18 January 2010

One and a bit

I had two people lined up today but, as I just checked to see if I could update either of them, I found some contradictory info about one of them.

So, let's start instead with Ellen Lowton who was another one to be related to me twice; as my great-great-grandmother's daughter by her first husband (not my gt-gt-grandfather), she is my gt-gt-aunt. But, as I've probably said before, gt-gt-grandma married her first cousin (once removed) so Ellen is also my second cousin four times removed. Easy, innit!

Anyway, today we mark Ellen's christening at the church of St Mary & St Benedict in Huntingdon. She was the daughter of Ellen Layton (gt-gt-grandma) and Thomas Lowton and when her father died (in 1860) Ellen & her younger brother Henry moved to their mother's home town of Cambridge. In 1861 they were staying with their aunt Sarah Layton who was a shopkeeper in Bradmore Street - now right on the edge of Anglia Ruskin University's Cambridge campus.

Ten years later, Ellen was in service - a kitchen maid in St Paul's Terrace, still in Cambridge - and by 1881 she was a servant in the household of W Eaden Lilley. Now there's a name guaranteed to warm the hearts of anyone who used to shop in Cambridge - used to be a family-owned department store, which left Cambridge about ten years ago and only recently closed down its shops in St Ives & Saffron Walden.

But I digress, again, when I should be talking about Ellen . . . . but that's where her story seems to stop for the moment. It's not for want of trying, dear reader, but I simply cannot find her after 1881. I've tried Lowton, Lowson & Loughton; I've even searched for Ellen, born in Huntingdon in 1856. So, any lateral thinking ideas gratefully received!

Moving on . . . . . to the "bit" of the title. I started this evening believing that another member of that side of the family, with a similar dual-relationship to me, was born today in 1895. But then I discovered that Florence Mary Morris Webb might equally be Florence May M Webb; I have her death in 1937 but it's occurred to me before that this didn't really tie in with my uncle's memories of meeting her fairly regularly - he wasn't born until 1930 - so maybe she was the Florence May M Webb who died in 1983.

But, if t'was her, then she was born on 18 July 1895, not January. Then again, where did I get Florence Mary Morris from? I've got a christening date for her, so maybe that's it? I'll have to go back to the Records Office and look it up again - it's going to nag at me.

Hey ho. Think I'll go and have a coffee instead . . . .

More soon.

No comments: