C - Charles Vose

Charles (sometimes recorded as Charles Augustus) was most likely the 3^rd child of Edward Vose and his wife Elizabeth, nee Weller. He was an elder brother of my great great grandfather. Born about 1824 he was baptised on 7 November 1824 in Gillingham, Kent.

A record of Merchant Seaman found at Find My Past states he was born in Plymouth, Devon on 30 June 1824. This still could be correct as his father was in the Army serving with the Royal Sappers and Miners (later Engineers) and could have been stationed near Plymouth. Gillingham, where he was baptised was the birthplace of his mother, so not illogical to think the family may have returned there to baptise their son.

The 1841 census shows Charles living with his parents and younger siblings in Woolwich, Kent. I have not been able to find him in the 1851 census, but he may have been on board a ship outside of British waters. His Merchant Seaman record states he first went to sea as a boy in 1842 (he would have been about eighteen at this time) and had not served with the Royal Navy or foreign services.

On 24 April 1853 Charles married Lucy Mary Berry at St Peter’s church Walworth, Surrey. They had three children in the next three years although one died a few months after birth. At some point after the birth of their 3^rd child in early 1856 the family left England and emigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto by the time their fourth child arrived in September 1859.

In Toronto Charles became a painter. He and Lucy welcomed seven more children. Charles died in 1888 and Lucy thirteen years later in 1901. One daughter appears to have moved to Illinois, USA after her marriage but the rest of the family seem to have stayed in Toronto the whole time.

Do you know Charles and Lucy or any of their children? Are you my Canadian cousins? Please get in touch.

B - Benjamin Davys.

There are several people by this name in my tree, most I don’t really know how or where they fit in.

Benjamin Davys was born about 1718 if the age on his burial record is correct (maybe 1728 is more likely though), and was buried in the churchyard at Raddington, Somerset on 16 February 1801. He was the son of Thomas Davys and Jane Helling of Hagley Bridge, Somerset.

His father was self-styled “Lord of the Manor” having bought the manor of Raddington. I believe he also held part of the manor of Hagley Bridge with his father, another Thomas.

Thomas, the Lord, died on 21 June 1783 in his late eighties. He was intestate and left the manor encumbered with debt. His son Reverend Thomas Davys was his heir; an elder son John had predeceased their father. Sadly, Thomas died less than a year later, thankfully with a will which divided the manor between his three surviving brothers Benjamin (of Raddington), James and George (both of Milverton). Each was to have their own messuages and discharge their father and brother’s debts.

George died in March 1786. He and his wife had no children. Although I have not seen his will, in 1798 in the Land Tax Redemption records his wife was the owner and occupier of property in the parish of Raddington required to pay £2 2s 4d. In her own will all her belongings were shared amongst her sisters, nieces and nephews, but no mention was made of the property.

Benjamin died in 1801. In 1798 on the Land Tax Redemption record he was an owner and occupier of property in Raddington parish required to pay £3 6s 6d. I believe he married Elizabeth Prescott in Exeter, Devon on 17 February 1755. They had at least five children all baptised at Raddington, including two Benjamins, one dying in infancy. Again, I have not seen a will for Benjamin, but what happened to his property? Did he need to dispose of his messuage and property to discharge his share of the debt?

On the Land Tax Redemption records in 1798 James appears at least twice, once as the occupier of property owned by the Reverend Edward Webber and again in his own right as owner and occupier paying £5 5s 0d for each. His son James also appears with two properties paying £1 6s 0d for one and £1 2s 6d for the other. How does James, and consequently his son, appear to have a larger share of property than his brother and widowed sister-in-law? What happens to Benjamin and George’s property after their deaths and the deaths of their widows? James also died in 1802 leaving his property mostly to his son James.

I am supposing that the level of tax payable is reflective of the value and size of each property.

