Readyhough (Readio, Readyhoff, Redioff) genealogical data
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The name Readio is the name my immigrant ancestor George Austin
Readyhough anglicized his name to when he moved from Rhode Island
to New England. There are two variations of proper pronunciation
of this name; Reddioff, and Reddihoff. This is the Yorkshire form
of the name. The Lancashire variation was Redihalgh, and I don't
know what it has evolved into. In modern Yorkshire the name is
spelled according to modern phonetic rules in a variety of ways, even
among the same family in Leeds. George Austin Readyhough came from
Leeds, where his family had lived for several generations, they appear
to have come from the Halifax area through Burstall, a geographically
large town between Halifax and Leeds. I found the name pretty much
assocated with towns and cities.
The name, and the family, come from
a small village named Redihalgh that existed in the 14th century or
so on the coast of Lancashire. Sporadic court records show taht in
medieval times, atleast some of the family were guildsmen. The family
has done astonishingly little migration, few of them ever left that
two county area, and only two or three lines ever made it to the U.S.
I suspect the identity of GEorge Readio's mother had something to do
with it; her name was Austin, Austin's were always notorious wanderers.
I wondered, too, how much Leeds had to do with it; go to
page on Leeds with historical photos of the area, including the
suburbs Chapel Allerton and Kirkstall where George Readio's parents
at times lived. The city combined elements of primitive, wild,
wild west, with unattractive row housing even by industrial revolution
standards. Few even modern buildings are at all attractive.
The family is hard to trace because the entire big family group always
used the same six male given names until the mid 19th century, and
brides' last names usually weren't recorded, and also because spelling
of the name was so absolutely chaotic; people went across the border and
their name was suddenly Redihalgh, you didn't know what to make of what;
I missed most of GEorge's parents' children and couldn't find his mother
or his parents' marriage because the name was spelled eight radically
different ways! I hadn't known that the name was often spelled phonetically
or in anglicized fashion in the early 19th century. Some of John REadioff's
children even had duplicate christening records for two spellings of
the name! Same christening dates; not the case they were christened
in their real unrecognized church adn then again as required by law
in an Anglican church. Atleast, not according to the Anglican church
records I saw abstracts of.
All I know so far of the family is that when George Readyhough got to
the US, he apprenticed himself as a wool sorter for two years. A
cousin who has provided me with much information his family saved had
a copy of the contract. Perhaps
this is consistent with what his family customarily did in Leeds.
My mother put together an entire Readyhough lineage back to the 16th
century. I don't know how accurate it is; she admits she did alot of
intuitively matching people up. My first efforts were miserably off
because I knew John's wife ws named Martha, but, not knowing Martha's
last name from the children's christening records, and not knowing
that John's name got spelled "Redoff" on his marriage record, I thought
he most likely married a Martha in Colne, Lancashire like his father
before him (both actually married in Leeds)!
There are clues the family may have had a somewhat intense temperament,
though how much of it they inherited from the emotionally intense
Allen family that George married into, I do not know. The Readios
thereafter identified themselves as members of the Allen family; the
Allens were herd animals who migrated in family groups, had regular
family reunions, assiduously saved records, and Amzi Allen's branch
had a herd territory that included four cities in Massachusetts, and
one in New Hampshire, and all members of this family always lived in
those five towns and did considerable moving back and forth between
them. The Allens were always people who never failed to feel definitely
and strongly about anything and were ever spoiling for a fight; the
emigrant to this country cannot be traced but married into a powerful
and wealthy Puritan family; they
were ferocious patriots in the REvolutionary War and were founders and
a governor of Vermont. George REadio's sons and an Allen cousin formed
a singing quartet, who seemingly were quite good, according to what
my aunt wrote in a series of autobiographical essays that she got from
someone at a family reunion; this quartet performed at weddings and
funerals and the like all up and down the Connecticut Valley, which
I guess is a valley formed by the Connecticut River which flows through
NOrthampton and Florence and Springfield where these people lived, or
something. ANd also includes Connecticut, I guess.
