J - James Cording

James was the third son of Edward Cording and Mellony, nee Townsend. He was born in Carhampton, Somerset in 1834 and baptised a month later at Timberscombe St the Bible Christian Chapel. 

According to his obituary in The Pantograph (Bloomington, Illinois) he emigrated to Canda in 1858 and moved to Illinois, USA in 1862. I have not found passenger lists to confirm that arrival date, but on 1 January 1859 he married Eliza Norman whose family had also emigrated to Canada in the 1850s. The Normans were from Luxborough in Somerset, about 5 miles from Carhampton. Were James and Eliza an item prior to emigration, did they form a relationship on board ship, or after arrival in the new colony?

James and Eliza had a family of eight children. Their first daughter was born in Hamilton Ontario, but the remaining seven arrived in Illinois; in Centralia, Marion County and then mostly in Livingston County in Strawn and Forrest. As in England, James was farming in Forrest.

By the time of the 1870 census his elder brother John had also emigrated and was living with is wife and children on the adjacent farm. It would see that John had arrived between 1863-1870. A couple of years later in 1872 a younger brother Albert emigrated and around the same time Eliza’s brother William travelled back to England and married James’ younger sister before returning with her to Illinois between 1872-1874.

By the late 1890s James and Eliza’s siblings’ families had spread as far as Michigan, Canada and California with the majority remaining in Illinois. Their own children lived mostly in Forrest.

Eliza was badly injured in the major rail disaster at Chatsworth on 10 August 1887. Her sister Emma was one of the victims. She died in 1912 and James in 1925 and are both buried at the Forrest Township Cemetery.

I am connected to James’ family through his wife Eliza. Her father Richard was a brother of my great great great grandfather William Norman.

Are any of these people your people? Let me know if you think we might have a connection.

 

 

 

I - Isaac Fidler

Isaac was born in London on 7 September 1772; he was the eldest son of Robert Fidler and Ann Elisabeth Dupree. Robert was possibly a grocer or a hairdresser, not too many records have been found for him. His father’s family had been living in London since at least the early 1700s. His mother’s family had arrived in Spitalfields in the early 1600s. Isaac was named for his maternal grandfather who was a silk weaver.

Isaac’s father deserted his family when Isaac was about seven years old. Poor law records show the family being removed from parishes in 1778 and 1780. By the time his mother applied for settlement in Shoreditch in 1782 only her two eldest sons were still living.

I am not sure what Isaac did for work, he married Elizabeth Thomas on 15 August 1796 at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster.

In 1812 in the Land Tax records Isaac and his family were living in Drury Lane in the parish of St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. He appears on earlier Land Tax records, but not all of those include an address. Three of Isaac and Elizabeth’s children were married within three months of each other (the two girls on the same day to brothers – cos why not?) at St James Westminster in 1823. One of these girls was the mother of my great great great grandmother.

I have not been able to find a death record for Isaac or Elizabeth yet and as far as I can tell they were not on the 1841 census. I think his mother may have died in 1831 aged 89.

Have you ever come across this family? Can you unravel some of the unknown? Please let me know if you can.

H - Hannah Boddington

Hannah and at least one of her sisters were baptised at Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire but seemed to live in Rousham. Hannah was baptised on 31 March 1799; her parents Richard and Mary nee Simons were married at Rousham on 8 July 1798.

Hannah married James Timms in Rousham on 5 July 1819. They had nine children all born at Rousham where James like most there was an Ag Lab. Eight daughters and one son. Three of their daughters were baptised Elizabeth, the eldest of the three died just a few weeks old and of the two others (who confusingly grew up to marry brothers) the elder one became known as Eliza instead.

Hannah was part of the sandwich generation, when the concept of such a thing was nothing to write home about.

In January 1839 when her youngest child was thirteen months old her husband James died from an inflammation of the bowel. Was this the origin of coeliac and Crohns in the family? In 1841 at the census Hannah and her five youngest children and her father-in-law, William Timms, were in the Woodstock Union Workhouse. Fallen on tough times you would imagine after the loss of her husband. The older three girls were married or living away in service.

I’m not sure how long they were in the workhouse, but William died there in April 1842. By 1851 she was living back in Rousham with her youngest two children, a grandson and her widowed father. Her daughter Hannah had died three months before the census aged 20.

In 1861, her children all married or living and working away, Hannah was still caring for her now ninety-five-year-old father who was recorded on the census as infirm. Richard died six weeks later. Hannah remained in Rousham until her death in January 1880.

DNA suggests links to the descendants of potential sisters of Hannah, I am yet to confidently say I have researched enough and found good evidence. Did she just have sisters, or where there some brothers as well? There are other Boddington families in the are who are possibly connected somehow yet to be unravelled.

Do you have Boddingtons who came from Oxfordshire in your tree? Some descendants seem to have emigrated to America and Australia, and likely other colonies as well. Please reach out if any of this sounds familiar to you. 

G - George Kelsey

For a long time, the furthest back we were able to confirm in the Kelsey family, was Thomas Kelsey born about 1808 in Hinnington, Old Forge, Grindle or Shifnal, Shropshire depending on which record you read. Back when we started census and parish registers were not available online – we didn’t even know what “online” was.

Mum and Dad had a copy of his marriage certificate, to his second wife which had been purchased mistakenly when trying to find the marriage of his son with the same name. We found Thomas and his wife on the 1881 census, because thanks to a couple of other certificates we had a location to look around. From the marriage certificate we also knew his father’s name, George.

Slowly records came online, we looked for other family members at each record release. Finally in the 1861 census there were two people who we hoped and guessed might have been brothers. They too gave their birthplaces as Hinnington or Shifnal.

Much more recently, church records for Shropshire became available online, an alternative way to research than finding a Family History Centre or affiliate library to read microfilm. These linked them all together, three sons and later possibly a daughter or two born and baptised between 1800-1810 in Ryton, Shifnal and Hinnington. After poring over old maps there even appeared to be a building or locality called Old Forge as well.

Their parents were George Kelsey (or was it Kelshaw, Kelsal, Kelshall or Kilsey) and Catherine Buckley. They were married in Ryton, Shropshire on 4 Mar 1798. They used all the spelling variations for their children’s baptisms, and their children perpetuated the variations in marriage, death and census records. Thomas even kept the variations up for the births and baptisms of his own children.

George’s parents are suspected to be George Kelsey (or Kelshaw) and Mary. They were married in Shifnal on 10 April 1766 and had a daughter, Mary, in 1769. George’s baptism is yet to be found or confirmed. George Snr was 93 when he died in Grindle in February 1821 – a pretty good innings for those times.

George Jnr died in January 1830 at Ryton. Now that we had a myriad of alternate names to search, I began looking for their children as adults in censuses where we had already tried and given up. William and John did not marry and worked most of their lives at Hinnington Mill where they were labourers. John died in 1862 at Kemberton which was where his brother Thomas lived with his family. William died of “senile decay” in 1885 in the Union Workhouse. What became of their daughter Mary and who was Ann Dulson the informant on Catherine’s death certificate? Could she have been a married daughter? Catherine died in Hinnington in May 1851.

Now with DNA some matches are suggesting there could have been another son, James, born about 1798. Could this be right? Has anyone found documents to support this? When I look at the suggested pathway there isn’t any evidence, but they ARE matches, on the right branch of the family, so there must be something somewhere – right?

Do you know? Is George’s family your family too? Please get in contact, perhaps we can collaborate.

F - Frances Jane Selleck

I’ve picked a random person here. I don’t know too much at all about Frances except what I have found on official documents. I only just realised now that she is related in two ways!

Frances was the eighth child of James Selleck and Ann, nee Palfrey. She was the second cousin of my great grandfather Francis Davys. Her maternal grandfather Joseph Palfrey and James’ grandmother Anne Palfrey were siblings. But she was also related the same way on her father’s side of the family. Her paternal grandmother Mary Selleck, nee Norman was a sister of James’ grandfather William Norman.

It is a tangled little web for sure, this part of the tree. 

Frances was born in 1867 in Clatworthy, Somerset. She would not have known my great grandfather because by the time she was born, he had been living in New Zealand with his parents and siblings for five years. Her father was a farmer, and they were living at Sedgeborough Farm in the 1871 and 1881 censuses. By the time of the 1891 census, although they were still at Sedgeborough, the farm had now passed to her brother Tom as their father had died in January of that year.

Frances married in 1900 to another strong contender to be the subject of todays blog, Fenwick Charles Clatworthy Greenslade. They lived at Parsonage Farm, Luxborough where they had three children. In 1921 at the census in June, they had moved next door to Westcott Farm. Frances died in 1926; she didn’t live long enough to see her children marry or to meet her grandchildren.

Do you have any Selleck, Palfrey, Norman, Greenslade or even Davys’ in your tree? Maybe you are part of my tree too. Please contact me if you think we might share some connections.

E - Emma Timms

My Nana’s father was the youngest in his family. He had five older sisters and one older brother. His mother died when he was about nine months old. For five years or so his eldest sisters probably cared for him along with their grandparents who lived nearby.

Nana didn’t talk about her aunts or uncle or cousins though, apart from one. Most of them were a lot older than she and her siblings, so it is possible she didn’t even know them.

