Family History Writing Challenge 2013 - Day 1

Regular readers of this blog will have seen me make a reference to the family of John King and Mary Budd from Puttenham. John and Mary married on 4 August 1767 at Puttenham, a rural village in Surrey some four miles from my home town of Guildford.

It is this family that always makes me think of Mrs Bennett in Pride and Prejudice and her desire for her daughters to marry well. Mary and John had 10 children, one son and 9 daughters, so I am sure this caused some concern.

Early research revealed the second eldest daughter was called Esther who married George Bridges Bellasis and spent much of her life in India and a few years in Australia because George was sentenced to 14 years at Botany Bay. You can read the details in an early post HERE. I had always thought that perhaps this held some appeal to appear in a book and then added the idea to a job for the future on the back that there might not be sufficient information to warrant such a publication.

Then a few weeks ago, I looked again at the list of Esther’s siblings. I already had the briefest of details of spouses and dates gleaned from either journals or diaries written by family members at the time and earlier research. But what other data and research could I unravel?

I was delighted to spot something that I had been unaware of. I have therefore spent the last 4 weeks further exploring this and once again my initial thought has entered my mind, over many, many waking hours. To quote my husband, “oh Esther again” I am sure his eyebrows rose ever so slightly, but I could not be sure.

For some strange reason I have grown rather attached to a lady born 199 years before I was. She has a remarkable story, as does her siblings and I think it deserves to be told.