Staden to Culpin in one step

From George Staden back to the Culpins is very (almost relatively) simple and best described thus:- in 1881 my grandmother's father (George) lived a few doors down from my grandfather's mother (Blanche Culpin).

Yep, both families lived in The Quadrant in St Ives. George's father (also George) was a merchant's clerk and was presiding, in early April 1881, over a family group comprising his second wife Fanny (nee Carter - and therein lies another tale), his four children (Carter, John, Eleanor & young George) by his late wife Sarah, and one small daughter (Fanny) by his new wife.

And, living a few doors away, were Millice Culpin and his wife Naomi, together with the first eight of their eleven children. In chronological order, the children were Sophia, Millice Charles, James, Frances, Albert, Arthur, Blanche & Tom (not bad, I did that from memory) . . . . yet to make their appearance in the world were Henry (aka Bob, who's already had a mention in this blog), Margaret and May.

Millice was a blacksmith of some standing in the small market town of St Ives, following the family tradition - which was also to extend to his oldest two sons. He was born in Hemingford Abbots in 1841 and married Naomi (nee Fordham) in Hemingford Grey in 1864.