Today we celebrate Freeman Andrew, my second cousin three times removed, on the 174th anniversary of his christening in Benwick, Cambs. He was the oldest of the three children of William & Jane, and spent his formative years in the village of his birth. But then he disappears for 30 years.
On his re-appearance, he turns up in Whittlesey, living with his sister & her husband; then he marries Alice Ransome in 1883. Together, in 1891, Freeman and Alice seem to be running The Wheatsheaf PH in Doddington with Freeman doing a bit of farm labouring on the side. This seems to have been a pattern with the publicans in my family - presumably the wife ran the Inn during the day whilst the old man was out in the fields . . . . . ?? Anyway, Freeman died the following year (1892).
But I'm puzzled by his disappearance from the record-keepers. Two possibilities, I suppose - he was either in the Army or toiling for Her Majesty in an entirely different capacity.
So, while I'm thinking about that and googling any thoughts that come to me, let me point you at a website about the village of Benwick, for a little light reading . . . . .
More soon.
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