Sophia Goulty (1811-1895) and Emerson Manbey / Tidy (1809-1873). My 3rd great-grand aunt and uncle. Sophia Goulty was born in Woodbastwick, Norfolk, on 3 January 1811 and named at at the Particular Baptist Church in Salhouse, Norfolk. Her parents were Charles Goulty and Rebecca Lock. Sophia grew up in Norfolk but she was living in Queen Charlotte […]
Author: Stephen
William Weston (1794-1862), a stabbing and a curious court case
William Weston (1794-1862) and Sarah Bailey (1802-1884). My 4th great-grand uncle and aunt. William Weston was born on 22 March 1794 and baptised on 29 March at St Mary’s in Banham, Norfolk. His parents were John Weston and Esther Bailey. He married Sarah Bailey in Banham on 27 May 1828. She too came from the […]
Esther Bailey and my other Bailey ancestors
Esther Bailey (1757-1826). My 5th great-grandmother. Esther Bailey was the first of the Baileys to join my family tree, when she married John Weston of Banham in Norfolk on 29 September 1781. She had been born to James Bailey and Sarah Cob and baptised on 11 April 1757 and was sometimes known as Hester. John […]
Elizabeth Dolamore (1836-1904) and a tragic death
Elizabeth Dolamore (1836-1904) and William Bushby (1835-1880). My 2nd great-grand aunt and uncle. Elizabeth Dolamore was born to my 3rd great-grandparents David Dolamore and Mary Ann Walker. She was baptised on 30 October 1836 at St Lawrence’s in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, and grew up in the Watford area. She married William Bushby on 15 May […]
Rebecca Brooks and my other Brooks ancestors
Rebecca Brooks (1784-1825). My 5th great-grandmother. Rebecca Brooks was the first of the Brooks family to join my family tree, when she married into the Wetherall family. The surname may derive from the town of Broc in France, brought over around the time of the Norman conquest, or also to the old English words for […]
Mary Ann Dolamore (1828-1899) – from England to Wales
Mary Ann Dolamore (1828-1899) and Robert Petch (1820-1897). My 2nd great-grand aunt and uncle. Mary Ann was baptised on 17 February 1828 at St Lawrence’s Church in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, to parents David Dolamore and Mary Ann Walker. She was working as a servant at the time of the 1841 Census in Nascot House in […]
Mark Rice (1787-1863) and his children who emigrated to Utah
Mark Rice (1787-1863) and Eleanor Whaley (1791-1862). My 4My 4th great-grand uncle and aunt. Mark Rice may have lived an uneventful life but several of his children emigrated to the USA as members of the Mormon Church. Mark was baptised at St Mary’s Church in Balcombe, Sussex, on 27 July 1787 and married Eleanor Whaley […]
George Downer (1808-1864) – Royal Marines officer
George Downer (1808-1864) and Mary Ann Stallard (1817-????). My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt. George was baptised on 28 February 1808 at St John’s in Winchester, the son of Charles Downer and Ann Brent. He grew up in the city and then went on to have a successful career in the Royal Marines. Details of […]
Mary Ann Downer and my other Downer ancestors
Mary Ann Downer (1803-1891). My 3rd great-grandmother. Mary Ann Downer was the first of the Downer’s in my Finch family tree, marrying my 3rd great-grandfather William Ward. The Wards lived in Middlesex – present-day London – but my Downer family came from Hampshire. The surname is common in Sussex, the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, […]
Willoughby Staff and my other Staff ancestors
Willoughby Staff (?1803-1886). My 4th great-grandmother. Willoughby Staff was from a Norfolk family that married into the Greens. Their descendants were part of my paternal family tree, ultimately coming down to the Finches. The surname may have derived from the Anglo-Saxon stæf, which means stick or pole, and could’ve referred to people who worked with or […]
Edith Brent (1784-1871) and her soldier husband
Edith Brent (1784-1871), Charles Prigg (1782-1814) and Alexander McKenzie (c1786-1832). My 4th great-grand aunt and uncles. Edith Brent was born to Henry Brent and his wife Mary and baptised on 31 January 1784 at Holy Trinity Church in Wonston, Hampshire. The family continued to live in and around the village. She married Charles Prigg from […]
Ann Brent and my other Brent ancestors
Ann Brent (1780-1863). My 4th great-grandmother. The Brents came from Hampshire in southern England and married into the Downer family, ancestors on my paternal Finch line. The surname can derive from place names but may also refer to the Old English ‘brente’ meaning steep place – the location perhaps of where a family lived. View […]
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Philip Comber (c1606-1680) – merchant tailor of London
Philip Comber (c1606-1680), Elizabeth (????-1654) and Dorothy Hounsell (????-1714). My 9th great-grand uncle and aunts. Philip Comber was probably born in West Hoathly, Sussex, but baptism records for the parish survive only from 1606 so his birth year remains a guesstimate. His parents were Thomas Rivers Comber and Ann Burstow and he received £10 from […]
Sarah Comber and my other Comber ancestors
Sarah Comber (1682-1758).My 7th great-grandmother. The Combers were a long-established Sussex family, some prospered as landowners and sheep farmers, and family pedigrees were presented at the Heralds’ Visitations of Sussex in 1634. The surname probably derived from the occupation of combing wool, although a ‘combe’ refers also to a valley. Curiously, some members of the […]
Susannah Symonds (1832-1906) and her family of mariners
Susannah Symonds (1832-1906), Henry George Martins (1828-1857) and Charles Downing (1824-1883). My 3rd great-grand aunt and uncles. Susannah was baptised on 8 October 1832 at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, to parents Charles Robinson Witchingham Symonds and Susanna Waters. She was still living at home at the time of the 1851 census and […]
Mary Ann Symonds (1791-1867), died after being scalded
Mary Ann (or Marian) Symonds (1791-1867) and Ralph Newby (????-1881). My 4th great-grand aunt and uncle. Mary Ann – or sometimes Marian – was born just a few months after the marriage of her parents – James Symonds and Frances Ann Witchingham – in 1791. She was baptised at Holy Trinity & All Saints Church […]
Frances Ann Witchingham and my other Witchingham ancestors
Frances Ann Witchingham (1773-1847). My 5th great-grandmother. Witchingham is a reasonably common surname in Norfolk and may well derive from the village of Witchingham, north-west of Norwich. Over time the name has been spelled in a variety of ways including Wychingham, Wichinham, Withingham and even Wichengim. See the Witchingham family tree and where they fit […]
Hannah Holsworth and my other Holsworth ancestors
Hannah Holsworth (1791-1879). My 4th great-grandmother. Holsworth is a fairly common surname in Norfolk and is a variation of Holdsworth. ‘Worth’ is an old English word for enclosure, suggesting the surname was a habitional name deriving from a particular place. Hannah, my 4th great-grandmother, came from the village of Salhouse and was the first by […]
Godfrey Weston and my other Weston ancestors
Godfrey Weston (1785-1862). My 4th great-grandfather. Godfrey Weston was the first of the Westons to join my direct family tree but he didn’t marry into it. Instead he fathered a child out of wedlock and then married someone else. The Westons came from north-west Suffolk and south Norfolk over the centuries. The surname was given […]
Ann Burley and my other Burley ancestors
Ann Burley (1775-1850).My 4th great-grandmother. She married into the Finch family. Ann Burley was the daughter of John Burley of Limpsfield and Sarah Goodman of Kingston, both in Surrey (see below). She was born on the 27 April 1775 and baptised on 3 June that year at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, where her carpenter […]