Three, two, one . .

I've got four weddings today; three in 1822 and three in Landbeach, two on the same day in the same church and one in Suffolk.

In 1822 today, I have Elizabeth Flavel & Thomas Wolf, Edmund Freeman & Hannah Boggis and Thomas Webb & Sarah Wayman.

In Landbeach, there's Elizabeth & Thomas, Thomas & Sarah and James Webb & Anne Cowling.

And in Suffolk, there's Edmund & Hannah.

So, working backwards, we'll start with Edmund Freeman & Hannah Boggis, my 4xgreat-grandparents who were joined in holy matrimony today in Brandon.  They begat three children (a girl and two boys) and then moved to London, where they produced another daughter.  Last seen, as it were, in Westminster in 1861 at the age of 65, g-g-g-g-grandpa was listed as a corn and coal dealer.

The Landbeach crowd are all from the Webb branch and between them produced seventeen children and, at the last count, there were 31 grandchildren.  However, we're back at "head-count" again since William Webb, son of James & Anne (Cowling) married Mary Webb, daughter of Thomas & Sarah (Wayman) in 1843 and made the tree very complicated!

Hey ho!

More soon.

Keeping it in the Family

One ancient anniversary today, so let's go back to the reign of Charles the Second (or, to put it more in context - just eighteen years after the Great Fire of London).

On 26 May 1684 in St James's Church, Stretham Rebecka Langford, my second cousin nine times removed, married Thomas Wright.  I have very little information about these two, except that Rebecka was christened in 1666 and the pair of them produced twelve children.

I set the computer to work on their "dynasty" and it counted over two hundred descendants - which intrigued me somewhat because I couldn't remember putting that much effort into this branch.  

And then I looked at the report; their granddaughter Rebecca married "back" into the Langfords in 1760 and their great-granddaughter Ann Riddle followed in her footsteps in 1789.  Ann, in fact, married the brother of my great-great-great-grandfather Benjamin.

I was thinking of putting the Langfords up on my website alongside the Freemans and Culpins, but I'm beginning to wonder if the resulting descendant trees will be too confusing to follow.  Gives a whole new meaning to "head count"!

Happy birthday also to Ann.

More soon.

Culpin-day

Now then, today . . . less of a struggle than yesterday, and all birthdays.

First, meet the twins - Charles Henry & Thomas Sadler Molloy, the sons of Thomas and Sophia Kington (nee Culpin), were born today in 1858 in the village of Meopham in Kent, and christened two days later. Sadly, Thomas lived only until the first months of 1859 but his brother Charles plainly thrived. The family, by then augmented by a younger sister, had moved to the Isle of Wight where Thomas snr was a schoolmaster and Charles a twelve-year-old telegraph clerk. The 1881 census found Chas in Islington and in the Civil Service, shortly to marry Caroline Cobb (well, in the December quarter of that year).

With two young children, Chas and Caz reappear in Dovercourt, Essex, in 1891; by this time our birthday boy has become a Customs Official and so he remains until at least the 1901 census. And that's all I know, so far . . . .

The twins were my 1st cousins three times removed, and also the great-nephews of our birthday girl; my great-great-great-aunt Frances Culpin was born today in St Ives, the daughter of Charles and Catherine (nee Watts). After her christening on 20th June the same year, she next appears in the 1841 census as a 20 year-old bonnet maker . . . but then she breaks away and marries George Hardy in 1847 in Rotherham.

In 1851 she and George can be found in Kimberworth, both listed as British School teachers, and they have a guest in the house - one Sophia Kington Culpin (see above) who is described as a British School assistant but is also Frances' niece. Anyway, G&S then had two sons and moved back down south to London, settling for thirty-or-so years in Islington. George died in 1882 and Frances (and possibly her elder son) came back to her roots in St Ives where she stayed until her death in 1895.

And finally, one more birthday: Ethel May Culpin, born today in1899 in Peterborough, the daughter of George & Rhoda (nee Grammar). She was my sixth cousin twice removed and the only other thing I know about her is that she appeared in the 1901 census in Eastgate, Peterborough.

That's it for today - I feel the need to go and find out more about Ethel!

More soon.

Slow day in the diary

I have to admit that I'm struggling today.  Our birthday boy is William Langford, born to William & Rebecca (nee Wright) in Stretham in 1862.  However, he had the shortest of lives - christened today, buried on 22nd.  In common with a number of ancestors on that side of the family, he's related to me twice - as my 1st cousin five times removed and as my 5th cousin six times removed.  The latter does seem rather distant and, according to the database, it means that our common ancestor is Richard Langford and he was born in 1556!!