By 1841 at the time of the Tithe Apportionments and England & Wales Census we seem to be related to every family living in the parish in one way or another (aunts, uncles, cousins etc). But who is the family of John Davys (Davis) and his wife Mary Kemp who are living at Blackwell Farm on the census, where John is recorded as a labourer? We have some DNA matches to this family – are they connected to Benjamin in some way? And if so, how have they become tenants or labourers rather than owners of land? Or maybe it’s just a bit of endogamy – you know, from being related to everyone in the entire parish.

Are you a descendant of Benjamin? If you are please contact me.

A - Annie Harriet Richards

 First noticed on the census way back when we ordered microfilm to read at LDS family history libraries and then revisited when the internet and Ancestry were fledgling new options to research from afar.

We (my Dad, Mum and I) were trying to find out more about Mum’s maternal line and specifically my grandmother’s maternal line. In about 2001, we managed to reconnect with my 3^rd cousin in the USA who was also researching this line (though it was her mother’s paternal line in her case).

Annie appears on the 1881census in Dudley. She was 15, listed as a niece of the head of the house, in transcriptions her name was recorded as Amnie. But who was she?

The head of the household, Henry James, was 64 a market gardener born in Leintwardine, Herefordshire. He was my great-great-great grandfather. Others in the household were his elder unmarried daughter Elizabeth who was a dressmaker and two grandchildren Albert and Laura Kelsey. Laura was my great grandmother and Albert was my 3^rd cousin’s great grandfather. Their mother was Henry’s younger daughter who had died shortly after Laura’s birth. Perhaps Annie was a clue to help us make a step back to earlier generations. How did she fit in though?

Henry was illegitimate, his baptism on 17 August 1819 had only his mother’s name; Elizabeth James. For Annie to be his niece she had to be the child of a sibling, or of his wife’s siblings. His wife had another great surname - THOMAS! Her siblings all lived relatively close geographically but Annie’s place of birth on the census was Mold in Flintshire – not remotely close to the family as we knew it.

We purchased Annie’s birth certificate and discovered her parents’ names and that her father was a gardener, possibly on a farm or estate. I started trying to follow this family through censuses and baptismal records. I managed to follow the family back (and forward a little) through the next few decades. Although Annie’s father John mostly gave Leintwardine as his birthplace, his family seemed to be living close by in Mocktree near Kinton, Herefordshire. Was this the clue? Were the Richards family connected to the James family somehow. I wondered what the likelihood was that Henry’s mother had married after his birth. If she had and he had half siblings, he would be an uncle to their children.

Sure enough, Elizabeth James had married 12 July 1821 in Leintwardine, when Henry was about two years old, to John Richards. He was an Ag Lab at Mocktree. It was there that they raised their family of at least seven children, including Henry. Their son John was baptised 17 November 1830 in Leintwardine. On the 1851 census, John aged 20 was listed as a gardener, lodging with a family in the township of Brakes, Herefordshire not far from his childhood home. There are several estates and farms in the area where he may have been employed.

He married Catherine Stacey in Aston, Warwickshire on 18 March 1859. Catherine’s father was a Game Keeper on an estate near Meriden, Warwickshire and had held that same position for at least 20 years. Nothing is known about how they met, although there are many hypotheses that could be suggested. By the time of the 1861 census John and Catherine had one daughter and were expecting their second child. They were living in the Gardeners Cottage at Coton Hall near Alveley, Worcestershire. (Unrelated but interesting, turns out to be the ancestral home of General Robert E Lee of the American revolution fame).

Offley Francis Drake Wakeman inherited Coton Hall on his fathers death in 1855 but did not come of age until 1857. His uncle 2^nd Baronet of Periswell Hall in Worcestershire managed affairs until he reached majority. His birthday was celebrated at Coton Hall and in Alveley. He sadly died aged 29 on 20 July 1865 at Coton Hall after exerting himself playing cricket. (Information from houseand heritage.org)

Perhaps his death, and uncertainty about employment was the catalyst for the Richards family move to Nercwys. Two months later, by 11 September 1865 they had relocated to Nercwys, Flintshire where Annie was born. Catherine died there on 1 February 1867 aged 25 from tuberculosis and John moved back to England with his four young children.

