Family History Writing Challenge - Day 20

I was able to work forward on the Butcher family with relative ease. I still did not know the surname of his wife, a fact which frustrated me no end. I knew an approximate year, based upon the birth of their first son Charles in 1823. I descend from Charles. I searched every parish in Surrey for the marriage of John Butcher to a Mary born circa 1799. I had started with Guildford because on the 1851 census Mary had said she had been born in Artington Guildford. I could not find a marriage in Guildford, or Godalming the two main parishes either side of Artington, then I went into rural Surrey. Nothing. I searched for a marriage of a John Woolgar to a Mary for the same period. There was one, in Hascombe, Could this be it, given that just a generation or two before John there was links to Hascombe? No, The John and Mary in Hascombe were having their family in Hascombe while my John and Mary was having theirs in Wonersh. I double checked and crossed checked in case the children were baptised in both parishes, but no. They were two separate families. I wasn't even contemplating at this point if the two John's were connected. Frustration was an understatement. In disgust, I focused on their children.

Charles was the eldest of 9 children, born between 1823 and 1844, all but the last child born in Wonersh.

• Charles born 1823 *
• William born 1826 *
• Mary Anne born 1828
• Thomas born 1830
• Alfred born 1832
• James born 1835 *
• Henry born 1837
• Ellen Jane born 1841 died 1844
• John born 1844 died 1855 born in Shalford

Using the marriage sources I traced all the children. In keeping with the family tradition and the complications with marrying cousins and spouses with the same surnames Thomas married a Sarah Woolgar in 1861, and James married a Denyer in 1868.

Over the course of the last 24 years I have met just two other people who descend from the children of John and Mary, which I do find interesting. The line of Alfred moved to London, as does a later part of the family descended from William.

* What I find particularly fascinating is that I descend from Charles, I have met a contact whose wife descends from James and a contact whose line descends from William. A member of each of those lines of descent has a Thyroid condition which I find interesting.

As far as I know no one else in my family has this condition so is this coincidence, or is this something that is in the genetics?

Word count 445

Family History Writing Challenge - Day 10

Having established that my Great Great Grandparents James Elstone and his wife Mary nee Denyer moved their family of 9 children from Bramshott to Merrow, Guildford I wondered why? According to the 1881 Census for Merrow James Denyer was a labourer, and I wonder if he worked for a farmer who held land in both Bramshott and Merrow? or was it simply that he was paid more in Merrow?

Mary Denyer having married James Elstone in 1857 had their first child, James in the same year and then almost systematically had the remainder of the children every two to three years for the next 23 years, the last child being my Great Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Elstone born in 1880, when Mary was 42 years old.

The line up, all born in Bramshott Hampshire, looked like this:

James born 1857

Ann born 1859

Eliza born 1862

Alice born 1864

Henry born 1867

William born 1872

Alfred born 1875

Frederick born 1877

Mary Elizabeth born 1880

My Grandmother often spoke of several of her mother's siblings Ann, Eliza and Alfred, who my Grandmother always refers to as Uncle Alf. The remainder my Grandmother never spoke of and until I researched the family I didn't know of their existence.

I knew from my Grandmother that one of her mother's cousins lived in Merrow and he was apparently the school's inspector for Guildford,who would visit my Great Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth in Guildford asking why my Grandmother's brothers had not been to school. Mary Elizabeth would always be furious and always smack the boys for playing truant, and when I asked for the name of the inspector it was not known. Research has not provided those details, and I can imagine that my Great Grandmother was a stickler, and according to my Grandmother she indeed was!

The photograph here is of my Great Grandmother Mary Elizabeth when she was approximately 18 years of age. It is such a sad photo and at some point before I inherited it, it had been torn and fixed together with tape.

Word count 343

Family History Writing Challenge - Day 9

I am very proud of my heritage, from the Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex borders. I have no idea why, but when we travel back to my old stomping ground from Devon I always feel that I am home. Over the years I have met lots of people who have migrated to the South West, tempted by better climate and cheaper house prices and they have always vowed that would never go back. I always amaze them when I say I would!

Having established the link between my Grandparents, apart from their marriage I was keen to establish the details of my Great Great Grandmother. Born Mary Denyer circa 1838. I say Circa because on every census the year of birth varies as does her place of birth. Incredibly frustrating!

Remembering my earlier comments about the border of the Counties Surrey,Sussex and Hampshire being within a mile or so, I contemplated if Mary had in fact been born in Sussex. I simply hoped that her birth had occurred after the start of Civil Registration, which happened in 1837 and I hoped that given it was still a fairly new system at the point of Mary's birth that she had been recorded.

Her death, recorded as Mary Elstone was found in Merrow Guildford in 1913 aged 74. I knew from her marriage to James Elstone in 1857 that she was the daughter of Edward Denyer. I was therefore delighted to find the birth of a Mary Denyer daughter of Edward and Emeline Denyer in 1838 in Lurgershall Sussex, the last of 10 children.

At this point, more than 20 years after I started researching, the lineage of my Great Great Grandmother is nothing more than the dates of her birth, marriage and death along with the details of her children. Much more research needs to be done to turn these basic, but important facts into the life that she would have lead, and to get to know her through whatever documentary evidence I can find.

Denyer is a common name in this part of the world. In much of my ancestry I have family names that appear twice, and in some cases there is no obvious connection between the two lines of research. Is this simply because the families didn't really move outside of the confines of these three Counties or is there more to it than that?

The name of Elstone is not particularly common in those same three Counties. There are family connections to paper mills in Sussex and Hampshire and a lineage back to the surname of Pim (Pym, Pymm & Pimm). A few years ago we were away for a few days heading to North Devon when we drove through a small hamlet called Elstone, set on the banks of the River Exe where there was a paper mill. There are also connections to the surname of Pim in the County of Devon who were involved in paper making. Is there a connection or is it simply coincidence? I guess we shall have to wait and see!

Word count 508