So, let's go back a day and 244 years.  Francis Langford and Elizabeth Jackson (nee Knight) were married on 19th May 1765 at St James Church in Stretham.  This pair became my great-great-great-great-grandparents and begat five children together (plus Elizabeth had already had two daughters with her first husband Thomas Jackson).  I don't know much about them after their marriage except that Francis is described as "a poor man" in the Bishop's Transcript of the christening of their eldest son Benjamin in 1766.  Francis died in 1785 and Elizabeth in 1809, still in the village.

Short and sweet.  

More soon.

One of each

So, let's start with a birthday boy:- John William Burrows (my 3rd cousin once removed) was born today in1885 in the Cambridgeshire village of Manea, the son of William & Jane (nee Crouch).  By 1901 he had become a signalman on the Great Eastern Railway (G.E.R.) - not very surprising given the proximity to the railway depot of March.  John was still in the village in 1911 and I think he married Nellie Amelia Topping in 1913.  And that's all I know about them.

So, let's move on to the marriage of Richard Culpin & Elizabeth Taylor in Woodnewton, Northants, in 1743.  Elizabeth was Richard's second wife and sadly died in September the following year, soon after giving birth to their son Charles.  Richard himself plainly married again as he leaves "All and singular the residue of my goods, Cattle and Chattel, I give and bequeath unto my said wife Rachel Culpin" in his Will.  I have Rachel Landen as her maiden name but I haven't been able to find the marriage yet . . . but give it time!

All for now, as I have a load of "treasure" (well, old photos and documents) to scan in and add to the archive.

More soon.

Time travel . . .

Please come with me into the time machine and we'll go back a few days . . . 

So, it's May 9th and Benjamin Ephraim Lamartin Culpin was born today in 1848 in Buntingford, the son of Millice & Sarah (nee Barrett).  He appeared, with the family, in Fore Street and then Railway Street (both in Stevenage) in the next two censuses and then married Eliza Matthews in the town in 1870.  

Although he didn't grow up to be a blacksmith, this particular apple didn't fall far from the tree - he became a boot & legging manufacturer and seems to have trained half his children to help him!

He & Eliza produced six or seven children (I'm not sure who Mildred Clara belonged to) over the next twelve years; Agnes, Herbert Miall, Wallace Goodwin, Ewart Gladstone, Charlotte Ellard & Ellen Matthews . . . plus or minus the aforementioned Mildred Clara.

Herbert appears to have joined the Admiralty as a clerk; he married Kate Norton and lived until 1954.  Wallace married Annie Coubrough in 1897 and died of meningitis in 1912.  Ewart Gladstone (cracking name) became quite well known within the London County Council but you'll have to wait until his birthday to hear more about him.

Charlotte married Frederick Longney and I last "saw" her coming back from Montreal in 1921 with her husband and one surviving son.  Ellen tied the knot with William Sharp in 1908 and . . . that's all I know about her.  Another one, methinks, for the long list of "when the 1911 census comes under my Findmypast subscription"!

I found Ben again in a trade directory in Ilford in 1914; he & Eliza ended up in Sussex, where both of them died in Battle - Ben in 1928 and Eliza in 1943.

Back to the present now . . . . 

More soon.

Rising Bollards

No significant anniversaries today so I'll just live up to the title of this blog.

One of the drawbacks of travelling by bus is that you end up waiting . . . and waiting . . . for buses to arrive. Therefore you need patience - and the curiosity to look around you to pass the time. Now this is fine for someone like me because I'm a card-carrying people watcher and you do, indeed, see all sorts.

Today, for example . . . in Cambridge we have a number of sets of "rising bollards" to stop joe public driving to places that the council don't want them to go. Only buses & taxis (and bikes, of course) have carte-blanche to pass through these bollards and hours of entertainment can be found if you just watch people ignoring the signs and driving up to them, wondering why they can't get through. They almost will the bollards down.

This doesn't happen and woe betide anyone who tries to tail-gate a bus or taxi and try to get through in their wake . . . it only ends in tears. And oil all over the road. And sometimes a car levitating on top of the bollard.

However, today was excellent. The long distance coaches also have to get through these bollards to get to and from the bus station and I watched as a Liverpool-bound National Express coach came along. It stopped about ten yards short and the "spare" driver, a man of considerable girth, got out. He then started to throw his arms around with gay abandon.

Closer inspection (squinting) showed that he had a transponder in his hand, with which he was trying to catch the attention of the magic eye which lowers the bollards. After a few seconds - success, and the coach was able to continue through to stop about thirty yards further on, the bus stop where I was waiting.

Then came the spare driver, who could see that I was grinning at the spectacle. He was also laughing (fortunately, eh) and called to me, in a broad scouse (liverpudlian) accent "there's a fat guy in here (pointing to himself) who really isn't built for jogging!"

Much amusement!

More soon.