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 […]
Crime
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 […]
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 […]
William Medway Ward (1828-1898)
William Medway Ward (1828-1898). My 2nd great-grand uncle. William was born on 14 July 1828 and baptised on 14 September at All Hallows Church in Tottenham, Middlesex, to parents William Ward and Mary Ann Downer. He married Maria Earnshaw on 25 November 1850 at St John’s Church in Hackney. She’d been born on 1 March […]
Thomas Goulty (1778-1857), Norfolk husbandman
Thomas Goulty / Goughty (1778-1857) and Sarah Russell (1779-1865). My 4th great-grand uncle and aunt. Thomas was born in 1778 and baptised at St Swithin’s Church in Frettenham, Norfolk, on 11 October that year. His parents were Charles Goulty and Elizabeth Quantrel. His surname was spelled in various ways in the parish records, from Goulty […]
Henry Stoliday (1841-????) – emigrated to Australia
Henry Stoliday / Stolliday (1841-????). My 2nd great grand-uncle. Henry was born in 1841 and baptised on 5 December that year at All Saints Church in Salhouse, Norfolk, to parents William Stoliday and Sarah Rose. He grew up in the village with his family but as a boy got into trouble with the law. A report […]
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 […]
Sarah Green (1804-54), a policeman’s wife
Sarah Green (1804-54) and John Gilbert (1804-1874). My 4th great-grand aunt and uncle. Sarah Green was born on 28 July 1804 and baptised two days later at St Nicholas’s Church, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Her parents were Edward Green and Mary Bustard. She grew up in the coastal town, where her father worked as a beachman, […]
Sarah Ann Green (1829-1902) – a troubled marriage
Sarah Ann Green (1829-1902) and Jonathan Jary (1831-1890).My 3rd great-grand aunt and uncle. Sarah was baptised on 5 June 1829 at St Nicholas’s Church, Great Yarmouth, and grew up with her siblings and parents William Green and Willoughby Staff in the town. The 1851 census recorded her living with relative and mariner’s wife Elizabeth Saunders and […]
Robert Wetherall (1829-1905) – Marylebone bricklayer
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. He grew up in the town’s crowded row houses, although his fisherman […]
William Brooks Wetherill (1820-1903) – transported to Australia
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 […]
John Stoliday (1817-1896), his wife Catherine and the courts
John Stoliday (1817-1896) and Catherine Smith (1822-1910). My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt. John Stoliday was born on 25 April 1817 and baptised on 8 June that year at All Saints’ Church in Rackheath, Norfolk, to parents James Stoliday and Mary Gay. John grew up with his parents and siblings in and around Rackheath and […]
William Budgen (1873-1916)
William Budgen (1873-1916) and Phoebe Jones (1884-1962). My great-grand uncle and aunt. Born on 24 January 1873, William Budgen was baptised at St Katharine’s Church, Merstham, Surrey, on 9 March that year to parents Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore. He was listed as a clerk in the 1891 census, living with his family in Bell […]
Richard Goulty (1801-????), transported for bigamy
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 at St Fabian & St Sebastian in […]
Charles Goulty (1842-1882) and his brushes with the law
Charles Goulty (1842-1882). My 2nd great-grand uncle. Charles was the eldest son of James Goulty and Mary Ann Pilgrim and was baptised on 24 July 1842 at St Mary at Coslany Church in Norwich, Norfolk. A note on the register says the family were visiting the parish at the time of the baptism and noted that […]
David Dolamore (1803-1871)
David Dolamore (1803-1871). My 3rd great-grandfather. I don’t know when David was born but he was baptised on 28 January 1803 at St Lawrence Church, Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, to parents William Dolamore and Charlotte Kimpton. His father died when he was about 16, in 1819, and William’s will requested that his wife support the boy […]
Robert Stolladay (1804-1862) – transported to Australia
Robert Stolladay (1804-1862) and Mary Anne McGuigan. My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt. 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 […]
Hannah Maria Stoliday (1851-1932) – court cases and a marriage mystery
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 and baptised at All Saints’s Church in Salhouse, Norfolk, on 19 March 1851. She ended up with three marriages to her name, experienced tragedy and lived […]