Alice was fourteen when her youngest brother was born, almost fifteen when her mother died. She was born in Mason Street, Milverton, Warwickshire. In 1881 on the census, she is recorded as a Scholar even though she was eighteen. After this census though each time she is recorded as an Inmate or Pauper living in the Warwick Union Workhouse (later known as the Warwick Union Institution and the Warwick Public Assistance Institute). She died in1944 at Shipston Hospital in Shipston-on-Stour.

May was eleven when her brother was born and twelve when their mother died. In 1881 on the census, she is recorded aged fifteen, living away from the family (but still in Milverton) as a housemaid for a retired Army Major General and his family. She was married in 1887 to William Byford and they had five children, one of whom died in infancy. This is the family Nana sometimes mentioned, they were Green Grocers in the early 1900s. May died in 1946.

Mary was nine when her brother was born and their mother died. Before 1889 she moved away from Milverton to Birmingham. Most likely for work as Birmingham offered many opportunities not found in Milverton. She was married in Birmingham in1889 to Henry Edward, a Pork Butcher and had four children. Sadly, Mary died eight days after the birth of her fourth child and her husband returned with his young family to live in Leamington and Milverton. One of Mary’s daughters lived for a time with her aunt May.

Fanny was six when her brother was born and their mother died. Fanny possibly moved to Birmingham at about the same time as Mary. In 1891 on the census, she is lodging with a family in Kings Norton and was employed as a Metallic Bedstead Decorator. Two years later in 1893 she was married to John Ashford a Cycle Polisher, in Birmingham. They had five children and spent the rest of their lives in Birmingham. Fanny died in 1941.

James was the first son in his family; he was two when his brother was born and their mother died. He became a Cellarman in a brewery but later was a much-respected inspector for the RSPCA. He married Ellen Newey and they had three children. They lived in Emscote and Leamington. James died in 1943.

George, the baby of the family was born in 1877 and his mother died in 1878. His father remarried when he was five years old to a widow with no children who lived across the road. She died in 1932, thirty years after their father. As far as I recall she was never talked about by Nana, though surely, she knew her as they lived almost next door.

But this blog is about Emma – I have shared briefly what I know about all the other members of the family. We have DNA matches with the descendants of most of them. But what about Emma? 

Emma was four when her brother was born and their mother died; her fifth birthday was the day after her mother died. Her full name is Emma Jane; she appears aged seven on the 1881 census although she was eight. And that is it! She has just vanished. By the 1891 census she would have been eighteen, she could have married, emigrated or died, but so far (over probably 20-30 years) I have not been able to find one little clue.

Are any of these people your great great aunts or uncles too? Or great great grandparents perhaps? Do you know anything about Emma? If you do, please share I would love to hear from you.

 

D - David Hall

I have a bit of a conundrum with my great great great grandfather David Hall. He was born about 1800 most likely in Cavan, or Monaghan, Ireland. He married about 1820 to Margaret Pritchard and they had about thirteen children.

But who were his parents? 

There are a few challenges unravelling this.

·         There is at least one other David Hall born around the same time and in the general area.

·         The family is likely an Ulster Plantation family – because let’s face it, Hall is not a very Irish surname. They lived in the same area for generations, went to the same Presbyterian churches and intermarried A LOT.

·         David’s daughter Anne, my great great grandmother, married another Hall. Just a coincidence? A cousin or second cousin?

William Hall, Anne’s husband was the son of Samuel Hall and Sarah Bailey. We knew this, as well as who Anne’s parents were from their death certificates in New Zealand. For a long time that was the extent of our knowledge.

Then along came DNA and the discovery that other branches of Samuel’s tree had also come to New Zealand. Surely people at the time knew one another and the family connection – but overtime the knowledge was lost.

Contacting other DNA testers in an endeavour to unravel the Irish branch of our tree, research all seemed to point to Samuel’s parents being William Hall 1769-1833 and Arabella Reilly.

Certainly, there are a lot of DNA matches where you can see the connections to each other through Samuel’s siblings. Researchers had found records for the children of William and Arabella – at least seven – including a David.

We have DNA matches to William’s family including descendants of his aunts and uncles (Samuel’s siblings), so it seemed quite resolved there. We also had good matches with Anne’s family going back into the past a little further and following her mother’s maternal line. For most of the descendants of William and Anne everything made sense, they should have matches to both families. But then some of Anne’s siblings’ descendants appeared to have matches to William's family!

The only way I can see this being possible is if “my” David Hall born about 1800 and died on 26 February 1883 at Coppenagh Mills is the son of William and Arabella Hall, born in 1797 at Lattacapple. This would mean that my great great grandparents William and Anne were first cousins. Or is it just an endogamy effect living in the same community for so long?

What do you think? Do you have a David Hall in your tree too? Is he this guy, or another one altogether? Please contact me if you think you can help.