Amzi Allen, whose daughter Mary Elizabeth married George Readio, had at
the level of his Allen and his Chapin grandparents and great grandparents
two upper middle class families, well off and very well educated from
their beginnings in this country, both of aristocratic and in one case
Norwegian and Angevin royal ancestry, who became entire family groups
of fanatical Puritan clergy, and got driven around England in their
efforts to educate more Puritan clergy, lead churches, etc. And from
those points, our branch of the Allen family had these characteristics,
not with absolute consistency, they had very large families, and Amzi
himself got shifted from pillar to post trying one thing and then another
in his youth like David Copperfield, according to a letter he wrote
to a grandchild; he must also have been extremely bright; he probably
managed a total of six years of formal schooling, one in Latin, but
found himself better educated than the highschoolers he tried his hand
at teaching. His letters also show that he could write well, as well as
that he was fairly emotionally intense, and his wife very much so. She
seemed very depressed over the fact that her children left the house
and married. According to her husband, who also admitted he was doing
a certain amount of projecting. Amzi
Allen, after his letter breaks off where he was working steadily for
four years as a weaver, somehow became a sea captain. He ran a boat
up and down the Connecticut River and the northern seacoast. He lived
in Rhode Island for a time. He was married to Mary Sizer, whose father
quite suspiciously was nephew and first cousin to an extremely wealthy, powerful and notorious Bristol, Rhode Island family of shippers and
slave runners. George Readyhough began in Rhode Island, not sure right
off which city, and met and married Mary Allen there. He had followed
wealthier cousins to the U.S. and begun as a wool sorting apprentice,
but ended up a more successful sea captain than his father in law. He
drowned when the ship he was on, which was carrying supplies to the
Union troops, during the Civil War, sank off of Cape Hattaras, North
Carolina.
Amzi Allen had a number of descendants who took to the sea, or captained
boats on the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes. George Readio's children
included a dentist and I think a college professor, as well as my great
grandfather who I have been told was some sort of a manager. They were
well-off middle class. They seem to have been fairly intelligent, though
my grandmother clearly inherited both her brains and her manic depressive
temperament from her mother.
Family photos show that the Readio family was very middle class. One
son, Frank Manly REadio, was a dentist; I have found his descendants the
easiest to find, they've all saved considerable documents and share
willingly. My aunt also has considerable family documents, including
George's son Charles Hiram's diaries, but has both a feudal and a frightened
attitude about sharing them. Charles Hiram Readio married a woman
with very severe lifelong mental illness, and had my grandmother, a
similar history existed in my grandfather's family, and one result was
a family terrified to share and to believe in its past. My long
consistent family history of people with family histories of mental
illness marrying, which is very typical of people with bipolar disorder,
also leads one to wonder what could have been Charles Readio's emotional
nature.
The one passage I've ever come close to seeing in my great grandfather
REadio's diaries, my aunt quoted from it, he wrote about his wife's
at the time seemingly successful operation for breast cancer (it came
back 15 years later when she was in the state insane asylum and, ap-
parently not soon detected and untreated, it killed her, she was about
65 at that time, so 40 when it first struck), something like "Thank God
they got this dread disease". Very emotionally intense and too-proper
style, identical to that of the members of President Nixon's adminis-
tration; in fact this is the exact wording of the press announcement
that a recent President's wife had breast cancer. Words breast and
cancer never mentioned. According to my aunt, he "seems to have
regarded" his seriously mentally ill wife "with affection". I have no
idea if he ever really appeared to notice his wife's illness, or not.
From the stories I have heard, it would have been hard to miss, but
my phenomenally high-strung, intense and successful sister clearly
inherited the family manic depressive temperament, and ways she acts
peculiar and clean off the deep end go right past my brother in law,
a way too proper man of New England (Morse) background, who also never
raises his voice above 10 decibels and goes bananas if anyone else does,
and who can't quite process the fact this his niece and nephew, who
together with their mother live with him, inherited his family's allergies
and asthma, which is taking cowardice to new heights.
For the marriage and descendants of George Austin Readyhough, go to Readyhough family groups
(That file may not exist for a day or two.)
The following information is from Mormon IGI abstracts of Church of
England records in Leeds area.
William Redihoff m Elizabeth Holmes 3/16/1801, Saint Peter, Leeds,
Yorkshire, England.
Their children:
George Readyhough c 9/23/1801 Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
(possibly) Ellen Rediough, father William Rediough, b 1804, Birstall,
Yorkshire (adjacent to Leeds)
(possibly) Merina Redeof c 12/25/1814 Birstall, Yorkshire, father William
Redeof, mother Elizabeth.
John Readyhough c 5/12/1805 Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
Christopher Readyhough c 9/21/1817
Elizabeth Readyhough c 9/21/1817 Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
(notice that this family were not necessarily christened at all
promptly, in fact, one wonders if Merina was christened one of the two
times in the year her family visited church!)
Anne Readyhough c 9/21/1826 Chapel Allerton
(possibly) Sarah Readyhough father William, mother Bety, b 6/27/1826,
Cloughfield Particular Baptist, Rossendale Forest Non Conform
(I don't know where that place is; even if it is in Yorkshire!)
William Redioff to William Redioff, c 3/27/1803, Chapel Allerton,
Yorkshire.
There is also a marriage of William Redeof to BEtty Simpson, 10/11/1802,
Birstall, Yorkshire, England. I guess that these were two families.
Birstall William and Elizabeth also had Jubal_ Elizth. Redeof c 7/5/1818,
Birstall, Yorkshire, England.