John remarried ten months later in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Whether he was living there alone or with the children is unknown, however to continue working it would have been more manageable had he been able to leave the children aged 18 months to seven years with family. John and his new wife Jane had seven children. The birth certificates of the first three give their place of birth as Gravel. I think this is a farm. Sometimes the location was given as Leintwardine and others as Downton. They were all baptised at Downton though. Both places (Downton and Gravel Farm) are very close to Brakes where John had been living in 1851 on census night. There are a couple of estates Downton Hall and Downton Castle very close to Gravel Farm. We can surmise that John may have been employed at one of these, or at Gravel Farm.

On census night 1871 the family were living in Ludlow itself at 97 Old Street. On that census, John is not home and Jane is recorded as the wife of a Gardener (absent). So far, I have been unable to find him, possibly at a place of employ. Shortly afterward they moved to Market Street, and by the time of the birth of their youngest son in July 1878 they were living in Caynham, Shropshire. John died at Hopton Wafers, Shropshire on 29 November 1879 from Febris Recidiva which is a tick-borne bacterial infection causing relapsing fevers. His death was likely the reason Annie was sent to live with her uncle in Dudley, as Jane seemed to have “rehomed” her stepchildren and moved to Nottinghamshire by the time the 1881 census was taken. Annie at thirteen or fourteen might have been just the help her Uncle Henry and cousin Elizabeth needed when they had just taken in the young grandchildren in May 1879 after the death of their mother.

Annie went on to marry John Henry Jolly in Walsall, Staffordshire in early 1887. They remained in Walsall for the rest of their lives and had a family of ten children, three of whom died within a month of each other in 1903. John Jolly died in 1925 and Annie in 1947.

Have you come across Annie in your tree? Or perhaps some of her aunts, uncles or cousins? I would love to hear from you.

 Well hey - it's been a while since I have been here. Life has just been a little busy but I am always thinking I need to write something. So here I am - hopefully completing the A-Z challenge for Family History Month 2026 Down Under.

It runs like this, you choose a topic for every letter consecutively in the alphabet and post one a day through the month of August, except for Sundays. I have done this before with different themes. This year my theme is FANS. Friends, Associates and Neighbours. Instead of concentrating on my direct ancestors I am going to choose somebody else in the family or maybe a neighbour and tell you what I know (or dont know) about them. Perhaps that person who I have researched a little is someone you have come across too, or someone you are more closely connected to than me. Maybe we can collaborate and find out more.

I am already running behind because I should have uploaded "A" yesterday...but it's still the 1st somewhere in the worls I thgink, so I might just be okay. Here goes!

Week 2 (Jan 8-14): Origins

Genealogists often get the question, "Where is your family from?" With this week's theme, you could explore an immigrant ancestor, but you could also think about the origin of other aspects of your family. Who was the first person in your family to settle in a particular town? If you have a long line of people with the same occupation, talent, etc, who was the first person you know who did it?

It was a question such as this that really set the ball rolling for genealogical research in my family. A social studies homework question at primary school. 

“How many generations has your family been in New Zealand?”

Well, they didn’t all come at once and they didn’t all come from the same places either. How do you calculate that? Are you meant to count just from the first ancestor BORN in New Zealand (or wherever) or do you count their parents who were the immigrants?

Family	Emigration Year	From Where	Arrival Port
Cooper	1841	Somerset, England	Wellington
Barratt	1842	Surrey, England	Wellington
Bartlett	1842	Somerset, England	Nelson
Laney	1842	Hampshire, England	Nelson
Fuller	1860	Surrey, England	Lyttelton
Davys	1862	Somerset, England	Auckland
Hall	1876	Cavan, Ireland	Auckland
Vose	1879	Kent, England	Lyttelton
Timms	1929	Warwickshire, England	Auckland

So, pretty much England and depending on which line 4-5 generations since the first NZ born ancestor in most families – but only 2 generations in another.

