Family History - tales around the tree

Names

Bradley - Suffolk & Essex Campleman - Hull & SE England Catt/Cattley - Kent & London Courtney - Wirral & Liverpool Coyne - Ireland & Chester De Normanville - France, London & South Australia Divall - Sussex & Lewisham Greenway - Sussex & London Griesel - Germany, London & Essex Grubb - Lewisham Holbrook - London & Essex Hopkins - North Shields, Wirral & Liverpool Ingersoll - USA, Norfolk & London Laird - Surrey & London Lovel - North Shields Milleman - Holland, Kent, London & USA Molnar - Hungary & London Murray - Kincardineshire, London & South Australia Paver - Hull & London Pearl - Suffolk & Essex Skinner - Essex Smart - Essex, London, Canada & Seattle Starr - Norfolk & Westminster Still - Kent/Sussex, Essex

14th April 2018 - Coming soon Alexander Robb and Eric Finlason and the Tailors of Aberdeen and the Murrays … and more on the Ingersoles, Pains and Osborns of Brentwood 20th November 2017 - Ingersoles, Pains, Osbornes and Cuffs It’s   so   easy   to   get   sidetracked,   and   it’s   those   Ingersoles   again.   That   has   led   me   back   to   the Essex   parish   registers   for   the   Pain   and   Osborne   families   of   the   Brentwood   area,   and   the Marylebone records and Australian newspapers for another branch of the Ingersoles. I   did   find   something   interesting   in   the   Moreton   burial   register.   Usually   all   you   get   is   a   name and   a   date   of   burial,   perhaps   an   age,   and   perhaps   parents’   names   if   a   child,   and   very occasionally   -   if   unusual   -   a   cause   of   death:   “accidentally   drowned”,   “crushed   by   cart”. William   Wilson,   the   rector   of   Moreton   from   1796   to   1822,   I   suspect,   would   have   loved   to have   had   access   to   a   computer   spreadsheet,   though   that   didn’t   prevent   him   from   creating one   of   his   own.   Each   double   page   spread   in   the   register   is   divided   into   nine   columns: surname;   christian   name;   abode;   descent,   profession   &c.;   date   of   death;   date   of   burial; where   buried;   age;   distemper   &c..   He   provides   more   information   than   a   modern   death certificate,   and   even   after   1813   continues   as   far   as   possible   to   give   descent   and   profession details   in   the   pre-printed   book,   though   the   date   and   cause   of   death   is   lost,   except   where there has been a coroner’s warrant. I   was   following   up   a   Thomas   Osborne   who   had   married   Elizabeth   Hadcock   in   Moreton   on the   25th   January   1774,   hoping   to   rule   them   out   as   the   Thomas   and   Elizabeth   who   had   been having   children   in   Ingrave   from   1777.   The   Moreton   couple   didn’t   have   any   children   baptised in   that   parish,   which   was   a   bad   sign,   until   I   found   their   burials.   Thomas   was   90   when   he died   on   the   17th   January   1807   from   “A   gradual   decay   of   nature”;      formerly   a   farmer,   and from   Tappers,   he   had   been   baptised   on   the   6th   March   1716/17   to   parents   Thomas   and Elizabeth   who   were   also   from   Moreton.   His   wife   died   shortly   after   him   aged   77,   from   “A dropsical   complaint”,   so   they   would   have   been   61   and   47   respectively   when   they   married, which   explains   the   lack   of   children.   It   seems   likely   that   this   was   a   second   marriage   for Thomas,   for   in   the   baptisms   a   Thomas   and   Sarah   were   having   children   between   1749   and 1754. 20th August 2017 - Mary Still Every   now   and   then   an   individual   from   the   past   catches   your   attention   and   demands further    research.    Such    is    the    case    with    my    great    grandfather’s    second    wife    Mary    Still. Though by the time they were married she was Mary Blair. Mary was born in 1826, and died in 1911; she had three children, and outlived four husbands. Mary   Still   was   born   in   1826   in   that   north-east   corner   of   the   Weald   where   East   Sussex   meets Kent,   and   she   remained   confused   for   the   rest   of   her   life   about   which   village   or   county   she had   been   born   in.   Her   parents   were   John   Still,   a   wheelwright,   and   Susannah   Burrage   who had   married   on   the   7th   September   1806   in   Kemsing   in   Kent.   Their   first   two   children,   Sarah and   Ann   were   born   in   Woolwich,   and   it's   possible   that   John   put   his   woodworking   skills   to good   use   in   the   dockyards   there.   By   the   time   Ann   was   baptised   at   the   age   of   four   in   1818, along   with   new   sister   Triphena,   the   family   focus   had   moved   back   to   the   Weald.   Ann   and Triphena   were   baptised   in   Ashurst,   as   was   their   brother   William.   Triphena   and   William   later give   their   places   of   birth   respectively   as   Withyham   and   Blackham.   Mary   Still   was   baptised   in Speldhurst   on   the   16th   August   1835   along   with   her   sister   Harriet   who   had   been   born   in 1829,   and   Denny   Bottom   or   Rusthall   near   Tunbridge   Wells   remained   the   family   home   for about   the   next   three   decades.   Mary   subsequently   gives   her   place   of   birth   as   Blackham,   or Speldhurst or Tunbridge or Tonbridge, with counties being either Kent or Sussex for each! Read more … 12th May 2017 - Starr family Sarah Twyman Milleman, the cousin of my great great grandmother, and daughter of William Milleman, Westminster police constable 95B, married James Starr in St Clement Danes, Westminster on the 5th February 1850, they both give addresses in Vere Street. Sarah however says her father, William Milleman is a bricklayer, so was she a sister to Caroline Augusta Murray (née Milleman), rather than a cousin? The only Sarah Milleman baptised in Margate in or near her birth year of 1826 had as parents William Milleman and Martha (née Ansell), son and daughter-in-law of William the bricklayer who was Caroline's father. Sarah is living with Caroline and her mother and step-father in Margate at the time of the 1841 census, - her parents and younger siblings are already established in London by this time - so it is possible that she was brought up by her grandparents, or even considered them her parents. Read more … 18th April 2017 - Cousin Andrew Foster? In the 1861 census, living with Charles Henry Murray and his family in Camberwell, is an Andrew Foster, a screw cutter aged 40, born in Middlesex and apparently a cousin to the head of household. In 1851 he was a work engineer lodging in Greenwich, aged 30, and born in Shoreditch; 1871 finds him boarding in Beckenham in Kent, an engine driver on well work, aged 48, and born in Shoreditch. In 1881 he is an inmate in the Hampstead Workhouse, aged 54 and a railway engine driver born in the City Road, London; he’s still there in 1891, but now aged 72, he is a retired engine driver, born in Finsbury. In 1841 an Andrew Foster is a bargeman on the Kennet & Avon Canal at Claverton, he’s 20 and not born in the county, so this could also be him. He died in Hampstead in 1893, aged 69. It is possible to pin him down like this as his name is not a common one in the Middlesex area, especially with a birthdate around 1820. Read more …

Back online. Just this page so far, with no links. Should all be back shortly … With family members from most of the counties of England (also Scotland, Ireland and continental Europe, and probably Wales and the Isle of Man) this is a collection of  stories about people whom I have found interesting. This page reflects my current research and the sidebar lists the main names already researched to a greater or lesser extent.