John "Redoff" married Martha Austin 8/21/1825 Saint Peter, Leeds,
Yorkshire, England. (Readio family records have John Readyhough married
Martha Austin).
I found many Martha Austins, Austons, Astins born not far away; just one
in Leeds; Martha Austin to William Austin, mother not listed, c
3/14/1790, Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire. Note that the Readyhoughs
often christened two or three children at once; clearly they did so
when they got around to it and not necessarily when the children were
infants. This date of birth for only nearby Martha Austin suggests
John Readyhough may have been born fifteen years before he was
baptized!
One must be careful; other John Readyhough's married other Martha's
nearby.
John Riddehalgh m Martha Wright 8/8/1822 Halifax, Yorkshire
John Readyhough m Betty Haigh, 5/30/1826, Halifax, Yorkshire
John Ridehalgh m Martha Bannister 12/18/1825 Colne, Lancashire, England
Children of John Readyhough and Martha Austin:
John Readyoff c 4/6/1828 Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire, England
George Austin Readyoff (Readyhough) one record for each spelling,
4/6/1828, Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire, England.
William Readyhough c 5/12/1805 Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire (letters
between William in Kirkstall and George's family in MA confirm
George had a brother William)
The following children were probably related;
John Readyoff to Wiliam and Sarah Readyhoff c 9/22/1833 Chapel Allerton,
Yorkshire
George Readyoff c 11/16/1837, to William and Sarah Readyoff, Chapel
Allerton, Yorkshire
William Redyhoff c 3/20/1831 Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
John William Reddyhoff to John Henry Reddyhoff and Susannah Potter,
9/20/1879, Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
Lavinia Reddyhoff b 1878, Moortown, Leeds, Yorkshire, to John Henry
Reddyhoff and Susannah Potter.
John William Reddyoff c 9/20/1879 to John Henry Reddyoff and Susannah
Potter, at Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
George Reddyoff c 4/26/1875 to John Henry Reddyhoff and Susannah Potter,
at Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
Harry Reddyhoff b 1883 Moortown, Leeds, Yorkshire to John Henry Reddyhoff
and Susanah Potter (sources don't appear
on file printout; this is probably someone's report and not an abstract
of an actual record)
Henry Reddyoff c 3/20/1879 to John Henry Redyhoff, and Susannah Potter,
Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
Christopher Reddyhoff c 4/26/1875, to John Hernry Reddyhoff and Susannah
Potter, Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire.
Florence Ann Reddyhoff b 8/3/1887 Leeds, Yorkshire, England to John Henry
Reddyoff and Susannah Potter.
Annie Reddyoff c 8/18/1876 Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire, England to John
Henry Reddyoff and Susannah Potter
Charlotte Elizabeth Reddyoff c 3/31/1872 to John Henry Reddyoff and
Susannah Porter
Thomas Edward Reddyhoff b 1885 Moortown, Leeds, Yorkshire, to John Henry
Redyhoff and Susannah Potter
Violet Mary Reddyhoff b 1891 Mooretown, Leeds, Yorkshire, to John Henry
Reddyhoff and Susannah Potter
Sarah Elizabeth Reddyhoff b 1/1889 Moortown, Leeds, Yorkshire, to John
Henry Reddyhoff and Susannah Potter
John Redyoff and Martha of Halifax, Yorkshire, had:
Sarah c 6/3/1827 Halifax
Joseph Redyoff c 1/9/1825 Halifax
James Readyoff c 3/30/1823 Halifax,
Ann Readyoff c 1/3/1830 Halifax
The following children could possibly be John's by a second wife, Mary:
Eliza Redioff c 7/12/1835 Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire
Mary Readyoff c 11/1/1829, Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire.
Thomas Readyoff and Isabella had:
Mary Readyoff c 6/17/1832, Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire
William Readyhoff and Sarah had
Thomas Readyhoff c 11/16/1837 Chapel Allerton, Yorkshire
William Reddyoff c 3/20/1831 Chapel Allerton,Yorkshire
John Readyoff c 9/22/1833 Chapel Allerton
George Readyhoff c 11/16/1837 Chapel Allerton
Also, William Reddihoff m Elizabeth Hargreaves in Harewood, Yorkshire,
and they had alot of children. Idon't know where Harewood is.
Elizabeth Readyoff m James Mason 8/10/1829 Saint Peter, Leeds
Ann Redyoff m Benjamin Millnes 12/29/1828 Saint Peter, Leeds
Margaret Readyoff m John Brown 5/6/1761 Saint Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire.
John Henry Redihoff (above) m Susannah Potter 2/10/1872 Leeds, Yorkshire
William Redof m BettySimpson 9/17/1826 Birstall, Yorkshire
William Reddyoff m Sarah Moss 7/9/1827 St Peter, Leeds, Yorkshire
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