Patricia Punter [Lindsay, Priestnall] (1948-a1989)

Dates

Birth: August 1948 Doncaster, West Riding, Yorkshire, UK
Father: George Albert Punter 1920-1991
Mother: Elizabeth Joan Grimshaw 1920-1997

Marriage: January-March 1968 Doncaster, West Riding, Yorkshire, UK
Husband: Joseph W Priestnall 1947-a1999

Marriage: April-June 1979 Wakefield, West Yorkshire, UK
Husband: David Lindsay 1946-a1989

Death: After 1989

Children

By Joseph
Antony Priestnall 1967
Michael Priestnall 1972

By David
Amy Victoria Lindsay 1989

Notes

Birth of Patricia Punter, mother's maiden name Grimshaw, in FreeBMD in July-September 1948 in Doncaster (2b 531). Her sister Pamela was registered on the same page, and is stated to have been born in August.

Marriage of Patricia Punter and Joseph W Priestnall in FreeBMD in January-March 1968 in Doncaster (2b 981).

Her two sons were born in Doncaster in 1968 and 1972.

Marriage of Patricia Priestnall and David Lindsay FreeBMD in April-June 1979 in Wakefield (5 1143).

Her daughter was born in 1989 in Wakefield.

Entry in Ancestry UK, Electoral Registers, 2003-2010 for MS Patricia Lindsay born 1948-1050, address 5 King Rudding Close, Riccall YO19 6RY from 2003 to 2004.

Two entries in 192.com for Patricia Lindsay in the Electoral Roll 2002-03, 2011-15 aged 60-64 and living in York, North Yorkshire, YO19, other occupant Amy V Lindsay (daughter?), and in the Electoral Roll 2014-16 living in York, North Yorkshire, YO19.

Entry in The Press Pen pals Pat Lindsay and Carolyn Waleko meet after 50 years of transatlantic correspondence with photo:

Two pen pals who have spent 50 years writing to each other across the Atlantic have finally met. Charlotte Percival reports on a friendship long written in scribbles, and now confirmed in the flesh. FOR 50 years, two women have shared their childhood dreams, teenage crushes, marriages and the births of their children in letters despatched across the Atlantic. Pat Lindsay and Carolyn Waleko were 11 when they discovered each other’s details in a magazine and then became pen friends. Pat was a schoolgirl in Doncaster, while Carolyn lived in Pittsburgh. A friendship-by-letters was struck up. Over the years, girlish scribbling about hobbies and movie stars gave way to more serious thoughts about marriage and then birth announcements, before the letters lapsed to annual Christmas greetings. But after a recent series of emails, Pat, of Riccall, decided it was time they talked face-to-face and so she flew out to Ohio to meet Carolyn in person. “It was lovely,” says Pat, 60, who together with her husband and twin sister spent a week at her pen friend’s home. “The flight had been delayed and when I arrived I was looking for my bag when I heard this voice say ‘Pat, is that you Pat?’ “I wasn’t even looking for her but there she was and we just hugged each other. It was really nice, we talked about all sorts.” Pat had taken with her two of the letters that the 11-year-old Carolyn Havey had scrawled in loopy blue ink in 1961 to Pat and her twin sister. “Dear Patricia and Pamela,” begins the first. “I received your names from my Girl Scout leader as pen pals. I am 11 years old and in fifth grade. My hobbies are sewing and I play the piano. “My father is a meat salesman. I have an older brother and four younger sisters.” Her next letter, dated March 6, 1961, was written excitedly on patterned yellow paper. “I see we like some of the same movie stars,” she wrote. “I like to swim and on Saturday I go to gym. I like to sew and knit. March 6 is my birthday. I had a party and received many gifts; a diary, dress, pen and pencil set, stationery, purse, hat, hair bands and many other things.” That made them laugh when they read it together last week, says Pat. “She laughed when she saw the pen and pencil set; she said these days children want computers and much more expensive things,” she says. Carolyn’s life was not that dissimilar from Pat’s when she received her first letter. Pat lived in a council house in Doncaster with her twin sister, her old sister and their parents, a power station worker and a cook at the local hospital. Pat liked swimming and writing to pen pals; Elvis, Cliff Richard and the Eveley Brothers. Carolyn, in her home in Pittsburgh, liked Fabian, Ricky Nelson and Kookie, Connie Francis, Lucy Ball and Doris Day. As the years went by, they wrote about the differences in their cultures. “We used to try to write about all the things that were different, like we would say pavement and they would say sidewalk,” says Pat. “We would try and think of how many of those we could. “That’s what you did in those days. There was TV but you didn’t email or go on the computer. Everybody had to write to each other.” They would talk about fashion, sending each other cuttings of mini skirts from magazines. Carolyn was more religious than Pat then, so her lifestyle seemed stricter. They would also write about boys. “But not too much, because by the time we got into our late teens we didn’t write as much.” Carolyn sent a picture of her wedding to Joe, with whom she now has two daughters, Garland and Margeaux, and Pat posted photos of her marriage to David, and updates of her children, Michael, Antony and Amy. They also discussed the differences between English and American weddings, with Carolyn telling Pat about American wedding showers. In 1968, Carolyn sent Pat’s son a little toy truck, which he still has in the loft. They also exchanged regular photographs of where they lived, and their children graduating from university. Now, they both work part time and their husbands have retired. Pat lives with her husband and daughter in Riccall and works part time in Sainsbury’s, in Selby. Carolyn, who works with computers, lives in a large house in Ohio. During their time together, they watched the chipmunks in the garden, ate out and visited the basket-weaving attraction Longaberger. They also celebrated Independence Day. “We went to see a parade with floats, then we went to one of Carolyn’s friend’s houses and she had a big party for us in the garden, then at night into the city to see the fireworks and they were fantastic,” says Pat. It is a while since they last exchanged a letter, and from now on they will probably communicate through email. But Carolyn hopes to come to England and Pat is looking forward to showing her pen friend her home. “I struggled to find places to show my visitors in our suburban Ohio town and I soon realised that the main attraction in Westerville isn’t shopping centres, parks or eateries, but sharing my long-awaited meeting with Pat,” says Carolyn, writing from Ohio. “Pat and I began writing in elementary school about family, school, favourite things in entertainment. Of course in later years, we talked about boyfriends, then husbands and children. Although our lives have changed a great deal, we enjoyed filling in the blanks, face to face. “It was wonderful meeting my pen pal from ‘across the pond’ and I know it won’t be long before we get together again.”

Relationship

Patricia Punter was the second great granddaughter of James Aldred, husband of Ann Shrubb, my first cousin three times removed.

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