HERE is a little fishy story to explain why some people are hooked on tracing their family trees.

Billy Mollon, from Framwellgate Moor, discovered that he had footballer Fred Laidman in one of his many branches.

Fred was born in Durham in 1913, and went from Crook Town to the big time at Everton, but never made the first team. In June 1938, he moved down to Third Division Bristol City where he scored one goal in 10 appearances before the Second World War put a stop to football.

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During the war, he played 67 exhibition games for Sunderland, and turned out as a guest for Crystal Palace and Leeds United – he obviously could play.

“He was in the DLI and it is said that he played in one of these games alongside another DLI soldier Bill Nicholson, who later played one match for England, scoring with his first touch after 19 seconds, and then became the manager of Tottenham Hotspur, where he most famously guided them to the double in 1960-61,” says Billy.

Peacetime was not quite so kind to Fred. He played for Stockton in the North Eastern League, but then it was once more back into the big time at the start of the 1949-50 season: he signed for Darlington in Division Three North. He started their first two games of the season, including their first home game against Crewe Alexandra in front of 9,846 at Feethams.

However, after those two games, he seems to have retired quite suddenly, aged 36, and become a railwayman.

All that is quite interesting, but then Billy noticed that Fred’s wife’s maiden name was Phyllis Fish, from Littleburn Colliery, near Durham. In fact, Billy saw that Phyllis’s father, George Fish, was born at Marley Hill in 1885, and her mother, Margaret Hook, was born in 1890 in Langley Moor.

What a great catch Margaret Hook must have been for George Fish! All Billy needs to do now is find the plaice where they were married.

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