandfather.
Mary Edgoose, nee Holborn, my great, great grandmother.
James Edgoose, my great, grandfather.
Mary Ellen Edgoose, nee Taylor, my great, grandmother.
These would be of Great, if you'll pardon the pun, interest to me! In one of your letters, you give details of of the burial of Mary Edgoose of Walsoken, aged 83, on November 25th 1886, you had then, a copy of her Death Certificate. She was the widow of John Edgoose, Cattle Dealer, and the person who informed the Registrar of her death was a Mary, Jane, Thompson [typed as written] who was described as her daughter.
I have a copy of HER Marriage Certificate, Wisbech, 1871; you say in one particular letter, that you proved that Mary Edgoose lies in West Walton Churchyard.
You also say that it is a parish in which she neither lived nor died; at that stage you couldn't find any evidence that she was related to the West Walton family.
Did such evidence come to light later?
[Grace finishes her letter by hand]
I must apologise for a) typing this letter, but I thought it might be easier for you to decifer the information, and b) for bombarding you unexpectedly with so many questions.
Incidentally, one of the pictures hidden in the album, had a poem on the back, written by my great, grandfather.
Poetry obviously runs in our family.
It was great to meet you and [redacted] again. I hope this request won't prove too much of a problem.
With my thanks.
Yours sincerely, Grace.
A Letter to Grace from Michael James Edgoose dated 10 August 1995:
(Paragraph 4)
Now to Family History which proves that I am my old self again. The answers to some of your questions cam be found in the notes of my meeting with your father in 1968. I am enclosing a photocopy, together with copies of my notes on the other members of your family you mention. If you can add anything at all please let me know. Perhaps in return you could write a potted history of your father for me.
Since James Edgoose and Martha Ellen Taylor's father John were both described as mariners it is very likely that it was her father who introduced her to her future husband. James and Martha had four children, but only two survived. I enclose my notes on all four of them.
Yes, I did find the crew list and I have tried to find it today without success. When I find it I you shall have a photocopy. I was wrong to write that the shipping accident happened before James married Martha. The dates were 18 August 1886 and 17 September 1868 respectively. It was your father who told me the anecdote about James returning home dressed in strange clothes a few hours after saying goodbye.
The John Edgoose who married Mary Holborn on 25 June 1837 had two sons and one daughter. The eldest, born on 8 September 1837, was your great grandfather James Edgoose. The second, born on 29 September 1839, was John Thomas Edgoose. By one of those extraordinary coincidences, many years after I started my research, I received a letter from a distant relative in Australia enclosing a copy of a letter my grandfather had written in 1919. In it he wrote of how his father's cousin John Edgoose went away to sea and was never heard of again.
Very briefly, John Edgoose of West Walton was our common ancestor. He came from Gosberton in Lincolnshire in the last years of the eighteenth century and married Mary Stanton. You are descended from his son John Edgoose who married Mary Holborn, whereas I am descended from his son Stanton Edgoose who married Patience Hudson. Patience Edgoose had twelve children, six whilst her husband was alive and six afterwards.
Believe it or not, I have only just realised who the father of at least some of the "six afterwards" was. I had been reading the notes I made after meeting people over the years and suddenly everything fell into place. In fact as I am descended from one of the latter six I suppose we are not after all blood relations in any way!
I hope the enclosures will provide belated answers to your questions. Now that I am retired from the timber trade I shall have a lot more time (D.V.) to spend on family history matters and I am only too happy to share what I have discovered with anyone interested. Answering letters like yours concentrates the mind wonderfully!
I would love to see you again soon. I am probably going on holiday on my boat for a few weeks at the end of August but perhaps when I return you could come here for the day and talk about family history. Your mother would be welcome too, although I am aware that her generation might frown on my marrying a brown girl of a different race! For her part [name redacted] has committed the unforgiveable sin of marrying someone of no religious persuasion like me. She would probably be arrested by the religious police if we shared a hotel room in Malaysia!
[PS: We married first in a civil ceremony in the UK, followed by a marriage ceremony in an Islamic Court in Malaysia over 30 years ago]
A Letter from Grace dated 13 August 2012:
Dear Michael,
Thank you for sending me the information about the 'Edgoose' name, which I did indeed find interesting!
I am very sorry we have almost lost touch, so much has happened in the last few years.
I had a recurrence of over-active thyroid for which which I was given drug treatment. After the drug I was advised either to have a thyroidectomy or radio-active iodine treatment. I woke up one morning and I was in such pain I could hardly move. I had arthritis in every joint. This has slowly worsened and I have now been housebound for over two years.
During this time I have been waiting for an operation on my right hip. It is complicated by long-standing problems with my right leg. I am in very severe pain and hope it won't be too long before they get on with it.
To go back to your 'Edgoose' information, I too have had many variations over the years: Edgegoose being the most common. Oddgoose was another. I wasn't happy with that, but Deadgoose was even worse! My favourite is Gogoose. I regularly get information addressed to Miss Gogoose. I rather fancy being a get-up and go Goose!
It was good to hear from you, and thank you again! I hope you can read my writing, holding a pen isn't easy.
With love to you and Ainun.
Grace.
A reply from Michael 10 September 2012:
"Your letter was awaiting me when we returned from six weeks in the Pyrenees where we have a tiny, practically uninhabitable, cottage. A pleasant surprise, but we were truly sorry to hear about your health problems. My first thought when I read that you had been house-bound for two years was that you must be very lonely. Ainun thought that all your friends from church would see to it that you had frequent company. I certainly hope so.
I, too, have had problems. Whilst Ainun was in Malaysia in 2014 I spent a couple of days at the heart
unit in Sunderland. I forgot all about it until recently when the least exertion made me feel so tired. A
cardiologist here in France told me that one side of my heart had thickened and was thus less flexible
and less efficient at pumping. I was told to stop all physical activity. For once I obeyed and have spent
a lot more time on Edgoose research, particularly in old newspapers. I recently came across a
reference to the collision between the Houghton and the J. M. Strachan off Whitby which I remember
your father telling me about many years ago. I am enclosing a photocopy for you. You will see that
there is a reference to Mr. Edgoose - undoubtedly your ancestor James. I was quite pleased to find
that.
I am also enclosing a copy of my latest notes on James Edgoose which you may find interesting if you
do not have access to the internet.
It had never occurred to me that we had lost touch. It is true that since we emigrated in January 2008 I
have paid just one visit to England to attend the funeral of my cousin and business partner David Edgoose who died aged 73 (the age I am now!), but if I exchange Christmas cards with someone I maintain that we are still in touch. I still miss Boghead, our former home in Northumberland, and it pulled at my heart strings when I filed all my photographs of the reconstruction work from 1991 to 1998 on Saturday and Sunday. Interstingly, I felt pangs whilst looking at photographs of Boghead but nothing at all when I came across photographs of the wife I divorced for adultery. She will get a surprise when she sees my will after her death and learns that I have left her "Thirty pieces of silver or thirty pounds, whichever sum shall be the lesser". I am sure that it is wrong to feel that "revenge is sweet" but that is how I feel and I am unrepentant! My new wife is much happier here in France than she was in the
North of England, mainly because she finds the warm climate more to her liking and the rabbits don't eat
her plants as they did at Boghead!
Let's hope that you can soon have that long-awaited operation and can once again be a Get Up & Go
Goose.
(revised 29.08.2026)