 

 

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!

Z - Zoomer

 Well Z looks like it is going to go the same way as X, but in a much more decisive fashion.

There just aren't many occupations starting with Z, and there is no-one I am aware of who is or was a zookeeper, zoetrope maker or zincographer.

Maybe Zoom can help here. We have all become pretty proficient at zooming over the past 20 or so months. A platform most of us hadn't heard of before COVID has replaced one we all knew. Skype seems to have faded into the depths of oblivion as we all embrace Messenger, Teams, WhatsApp, FaceTime and of course Zoom.

I have been going to regular meetings since April 2020 on Zoom since COVID stopped us all attending in person. I have become part of an amazing online community born out of lockdown, COVID, a shared interest (or three) and Zoom. It started as weekly catch ups and social connection during lockdown and morphed into a fortnightly subscription get together and regularly has participants from 3 - 4 continents. During New Zealand's 2020 lockdown, I raced home on Tuesday nights and joined in the Southern Cross Electric Quiz - on Zoom. Some of us have had interviews with Zoom, attended virtual conferences, workshops and bake-a-long catch ups or shared pizza and wine with friends all from our own isolated homes.

Being a Zoomer isn't an occupation option yet, but maybe it might contribute to something in the future. None of us were Work from Homers before April 2020 either and we've all become pretty adept at that.

There you go, thought I was going to have just two sentences. But Zoom to the rescue !

Y - Yeoman

Yeoman /ˈjoʊmən/ 

First documented in mid-14th-century England, referring to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. Yeomanry was the name applied to groups of freeborn commoners engaged as household guards, or raised as an army during times of war. 

Over time it came to mean a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate; a freeholder, ergo a yeoman farmer, farmed his own land. When it came to classes in English society yeoman were intermediate between gentry and labourers. 

There is quite an abundance of Yeomen in the families connected to my Davys family in Somerset and Devon. Some documents record them as Gentlemen, Farmers or Living on their own means.

Families include: Davys,Palfrey, Norman, Vickery, Yeandle, Stone, Williams, Surrage, Burge, Brewer, Hancock, Manning, Venn.

Farms include: Kingston, Upcott, Hurstone, Tripp, Chapmans, More, Hagley Bridge, Severidges, Chubworthy, Ashway, Giffords, Trowell, Shapwick, Cridlands, Shute, Little Knowle, Little Wilscombe, Washers, Gupworthy, Quartley, Bovey, Withey, Little Withey, Catford, Notwell, Monkham, Hellings.

Parishes include: Raddington, Milverton, Chipstable, Clatworthy, Luxborough, Treborough, Huish Champflower, Taunton, Ashbrittle, Brompton Ralph, Cutcombe, Dulverton, Withiel Florey, Upton, Skilgate, Morebath, Bampton, Tiverton, Clayhanger, East Anstey.

So how did these families find themselves in this position socially? The Davys' at least, were definitely in this class by 1719 at the start of the Georgian era when the document transferring entitlement to land at Hagley was drawn up between father and son. Had they played their cards right in a recent of historic event such as the Monmouth Uprising in 1685? Were they established in Somerset and Devon earlier than that? Did it date back as far as the Norman invasion in 1066 for some families?

We may never know.

X - Xcellent - not

 Well X has drawn a blank.

There aren't even a lot of occupations to choose from, let alone finding one which belonged to a family member. Most revolve around 20th century technology, X-ray and Xerox. I even read the X pages of the dictionary and the E pages too, specifically for words starting with Ex, hoping for inspiration. 

No Xaminers, Xcisemen, Xecutioners or Xcavators that I am yet aware of in the family.

I had thought about writing about John Davys (Davis) the Xplorer who tried several times to find the North West Passage between Canada and the Arctic, and for whom Davis Strait is named. In 1592 he discovered the Falkland Islands. He was one of the chief navigators in Elizabethan times, a contemporary of Raleigh, Cavendish & Frobisher. He was born in Devon about 1550 and there is a tenuous, as yet unproven connection to the Davys family. He also commanded a ship (for England) against the Spanish Armada and was Pilot-Major on the first voyage of the East India Company to the East Indies. He was killed by Japanese pirates on 29 December 1605 off Bintan Island near Singapore.

My other option, though more a hobby than an occupation was to find out more about my grandfather's xylophone playing musical pastime. But I didn't really consider it in time and now need to ask lots of questions to find out more.

So for this letter instead of a tick for an xcellent post, I think I will be getting an x mark.

W - Weavers

I have known for quite a while about the Weavers in my mother's family who left Belgium as Huguenots and settled in Spitalfields in London in the late 16th century.

