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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Mary Ann Green (1853-1918), widowed by a storm

Mary Ann Green (1853-1918), Frederick Rowland (1854-1881) and Daniel Robert Beales 1852-1909). My 2nd great-grand aunt and uncles. Mary Ann Green was born on 13 January and baptised on 17 April 1853 at St Nicholas’s Church, Great Yarmouth, to parents William Mark Green and Elizabeth Maria Symonds. Her first husband would drown in a notorious […]

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 […]

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 my 3rd great-grandparents William Stoliday and Sarah Rose. He became an agricultural […]

Edward Stoliday (1849-1938) and Harriet Goulty (1848-1936)

Edward Stoliday (1849-1938) and Harriet Goulty (1848-1936). My 2nd great-grandparents. Edward Stoliday was baptised at All Saints’ Church in the Norfolk village of Salhouse on 12 August 1849. His parents were labourer William Stoliday and Sarah Rose. At the age of 13 he was already working as an agricultural labourer, according to the 1861 Census. But […]