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 Robson - Lewisham & London Skinner - Essex Smart - Essex, London, Canada & Seattle Starr - Norfolk & Westminster Still - Kent/Sussex, Essex

Tuesday 28th August 2018 John Robson - Coachman? Between June 1841 and March 1843 Susannah Divall had a relationship that culminated in the birth of Louisa Frances Robson at the end of December 1843 in Lewisham Village. Louisa was baptised on the 31st January 1844 and her birth was registered on the 8th February 1844. On Louisa’s baptism her parents are named as John and Susannah Rosina Robson, and Susannah, who registered the birth, names herself as Susannah Rosina Robson formerly Divall. On both occasions it says that Louisa’s father is John Robson, a coachman. Which is all perfectly as it should be, except that there does not appear to be any marriage for Susannah and John. Read more … Friday 13th July 2018 What is it about men called Henry Armstrong? I was following up one Henry Armstrong who married into my Bradley family back in 1878. He was possibly born in Suffolk, and worked as a Coachman for a time. He married Jane Lewis two years after their first child was born, and two months before the next arrived. He was possibly strong-armed up the aisle - or to the Poplar Register Office - by her brother and sister. In the 1881 census he gives the wrong surname, and by about 1885 he vanishes, leaving Jane with five children, who all ended up in the Norwood Schools. Jane relied on the support of her sisters to keep herself out of the workhouse. The Henry Armstrong I think he probably was, was born near Stowmarket in 1854, and appears in the 1861 census as Harry, the son of James and Jane Armstrong, members of the family originally from Shelland. This Harry is not the one who went to Iowa, as some Ancestry family trees claim; that one was born in Australia, was back at a Reform School in north-east England in 1871, and working as coal-miner in Durham in 1881 before going to the States in 1882 where he continued his coal- mining. While he had two children born in the Sunderland registration district in 1880 and 1882 with the mother’s maiden name Parry, I can find no suitable marriage. So while looking at Armstrongs I thought I’d revisit others of that name in the family. This lot were descended from a family of Millwrights from Wooburn in Buckinghamshire. By the time we get to Henry John Armstrong, also known as John Armstrong, the family trade is plumbing. Thanks to the censuses we can see that he had children with two women (not at the same time!), the first called Elizabeth, and the second called Ellen. From the GRO online birth indexes their maiden names appear respectively as Freeman and Carter, unfortunately there don’t appear to be marriages listed for either of them. 15th May 2018 Alexander Robb and Eric Finlason and the Tailors of Aberdeen and the Murrays Cousin Alexander “Deacon” Robb was a famous local character in nineteenth century Aberdeen, a Deacon of the Tailors in the Incorporated Trades and a published poet - with perhaps more in common with William McGonagall than Robert Burns. His father, also Alexander Robb, married Isabel Murray, Andrew’s sister, on 14 July 1781 in Banchory Devenick. Read more … On the 6th February 1855 in the Free Presbyterian Church, Port Adelaide, Margaret Murray  married Eric Finlason. Sadly just over a year after her marriage, Margaret died. Her death certificate states that she died from natural causes in Forest Creek, and had lived three years in Adelaide, and one year in Victoria, which confirms her arrival in South Australia in 1852. Read more … 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 …

Back online. The Bradley and Murray links are now active and underlined. 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.