What I hadn't fully realised is that the silk industry was operating in other centres outside London. Some of these centres of industry were due to the arrival of the Huguenot refugees. Others came later, in the late 18th century as employers in London looked for ways to evade the regulations of the Spitalfields Acts. Silk mills could be found in a number of counties,  Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire to name a few.

The silk industry comprised many parts including the import of the raw threads, creation of dyes, designs and the cloth itself, then there were also mercers and exporters of the finished article. There were several mills in Hampshire including at Overton and Whitchurch. The Whitchurch Mill has been restored and is a working mill today, open to visitors and tourists. William Maddick took over the Whitchurch Mill and converted it to weave silk in the early 19th century. He was a successful silk manufacturer from Spitalfields. He may have known other people in the industry in Hampshire before he arrived.

There are streets in existence today in Andover named Spindle, Silkweavers which provide clues to past industry there. The family of my great great great grandmother Mary Hammond were silk workers in Andover. In the 1841 census both Mary and her mother are listed as Silk Weavers. The work was hard, unhealthy and poorly paid and they mostly worked from home, the loom taking up a large portion of space there.

Andover had grown with the wool trade and was one of the smaller towns where a thriving community of silkweavers became established. Mary's father John, was recorded as a weaver on the marriage certificates for some of her siblings. Mary had nine brothers and sisters and at least seven of them are recorded at some stage as weavers. England at this time, early 19th century, was facing some unrest. Age old methods were changing on the land and through industralisation. The early years of the century and the war with Napolean made imports difficult and pushed up the prices of food. New machinery meant less men were required to work the land, and for the weavers the larger mechanised looms were too large to have in their homes and could produce silk more quickly than those working at home.

On 20 November 1830 about 300 labourers marched into Andover demanding better pay and conditions for farm workers. They destroyed a large amount of property at an iron foundry which was manufacturing some of the new agricultural machinery. These riots took place in a wave across southern England and became known as "Swing Riots". Several of the ringleaders were arrested and tranported to New South Wales. Despite this unrest, seven of Mary's siblings chose to take their families from Andover and move to the overcrowding, disease and pollution of Spitalfields. Maybe they hoped there might still be the chance of employment in the historic centre of the silk trade in England.

Between 1823 and 1856 two mills operated near New Street in Andover employing up to 90 women. It is possible that Mary, her sister Ann and their mother worked at one of them. 

Henry VIII had hoped to be able to produce silk in England and had many Mulberry trees planted, however the variety which was suitable for silk worms was not suitable to the English climate. Raw silk was imported from India and parts of Europe. The cocoons needed to be unravelled and wound into skeins. Children were often employed to do this as they had smaller, more agile fingers to unknot the thread if required or to re-tie broken filaments. 

The skeins were then placed into bales and taken to the mill to be processed. Here the silk would be cleaned, twisted and wound on to bobbins. Silk throwing is the process where the filament from the bobbins is given its full twist, doubling is when the filaments or threads from three or more bobbins are wound together.  These last two steps can occur more than once. Often the process as a whole was referred to as silk throwing, or as twisting and spinning. 

Some of Mary's brothers were recorded as Silk Throwers, sometimes this referred to the Master, and sometimes to a child.  The role was originally a hand process relying on a turning wheel that twisted four threads while a helper (who would be a child) ran the length of a shade, hooked the threads on stationary pins and ran back to start the process again. The shade, similar to a rope walk, would be between 23 and 32 metres long. Supposing that twelve rolls were made in a day, the child would run about fourteen miles barefoot. 

By Uploaded by User:ClemRutter. 04/2012 - THE PENNY MAGAZINE, VOL XII No. 711. 1843., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18941167

V - Vine Dresser

The Becker family left Rudesheim, on the banks of the Rhine, and travelled to Hamburg and board an emigrant ship in 1852 to make a new life in Sydney, Australia. Friedrich and Elizabetha had four young children, a fifth had died two years before they left aged four. The Caesar Godeffroy sailed on 17 August 1852 with 230 emigrants on board and arrived in Sydney on 11 December. How different that first Christmas must have been compared with their past ones in Germany.

The passenger list records Friedrich's occupation as Vine Dresser. The steep banks of the Rhine and fields around Rudesheim are filled with rows of grapevines, even today. A vine dresser was responsible for pruning and cultivating vines. Pruning removed dead, diseased or stunted fruits to make way for new growth and ultimately lead to a healthy and productive vine. I expect vine dressers also played an integral role at harvest ensuring the fruit was picked carefully without damaging the rootstock and vine. At the time that Friedrich and Elisabetha married in 1845, Friedrich's father was recorded as a Wine Grower.

Did that mean that different families each had their own small vineyard ? Or was it a collective arrangement shared by all of the residents of the town ? Whichever it may have been, there wasn't much call for Vine dressers in the colony of New South Wales when they arrived in Sydney.

