His two sons, Peter William and William Henry Barlow were renowned engineers, particularly associated with railway works and bridges. William Henry was associated with the building of the large span roof at St Pancras Station for the Midland Railway. A grandson, Crawford Barlow, was also involved in engineering and then the family disappears into obscurity.
Its has proved a genealogical conundrum to find out where the family cam from and where the descendants went. For a start sources state that the wife of Peter Barlow remains unknown. Not now!
Its amazing what the internet can give us. After some researches at the London Metropolitan Archive and the British Library I found on the searchable database of Provincial 19the century newspapers that Peter Barlow was a teacher at Shipdham in Norfolk - surely a misprint! When I interrogated Google I found that Barlow had been a teacher at a school there and had married a teacher at a girls' school there. Shipdham parish registers were online and that told me that a Peter Barlow married a Miss Elizabeth Short and when interrogated further told me the names of two children I had not known about, one of whom Peter Horation Barlow, I have yet to trace further.
Its amazing what the internet throws up. I found two 19th century online books on Norfolk, one of which gives a full biography of Barlow up to the 1820s, details of which I have not found elsewhere. I have also found a branch of the Barlow family as surveyors in New Zealand at the end of the 19th century. They had had difficulty in finding work at home so travelled afar. I found the online version of Peter William Barlow's book on his early years in Kaipara and could read about his travails.
Fantastic and all from the sitting room at home!!!
