Paul Rusling ancestors

Paul Rusling was born to Barbara and David Rusling, both originally from Hull, in Bridlington in 1953 They had six other children: three boys and three girls.

See Rusling siblings for details.

Paul's Mother, BARBARA was born in Severn Street in East Hull, well before WW2, and had a brother called GEORGE. He was a schoolteacher at Eastfield School in Hull and later (in the sixties) at Filey County Secondary School. Barbara worked as a receptionist at Rediffusion in the 1950s, and 30 years later was doing the same job just half a mile away at J T Scotneys in Sculcoates Lane.

The Simpsons!

Barbara's parents were called Robert And Elsie and both came from St Mark's Street in east central Hull. Bob Simpson was well known in football circles and was the Hon. Secretary of the ERCFA for almost fifty years, as well as having been a referee and a promising left winger in his youth.

Bob, as his friends called him, worked for many years as a shipbuilder (at Earl's shipyard) and as a steel erector being patrt of the team that built many of Hull's famous landmarks including the old bus station and the North Bridge.

'Joe' Rusling

Joe was what the family of Paul's father all called him but Barbara preferred the name David, so to us he was always David. We just had to call him Joe when other branbches of the Ruslings (such as the Harbers and Hattens) were about.

Paul's father DAVID came from a long established West Hull family who lived just off the Boulevard when he was born - almost a hundred years ago. His father George was a fish merchant at the height of Hull's fishing industry and David was the youngest of eleven children. David never knew his Mother, who died when he was very young. David was brought up by his sisters, especially Hilda and Winnie, who even arranged him to be married when he was fifteen.

Surprise Wedding

He got quite a surprise when he came back from a trip in the merchant Navy to find he was marrying Edna, the following week! The marriage didnt last, although it was a fruitful one with four children by the time they were divorced in the 1950s.

David then met Barbara and Paul Rusling was their first child. The first in a brood of seven! They lived at Dunswell with Barbara's parents and then moved to Linnaeus Street where they lived with the Normingtons, who were David's cousins.

Paul and Lynne remember happy times in that house, with Betty and John's children - our cousins John, Tony, Christopher, Margaret and Anne.

In the late 1950s, the Ruslings moved to Wellsted Street further along Hessle Road and then in 1970 they moved to Fitzroy Street off Beverley Road.

As the family grew and the children began leaving home to set up their own families, Barbara and David moved to Goddard Avenue where David died in the 1990s. This is the same road that Anne's family, the Pyrahs, lived on - both her father and her Grandfather, Ben Pyrah - a well-known character in the area. he had once had his own brass foundry, serving many of the ships in the town docks and the Fish Dock.

Anne was an only child, and also born in East Hull at her Aunty Ivy's house in Severn Street in East Hull. This was the very same street where Paul's mother Barbara had been born, twenty three years earlier.

Gladys' family originated out in Holderness where her cousins, the Maltby family, are still farming today in the hamlet of Fitling, between Hornsea and Withernsea.

Cyril was the son of one of Hull's well known brass-founders, Ben Pyrah, who lived in Goddard Avenue until well into his 90s, although they had lived in Cranbrook Avenue for a time.

Cyril worked in the hospitals, mainly at the Victoria Childrens' Hospital in Park Street. He served in the British Army in World War 2 seeing active service in Egypt, Palestine and in Norway.

In those days it was unusual for the father to attend a birth, so Anne's father CYRIL can probably be excused for only getting half the message that his wife GLADYS had been delivered of a little girl. Cyril put the notice of Anne's birth in the local paper as "a son - JOHN." (Don't make the mistake of ever calling Anne by the name 'John' though, she won't be amused!)

Unfortunately Cyril and Gladys had no further children and Anne's Mum Gladys died when Anne was only 11 years old.

Gladys's sister, IVY and an Aunt on her Father's side, DORA, both helped bring Anne up, along with help from Anne's Grandad, Ben Pyrah.

Goddard & Newland Avenue

Paul's patents, David and Barbara, loved being on Newland Avenue, which we thought of as being "very posh". To be fair, it was posh, to Hessle Roders. Saldy its a bit unkempt these days and most of the houses are in "multiple occupation". The languages spoken across the Avenues area are numerous, but it has resulted in the shops on nearby Newland Avneue being more colourful, and usually open late into the evening.

Barbara later married Bill Woodford, who worked at the Yorkshire Water Board all his life and lived at (461) James Reckit Avenue in East Hull, just a mile from where she was born. Barbara lived there until she passed away in 2013 when she was 83 years old. Missed every day - she would have loved great grandchildren!

Gladys and Anne Pyrah

David and Barbara Rusling