Governor Arthur Phillip brought vines with him from the Cape of Good Hope on the First Fleet in 1788 and a number of vineyards were established in the area that is now Sydney, including the first on the site of the Botanic Gardens. Lutheran settlers from Prussia and Silesia settled in the Barossa Valley in South Australia escaping religious persecution in their homeland. Groups also settled in the Riverina district in New South Wales, many had brought vines with them and set about trying to establish vineyards.

Friedrich and Elisabetha raised their expanding family in Sydney, living in Potts Point and Surry Hills. Friedrich became a stone mason and builder, quite a different occupation to the one he arrived with.

U - Unemployed

Occupations have been included on all English and Welsh censuses since 1841. Prior to that census not even names were recorded, just tally marks for sex, age group and what type of industry. Over time the details collected has changed and the statistical way that occupations are grouped and categorised. In 1841 there were 877 different occupations recorded

By 1851 occupations had begun to be categorised with 17 types of work and 91 sub categories. From 1861 the use of "apprentice" and "journeyman" began to be used correctly. Prior to this census, workers may have been recorded as an apprentice or a journeyman (one who had completed an apprenticeship but was not yet qualified to employ workers of their own), but that may not have been correct.

In 1881, additional information was added. Not only was the trade or occupation recorded, it was noted if the person was currently employed. Here we see "Cabinet Maker Unemployed", "Domestic Servant out of work" and similar entries. Before 1881, we have most likely just seen the occupation and assumed our ancestor was gainfully employed. Maybe not. How did they get by ? 

No jobkeeper payments or welfare system doling out money and food. They would have been reliant on their own means, if they had any resources, or reliant on the parish and their wider families. Many would find themselves in a workhouse, their entire family might have to be admitted too with no breadwinner to support them. Today's population seems quite entitled, in comparison, having never lived in a society without a welfare system funded by government.

My 3x great grandmother found herself in the workhouse with her father and her 5 youngest children after her husband died. My 4 x great grandmother, recently widowed, died standing in line at the workhouse for food relief.

Later censuses also recorded whether each person was an employer or worker; whether they worked from home or went out to work. When the 1921 census is released for public research next year we will be able to see the address of our ancestor's workplace as well as their occupation.

Church records began recording occupations in 1812 on baptism records and later on marriage records. Sometimes curates and ministers recorded extra information, or made notes in what might have been a "judgy" tone. I came across some early baptisms recently where the minister had made additional notes. When several base-born (illegitimate) babies were baptised instead of leaving the "Trade" column blank as most were want to do, he wrote "domestic servant now of no useful trade", "no useful trade", and on others "formerly a soldier now of no use". I guess for the soldier, it might indicate that he had returned with injuries which did not allow him to return to his previous type of employment. But for the women, I felt it was a bit harsh.

T - Timber Millers

The Davys brothers came to New Zealand with their parents in 1862 and ranged in aged from 2 to 12 on arrival. They lived for a short time in Auckland before their parents moved to Thames when gold was discovered in 1867.

It is likely they assisted with bush clearing  around Thames, although the younger ones probably attended school at least part of the time as well. By 1876 their parents and uncle had returned to farming, the industry they were a part of before emigrating, in the Tuhikaramea area near Hamilton. Thomas and Walter stayed in the Coromandel and continued mining, or at least prospecting for gold. Henry also took up farming in Tuhikaramea and in the late 1880s Francis was farming at Ardmore near Papakura.

In 1890 Henry with at least one of his brothers, Fred, Albert or William, or perhaps all three established a Timber Mill at Rukuhia. They regularly advertised in the newspapers that they were situated at Messrs Williamson's bush and had a large range of timber available for order. In the mid 1890s Francis had left his farm and was also working at the Rukuhia saw mill. 