Most branches of my family emigrating to New Zealand came as a family, bringing their children with them. Only one branch was a newly married couple who would start their family in Canterbury and the most recent branch to emigrate brought a single woman travelling alone.

Week 1 (Jan. 1-7): Family Lore

Lore: /lɔː/

noun

a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth.

"the jinns of Arabian lore"

Family folklore is the study and use of folklore and traditional culture transmitted within an individual family group. This includes craft goods produced by family members or memorabilia that have been saved as reminders of family events. It includes family photos, photo albums, along with bundles of other pages held for posterity such as certificates, letters, journals, notes, and shopping lists. Family sayings and stories which recount true events are retold as a means of maintaining a common family identity. Family customs are performed, modified, sometimes forgotten, created or resurrected with great frequency. Each time the result is to define and solidify the perception of the family as unique.

The study of family folklore is distinct from genealogy or family history. Instead of focusing on historical dates, locations and verifiable events, this area of study looks at the unique stories, customs, and handicrafts that define the family as a distinct social group.

With thanks to the Oxford Dictionary and Wikipedia for helping to define but not really clarifying the topic for me. The prompt for this week is:

Many of us have heard stories from our grandparents about incredible feats our ancestors did or a famous person we're related to. What's a tale that has been passed down in your family? Did it end up being true or did it turn out to just be a good story? 

So, there have been a few stories passed down, and as in many families some are true, some are fabricated and some are based on a truth but have been embellished over time – although not quite tall tales.

• “Davys is a Welsh name.”
• “Somebody changed their name after the Monmouth rebellion.”
• “One of great grandad’s brothers was the first soft drink manufacturer in Wellington, another brother founded Cooper’s Seeds.”
• “Great great grandfather Laney was the first baker in Nelson.”
• “My mother’s people came from the Black Country.”
• “Timms are ten a penny.”
• “Rosina Buckman the opera singer is a cousin.”
• Great grandma died when the children were young and he needed to find a wet nurse.”
• “My grandad’s mother left and took 2 children to Australia. He always said he was about nine years old. Many years later a man came to visit and said he was a nephew.”
• “Grandad built the Post Office in Levin.”
• “A cousin of Granny Davys was the founder of the company which became AVON.”
• “Five times great grandfather was the Lord of the Manor.”
• Great great grandfather spent time in Ireland carrying out the ordinance survey.”
• “Great uncle Walter was a gold miner in Western Australia.”
• “Grandad’s 2^nd cousin founded the YMCA.”
• “One day, we had been to Ninety Mile Beach and I was in the car – a Ford Beauty – with Grandma and Grandad when we realised my Mum and Dad were not behind us. We had to go back, and they were stuck in the sand.”
• “Grandma had a pet magpie which was a bit vicious and sometimes you would get stuck at the outhouse and have to use the wooden lid as a shield to return to the house.”
• “One night when we were staying at Grandma’s the bed that Mum and my sister were sleeping in collapsed and they landed on the floor.”
• “We played in wide open fields unsupervised, although there was a fenced off area we called “the Keep Out” (because there was a sign). It was in this expanse that we found tiny black rabbit near the railway embankment and took him home to keep.”
• “The bus couldn’t go down the hill so we would get dropped at the top and then throw our school bags ahead of us and slide to the bottom on cabbage tree leaves. Our mothers used to wonder at the state of our clothes.”

Have you heard any of these ones before? Do you want to know more? Do you know any others?

I am sure there are many more.

More than just the 3 R's

A few years ago I made a small photobook about the members of Dad’s maternal grandfather’s family who emigrated to New Zealand in 1841. It’s been in the back of my mind to do something similar for other emigrant/settler families too. I thought I might make a start by jotting down some notes as a Christmas present for him – partly because it’s so hard to know just what to buy a 94 year old.

