Godfrey Weston and my other Weston ancestors

Godfrey Weston (1785-1862). My 4th great-grandfather. Godfrey Weston took advantage of a young woman and then tried to evade his responsibilities to her and the daughter he fathered out of wedlock… He was born on 14 March 1785 and baptised three days later at St Mary’s Church in Banham, Norfolk. His parents were John Weston […]

Elizabeth Maria Symonds and my other Symonds ancestors

Elizabeth Maria Symonds (1826-1911).My 3rd great-grandmother. Elizabeth Maria Symonds was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1826 and baptised in St Nicholas’s Church on 24 November that year. Her parents were fisherman Charles Robinson Witchingham Symonds and Susanna Waters (see below). Elizabeth married mariner William Mark Green, a Yarmouth native, at St Nicholas’s on 29 […]

Mary Pilgrim and my other Pilgrim ancestors

Mary Pilgrim (1811-1867).My 3rd great-grandmother. My Pilgrim ancestors came from Norfolk in East Anglia and joined my family tree when Mary Pilgrim married James Goulty in 1842. Mary was born illegitimately to mother Elizabeth Pilgrim on 7 January 1811 at Morley St Peter in Norfolk and was baptised there on 13 January. From a court […]

Robert Wetherall (1829-1905) – Marylebone bricklayer

Robert Weatherall

Robert Wetherall (1829-1905) and Charlotte Watering (1829-1917).My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt. Like several of his siblings, Robert’s actual birth and baptism dates are a bit of a mystery and it may be that he wasn’t baptised at all. Certainly, I’ve found no records recording it. Earlier census returns suggest he was born in Great […]

Edward Charles Stolliday (1873-1966) – baker and chef

Edward Charles Stolliday (1873-1966) and Margaret Elizabeth Bowles (1876-1939). My great grand-uncle and aunt.  Born on 2 March 1873 to parents Edward Stoliday and Harriet Goulty, young Edward Charles Stolliday was baptised at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on 28 February 1875. Bearing in mind that his parents were married on Christmas Day 1872, […]

William Brooks Wetherill (1820-1903) – transported to Australia

Hobart in the 1840s

William Brooks Wetherill (1820-1903).My 5th great-uncle. William Brooks Wetherill was born on 7 March 1820 to Thomas Wetherill and Rebecca Brooks and was baptised on the 12th at St John Timberhill in Norwich, Norfolk. He was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to 10 years’ transportation to Australia. He grew up in Norwich with his […]

Richard Goulty (1801-????) – bigamy and transportation

Hyde Park Barracks today

Richard Goulty aka Henry Lock (1801-?).My 3rd great-grand uncle. Richard was born on 13 November 1801 in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, to parents Charles Goulty and Rebecca Lock, but as an adult he was transported to Australia for bigamy under the alias Henry Lock. His parents had Richard baptised two days after his birth and he grew […]

Robert Stolladay (1804-1862) – transported to Australia

Sydney from Pinchgut Island in about 1826, when Robert arrived

Robert Stolladay (1804-1862) and Mary Anne McGuigan.My 3rd great-grand uncle. Every family has its share of black sheep and Robert Stolladay was one of ours. He suffered the horrors of transportation to Australia for burglary but forged a new life there, had a family and then died a miserable death. The eldest child of James Stoliday […]

Hannah Maria Stoliday (1851-1932) – court cases and a marriage mystery

Hannah's marriage to James Bull

Hannah Maria Stoliday (1851-1932), James William Bull (1850-1874), William James Thurgate and John Crisp.My 2nd great-grand aunt and uncles. Hannah was born to William Stoliday and Sarah Rose in 1851 in Salhouse, Norfolk, and was baptised at All Saints’s Church in the village on 19 March. She ended up with three marriages to her name, […]

William Stoliday (1836-1930) – a long-lived market gardener

William Stoliday (1836-1930), Mary-Ann Carr (1827-1866) and Ann Dove (1845-1917).My 2nd great-grand uncle and aunts. Born in 1836 in Salhouse, Norfolk, and baptised on 4 December of that year at All Saints’ Church in the village, William Stoliday was the son of William Stoliday and Sarah Rose. He became an agricultural labourer, like his father, […]