Waikato Times 6 June 1891 page 4

MESSRS DAVYS BROS.' RUKUHIA SAWMILLS

Our Tuhikaramea correspondent writes: Hearing that our enterprising fellow settlers, Messrs Davys Bros., had been going in for some extensive works at the Rukuhia mills, I paid them a visit recently, and was certainly astonished at the very complete manner in which the firm have gone to work to secure a large output of sawn and dressed timber. The new mills are fully a mile nearer the Waipa than the former works, and in reaching them from this district one has to pass through the western portion of the Rukuhia Estate, and the pity is that the whole of Messrs Williamson Bros. property is not as fertile and amenable to good cultivation as that which this road passes through. A prettier piece of rural scenery would be hard to find. The broad ridge along which the road winds is coated with a fine sward of young grass, well stocked with a herd of the white-faced Herefords. On one hand lies the extensive bush from which the mills are supplied, while on the other is a beautiful lake, the waters of which gleam in their setting of dark foliage. But as we ride onward the dull grey expanse to be seen ahead tells only too plainly that we are approaching the south-western fringe of the great swamp, the satisfactory treatment of which has, so far, proved an unsolvable problem to the owners of Rukuhia, and must with its miles of trackless bogs and waste, all bearing rates and taxes, be a heavy burden upon them, and at the same time is a serious drawback to the progress of this district. The road is in good order, and we are soon at the mill, which with men's cottages, stables, etc., forms quite a small village by the edge of the bush. A striking feature in approaching is the large stock of sawn timber (over 100,000 feet) stacked in the yards. and the careful manner in which every board is placed up on stands, or fitted in compact squares, serves as a fitting example of  the manner in which the firm carry out their business. The mill buildings are all under one iron roof, and the machinery, driven by nine horse power engine, comprises  breaking down, circulars, planing benches, etc., the timber-cutting operations being under the supervison of  Mr F, Millet, who hails from that land of timber, the Manakau, and is probably one of the best saw-millers in the colony. Being situated on the dry land at the edge of the bush, the logs are brought out by horse tram, the latter being quite a work of magnitude, the line being nearly two miles in length, and, with the heavy traffic of big logs over it, the cost of wear and tear is no small item in the expense of the mill. No doubt, the latter could have been placed more conveniently to the bulk of the timber, but its present position, which is on the main road leading through from the Waipa to the Rukuhia railway station, with the increased facilities thus obtained  for delivering timber either way, compensates for the increased length of the tramway. A walk down the line is very interesting, as showing how the logs are got out. From each side of the tramway, at intervals of a few chains, the rolling roads are cut into the bush, and along these, upon heavy skids, the big logs are jacked  until the line is reached. Some of the logs are very large, the trees near the base being as much as 18 feet in girth, and from 80 feet to 90 feet long.  A log from such a tree would yield about 2,000 feet of timber. Contrary to what might have been expected, the trees are full of heart wood. This is explained by the bush being an old one, and standing on clay land instead of the usual peat bottom. This difference in the soil is also aptly shown by the luxuriant growth of grass, which was surface sown a few months ago, along the tram line, and it is certain that when the heavy timber is removed, and the lighter stuff felled and burnt, the estate will have a grand block of grass land where bush now stands. The Messrs Davys Bros., who, by the way, do a large share of the labour themselves, have, during the past winter, opened up the bush, laid most of the tramway, and felled a considerable quantity of timber, and are now in a position to supply a large quantity of milled stuff in the ost expeditious manner, full particulars of  which will be found in their advertisement. All that is needed are timber orders, and if the opinion of carpenters generally, and others who have used the timber from these mills can be taken as a guide, such orders will be filled to the satisfaction of purchasers, whether as regards quality of timber, price, or terms.

Waikato Times 19 November 1895, page 2 www.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz 

In 1898 they advertised, calling for tenders to build a cottage in Taupiri where they had purchased another mill. The dates of advertisements seem to indicate that they continued to operate the Rukuhia mill as well. Mr Millet who had been with them at Rukuhia also relocated to Taupiri. Although the family remained in Taupiri, they became employees rather than employers, selling the mill in 1899. This may have been as a result of a fatal accident which took place there and perhaps soured their experience.

Waikato Argus 14 Sept 1899 page 3

S - Sail Weavers

There are so many things I have learnt doing this series of blogs and there are still 8 letters to go !

A small geographic area located on the border of Somerset and Dorset saw the emergence of a significant number of co-dependent and integrated active which were associated with the development and growth of sailmaking and the production of twine from the 1700s - mid 1900s. This cluster of activities would later become known as an economic cluster. Other examples in modern day of economic clusters are the Californian wine industry, shipbuilding in Clyde, motor engineering around Coventry and pockets of  IT businesses and start ups like Silicon Valley.

Anyway, back to this little spot on the Somerset/Dorset border. Clusters like this are formed in communities which are imaginative, where creative and unconventional initiatives and projects are embraced. This in turn builds a sort of civic pride and captivates outsiders. This was clearly the case for the sailmaking and rope industry in and around West Coker and East Chinnock. That it lasted for such a sustained period and evolved in an area 32 kilometres from the Dorset coast makes it even more interesting.

The small communities harnessed their assets and became world leaders, but in the end their ability to remain competitive failed. Not really through any fault of their own though. The development of power looms stopped the handloom industry almost immendiately in the 1850s. While they did attempt to diversify they weren't able to stop the demand for steam power which saw the demand for sails to decline dramatically spelling the end of Coker Canvas.