But in building out the story for the children in this family (his paternal grandfather's line) I came up against the same old dearth of information about education and where they might have gone to school. It’s not even that long ago (in the scheme of things), which makes it more frustrating that there doesn’t appear to be surviving records.

I suspect that they may have attended a church school in either the parish where they lived or a neighbouring parish. They are noted as scholars on the census prior to leaving the country. Then where did they go to school after they arrived in New Zealand in 1862?

I found some clues for the previous generation though.

In the 1841 census, Sarah Norman (12) and her younger sister Caroline (8) are enumerated in the “household” of the schoolmaster at Cutcombe, Somerset. This was likely to be a church school. Great to see girls, the daughter’s of farmers, getting an education. Their elder sisters were above school age on this first census available readily for family historians, but it seems likely they too would have had the opportunity to attend school.

In 1841 schools and schoolmasters were asked to record the names of the children who had attended in the last week as the census was taken very close to the summer holidays beginning (6 June). There were all sorts of rules about who could be recorded and who couldn’t – those with a governess weren’t “at” school so different rules applied. However, if you are lucky you might find the governess enumerated with a family and can then speculate as to which children she taught.

James Davys (15) was enumerated in Barnstaple, Devon at a school led by Elias Bray. It has taken a lot of pondering and searching outside the box, but I have found that this school which I originally thought I had identified as a Free Grammar School was actual Mount View Academy. A boarding school for boys. As the census indicated it was located at 66 High Street, whether this was also the address where the boys lived is unclear. Since finding James there, I have presumed that his elder brother may also have attended there previously and I have often wondered what subjects were taught. Sometimes you can get clues about that in the occupations recorded for some of the teachers, but many of them are just “teacher”, “schoolmaster/mistress” or “assistant schoolmaster”.

Anyway, having recently had some better luck with the search in FindMyPast for British Newspapers since they recently changed it I though I would have another try. And lo and behold!

Mount View Academy was established in 1828 by Elias Bray. He remained the principal until 1856 when he retired and Hugh Gawthrop became principal. But what did they teach? And what did it cost?

North_Devon_Journal_15_July_1841_0002

North_Devon_Journal_23_July_1857_0001

According to in2013dollars a guinea was slightly more value than a pound, but more or less became a pound as we remember it in the pre-decimal world (although people still talked of guineas even in the 1980s! I remember my grandmother mentioning them). One hundred guineas in 1841 would be the equivalent now of almost £13,000, so 25 guineas for a years tuition including board would be around £3000. Interestingly in2013dollars also says that since 1841 the British pound has LOST 99.218% of it’s value, meaning that todays prices are 127.93 times higher than they were in 1841 and that today’s pound can only purchase .078% of what it could then.

That makes the cost of living crisis were are all in currently bite just a little more.

North_Devon_Journal_11_June_1857_0005

North_Devon_Journal_16_December_1858_0005

Examinations at the Academy were held at the end of each term and were public, this makes me think they weren’t written exams, but more like recitals or spelling bees style. Parents and families were invited to attend and prizes were given. Often at the end of year events the boarders presented a gift of thanks (an inkstand, bowl, lamp) to Mr Bray.

I wonder, did James’ family take up the invitation to attend the examinations and celebrations? How did James travel back and forth at the beginning and end of each term. I don’t believe there was a railway that early, so a carriage or coach must have been the only option. Something to explore another time.

So, this was an interesting little foray into education. What an educated young man my great great grandfather was, and so pleased to see that my great great grandmother also had some formal education a long time before education became compulsory. It hasn’t helped me learn where or how the following generation was educated, but even if they were home schooled they should have all received a broad education from their parents knowledge.

Back to what I had started now, having been pleasantly distracted, and rewarded.