A follow up . . .

So, for once I thought I would follow up on what I said I'd do and I spent the last few days following the family of John Sutton who got a mention in the last entry.

We left him, as it were, at the 1871 census and now I can expand: not much on John who remained in Sawtry as a vet until his death in 1884. His nine children between them produced 31 children, and they produced a further 33 children . . . .and all before 1901!

The majority of them stayed in Sawtry; Frances (1826-1911) married William Branson and lived in Sawtry with their 13 children; their daughter Florence married William Sansom and disappeared up north to Wakefield, Cassandra married William Salter (that's a lot of Williams in one family) and went the other way down to Hemel Hempstead; but two people stand out in Frances's family - daughter Kate married John Slater in 1877 and, a first for this blog, he is listed in the 1881 census as a Gold Miner! I didn't know there were any goldmines near Sawtry - maybe I need to look at the geography more carefully!

The second "stand-out" in this branch is the wonderfully named Alvaro Bianchi Branson. I have no idea who his parents are but he appears to live with his grandmother Frances for at least 20 years; I must assume that he was born out of wedlock but how to work out who his mother is? I wonder if his father was Italian? I can certainly trace the young Alvaro until his marriage in 1914 to Edith Clayson that have gone no further at present.

It's just occurred to me that Slater is an anagram of Salter - maybe that was the alternative if you couldn't marry a William!

One more from this branch is Millicent who married yet another William; together they produced four children with some excellent names:-there's Vanda born 1890, William Leon born 1893, Kama Millicent born 1894 and Olga Titiana born 1897. It's a bit early for the Russian Revolution but I do wonder where they got these names from!

Moving on, John's daughter Catherine (presumably named for his mother, my 4xgreat-grandmother) married Thomas Bowland in 1851 and together they went down to the great metropolis ending up in Lambeth where they produced six children. This family still doesn't appeared after the 1871 census in my records . . .but give it time.

Adding to the southward migration was Catherine's brother John who got as far as Hemel Hempstead and then Amersham with his wife and four children. Alas, for the moment, they also fall victim to the "no further than 1871" disease!

Going north again and William Sutton, having married in Uxbridge, gave in to the call of Yorkshire and his brood of nine children up to the Leeds area so far, I have at least tracked this family as far as the 1901 census!

There are a couple of children I still need to follow; Eliza, for example, who was born in 1846 in Sawtry and who I last saw in 1861 as a straw bonnet maker. Where did she go? Her brother Charles, born in 1840, doesn't even get past the 1851 census - you'd be amazed how common the surname Sutton is!

Anyway, time for some research . . . .

More soon.