A Major Breakthrough!

I posted the information I have about George GREENHAM and his family on the ENG-SOMERSET mailing list. I had a lot of helpful replies, including one from Jan Walker who I had previously corresponded with about GOSLINGS in Gloucester, on my maternal side.

The real breakthrough though came from Don Groves who sent me a Genealogy report on the descendents of William GRINNAM, born in Norton Sub-Hamdon abt 1470, which he had received from "Dalesman". This gives approximately 18 generations worth of GREENHAMs from the 1500s to the present day, and includes George's family in the 11th Generation - so in one bound I'm back ten generations and 300 years!

Obviously I need to confirm as much of this document as possible but it is a flying start to this phase of my research. I will update my website with the information once I've finished typing all the information into Family Treemaker.

Norton Sub Hamdon Parish Records

Now that I'm approaching the end of my quest to identify all of my 4x Great grandparents I'm starting the second phase of my research which is to trace back the GREENHAM line as far as possible.

I bought a microfiche reader on eBay and ordered the Norton Sub Hamdon parish records from the Somerset archive. I've spent the last few evenings going cross-eyed trying to transcribe all the GREENHAM baptism, marriage and burial records and reconcile them with the names in the 1841 and 1851 censuses. This has given me a load of GREENHAM families living in Norton S-H but not much proof that I'm related to any of them. My lot could just as easily be in Ilchester, Merriott or one of the other surrounding villages.

Still, I figure the transcriptions will be useful to someone and once I have completed the transcription I will put it on my web site. If nothing else it should help me contact other Greenham researchers.

Judge Jeffries hanged my 9xGreatGrandfather

I've been following up a few leads on Genes Reunited this evening and found a common link with Michael Blackmore, who has been following the Blackmore line. Our common link was John Blackmore b. 27/9/1715 who married Hannah Blanchflower b. 1719 on 26/2/1743/44 in Bromton Ralph Parish Church, Somerset.

I had got the link back to John and Hannah from Chris Ralph's research on the Yandells in Westbury On Trym, who married into the Richards family, who in turn married into the Salters.
Anyway, working back from John and Hannah we have

John Blackmore m. Hannah Blanchflower (1743/44)
Parents: John Feathelstone m. Frances Midlam (29/7/1698)
Grandparents: Thomas Blackmore m. Anne Thorne
GreatGrandparents: Thomas Blackmore (b. 1625, d. 1685) m. Joan Shute

It is this Thomas Blackmore who it appears "was Hanged by the neck from the gate house at Cothelstone Manor By Kirke's Lambs on the orders of Judge Jeffries In 1685 after the Monmouth Rebellion was put down" he was one of the victims of the Bloody Assizes.

GOSLING Census Entries

This evening I've been tracing the census entries for John and Elizabeth GOSLING and Frederick John and Mary Ann GOSLING.

There's not a lot to report really; John and Elizabeth lived in Gloucester, while Frederick and Mary started in Gloucester and moved to Bristol. In the 1851 census John and Elizabeth have Solomon INNIS staying with them, who is Elizabeth's father in law. He is listed as being from Burford in Oxfordshire so this is a jumping off point if trying to trace that family line back any further.

The only other observation is that there were six or seven John Goslings spread around the country but they mostly seemed to originate in Kempsford, Glos.

Annie WATSON

I've been trying to trace the early life of Annie WATSON, who married William Henry MATTHEWS in Clifton Register Office on 21st January 1872.

In the 1881 census Annie MATTHEWS is age 30 and born in Corsham, Wiltshire. That would put her date of birth around 1850-1851 so I can try searching for Ann or Annies in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 censuses.

According to her marriage certificate, her father was George WATSON who was a general labourer and deceased. So the problem is we can't reliably search the census records for George as we don't know when he died. As we don't know her mother's name we can't search for her either.

Working backwards; in the 1871 census there is an Annie WATSON, age 21, born Corsham, Wilts lodging in Bedminster, Somerset who is a machinist.

In the 1861 census there is an Anne WATSON, age 11, born Corsham, Wilts who is a domestic servant in Chippenham, Wilts. There is also a Mary WATSON, age 33, who is head of a household in Corsham with children Jane (age 9, born Melksham, Wilts), George (age 7, born Corsham), Elizabeth (age 4, born Corsham) and Ellen (age 1, born Corsham). It's hard to read her condition but it may be a W (for widow).

So looking for Mary WATSON in the 1851 census, we find one (age 19, born Corsham) married to George WATSON (age 22, born Melksham), with one daughter, Elizabeth age 1. These don't really match up - there is no mention of Annie and a discrepancy between Mary's age in the two censuses. On the other hand there is a Melksham link.

So a working hypothesis is that George WATSON married Mary ?? around 1849. They lived either in Melksham or Corsham (possibly with his parents?) having children Elizabeth, Annie, Jane, George, another Elizabeth and Ellen. George died shortly after Ellen was born Abt 1870, leaving Mary a widow in the 1861 census. This could explain why Annie was living away from home, her mother may have put her into service.

If this is the case it should be possible to find George and Mary's marriage certificate and any of the children's birth certificates would identify the father. There should also be a death certificate for George.

Birth Certificates
Dec 1849 Elizabeth Watson Bath 11, 32
Mar 1851 Ann Watson Chippenham VIII, 335

Marriage Certificates
Sep 1849 George Watson Chippenham VIII, 491

Six generations of MATTHEWS

I've been looking at my MATTHEWS family line over the last couple of days, really filling in families from the census details. I've also been able to use someone else's research to go back as far as 1725.

Henry MATTHEWS b1725 m. Mary BREWER and they had a son, Edward.

Edward MATTHEWS b1758 in Stoke Gabriel, Devon. Edward married Ann SANRAY b. 1775. Edward died 12 Oct 1815 in Churston Ferrers, Devon. Edward and Ann had a son John.

John MATTHEWS b 3 Mar 1795 in Churston Ferrers, Devon married Mary BENNETS, who was also born in Churston Ferrers in 1790. John died in either 1853 or 1855 and Mary in 1857. They had 8 children, the oldest of which was also called John. John was an agricultural labourer on Churston Farms.

John MATTHEWS b 1821 in Churston Ferrers, Devon married Rosetta Churchward MARTIN who was born in Stoke Gabriel, Devon on 24 Sep 1821. They were married in Churston Ferrers Parish Church on 9 Apr 1844. John was a gardener and they moved to Tormoham, near Torquay - presumably because that's where the houses that could afford gardeners were. John and Rosetta had 9 children including William Henry.

William Henry MATTHEWS b 24 Mar 1849 in Torquay, Devon was a carpenter. He moved to Bristol, where he was living in the 1871 census. He married Annie WATSON b 1852 on 21 Jan 1872 in Clifton Register Office. They had 12 children over a 20 year period. The youngest was Robert.

Robert MATTHEWS was born in Mina Road, Bristol in 1890 and was a carpenter like his father. He married Lillian Stella LISTER b. 6 Aug 1897 at Bristol Register Office on 25 Nov 1916. Robert and Lillian had six children over a 22 year period, the eldest of which was my Nan, Olive. Nan told me that her family were from the Mina Road area of Bristol.