Today's birthday girl had a brief mention in this blog back in February, so let me re-introduce Rebecca Bullard, my great-great-great-aunt. Born today in Earith (Hunts) in 1823, she was the daughter of James and Sarah (nee Silk); she married Ephraim Thoday in 1847 in nearby Willingham and lived in the village until her death in 1864. Having produced one son in 1845, she went on to have a further three children with Ephraim but sadly did not live to see them produce her thirteen grandchildren.
Marriage of the day is that of Rhoda Langford and Edward Bultitaft in 1824 at St James, Stretham. Rhoda is another one of my ancestors who is related to me twice; in this case, she's my first cousin four times removed AND my sixth cousin five times removed. Bit of inter-marrying there, methinks. They went on to produce three children, of whom only the youngest, named after his father, survived to adulthood.
Anyway, she and Edward weren't together terribly long as, according to the Parish Register, Edward was "accidentally killed" in November 1828. I wonder if there was an inquest? Must look in the papers.
Rhoda, though, wasn't deterred from keeping that awesome surname - I mean, how many Bultitafts do you know? So, she married Henry at St Martin's Ludgate in 1835. And, in a bit of symmetry, they too had a son who they named after his father.
Rhoda lived in Stretham, with her various Bultitafts, until 1871 when I found her, as a 71 years old widow, living at Bedwell Hey Farm, near Ely, with her youngest son Henry. She died in Stretham in 1876.
It's a cracking surname, though; I've found no indication of where her husband Edward was born but records suggest that Henry senior came from Stow Bardolph in Norfolk. That said, there was quite a colony of Bulititafts in Stretham so maybe it's an East Anglian name. Maybe I'll do some research into it.
More soon.
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