At the time of the 1841 census, just prior to large numbers of my Bartlett ancestors leaving East Chinnock for New Zealand and Australia the occupation which was most prevelant was Sail Weaver. House after house, family after family. Most likely the women folk would have been spinning the flax and the men more involved in weaving. The census doesn't tell us that bit though because of the invisible lives women led in society. I remember seeing flax plantations in New Zealand growing up, around the Manawatu & Horowhenua regions with rows and rows of drying racks in fields. Now I think I should have paid more attention to what Dad was telling me as we drove by in the car.

They must have seen it coming, the end of their industry and perhaps that is why they, their friends and families made the decision to travel to the otherside of the world in the hope of new opportunities there for their children. Staying in England, most would have had no choice but to move to the cities and hope they could do well. The population of East Chinnock  stayed pretty much the same between 1841 and 1851, but occupations had changed. There were less Sail Weavers and more Ag Labs, some Rope makers and a lot more Glovers.

Another little tidbit I didnt know before is that to the west of the East Chinnock village there is a spring with SALT water ! Known as the Salt Hole which was used for salt manufacture until the 19th century.

As well as this small pentagon shaped area of about 200 sq.km south west of Yeovil, there was another economic cluster nearby in Yeovil itself and to the north west including Montacute (where my Cooper family were also about leave from to come to New Zealand). Gloving was the business there, it had been recorded as an industry since the 13th century and it has been estimated that 50% of gloves produced in England came from Yeovil. Certainly there was a lot of sewing going on in Montacute at the time of the 1841 census - plenty of Tailors and loads of Glovers.

R - Railwayman

Thomas Kelsey, my 2 x great grandfather was the youngest of five children born to Thomas Kelsey and Sarah Hulett in Shropshire England. Thomas was born at Norton near Stockton, his elder siblings at Dawley Bank, Dawley Magna, Hatton and Kemberton where his father was employed as an Ag Lab. See, I told you every family has at least one.

Although they were in Norton on the 1851 census just 8 weeks after Thomas' birth, for each subsequent census they were living in Kemberton, Shropshire. Thomas' father was born nearby in Hinnington and his mother was from Wellington.

By 1871 Thomas and his older siblings, all bar Henry, had left Kemberton and rural life behind them. Henry remained in Kemberton most of his life working as an Ag Lab like their father and raised a family of fifteen, three times the size of any of his siblings' families. George was married, living in Dudley and employed as a Railway Porter. Harriet was married and living in Blakedown, Worcestershire where her husband was Station Master . Emily was married and living in Tettenhall, Staffordshire with her husband a Roading contractor.

Thomas began his employment as a uniformed staff member of the Great Western Railway in March 1870. He is recorded as a Shunter at Brettell Lane Goods Yard in the Railway Employment Records. On April 2nd 1871 he received a pay increase of one shilling, to 19 shillings. The date of the payrise was also census night and Thomas is recorded there as a Porter. So not just a pay increase but a promotion too.

He received another pay increase in January 1872, and another the following month when he was also promoted and transferred to Wolverhampton as a Goods Guard. His pay had now increased to 22 shillings and would regularly increase up to March 1888 when he was recieving 32 shillings. 

He first married in 1875 to Mary James. They had 2 children before Mary died at their home in Junction Street, Wolverhampton in 1878. He was earning 31 shilllings at that time. His children went to live with their maternal grandfather and it is unclear exactly when they were returned to the care of their father. Thomas remarried in 1886 to Louisa Rudd. They had three children before Louisa died in 1890.

At the 1891 census, Louisa's father and older sister were living with Thomas and his 5 children. Clara was recorded as the Housekeeper, but three years later she married Thomas and they had a daughter of their own.

His employment record includes some warnings, but no accompanying fines. On 20 November 1885 for over-carrying two wagons, in August 1891 for leaving the train and not warning the signalman - which resulted in him being left behind, and again on 19 April 1893 for overcarrying a cattle truck.

He is noted as being "Away Ill" in February 1895 and again in October 1896 with a note that he had been paid up until that date. The last notation is 19 May 1898 "Will not resume, Deceased". 

Thomas died at the Stafford County Asylum from General Paralysis (syphillis). Not an uncommon predicament in Victorian times. Those periods of illness recorded on his employment record might be indicators of when his condition began to deteriorate. His wives don't appear to have suffered from it, in fact Clara lived until the age of 80. The children too don't seem to have been affected. Two died young, one as an infant from measles and the other from pneumonia aged 21 years. 

The growth and expansion of the Railway networks offered new opportunities for travel, to transport goods and to help develop the growth of towns and cities. DNA suggests that Thomas may have had other relationships, and his occupation provided the opportunity to be in other locations around the country. He certainly had a bit of time between 1878 -1886 when he was single, as well as prior to his first marriage. It might take some unravelling yet.