From Queensland to Fenstanton

In my last entry, I briefly mentioned Rose Culpin, daughter of Millice & Hannah, and it's her I'm going back to. She married John Howard Simmonds, a stonemason, yesterday in 1900 in her father's house in Queensland and they had went on to have two children. I also know that she was a well-known photographer and that she died in July 1960.

I was able to find this out thanks to yet another magnificent Australian online resource - the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and her entry can be found here. There is also a photograph of her in the Picture Australia collection and, although it says it's free of copyright, I think I'll play safe and refer you to the picture here, rather than reproduce it myself (until I've read the small print).

Looking back at that final sentence, it sounds a bit big-headed - I mean, how likely is it that someone will read my blog and immediately make the connection to the actual photo? Best not to take the risk, methinks!

Back to Blighty now and meet Emily Armes, my great-great-aunt (or, wife of her great-granduncle, as my genealogy program puts it), who was born today in Fenstanton in 1874, the daughter of James and Elizabeth. She married (Millice) Charles Culpin in Hemingford Grey in 1894 and they started their married life in Conington, Huntingdonshire. After a few years they made their home in Swavesey, Cambs, and begat ten children in all. I know very little about her life in the village other than that she died in 1949. I think I need to look in the local papers at the time to see if there was a funeral report.

However, that will have to wait until the Central Library returns to its home in Cambridge and, as it's already running pretty late, I'm not holding my breath for their proposed re-opening at the end of May this year. Watch this space . . . . .

More soon.

Culpins down under

Today I want to introduce Millice Culpin & Hannah Munsey, who married on 26th March 1869 at the Congregational Church in Ware, Herts. Millice, one of quite a few with that name, was born in 1846 in Buntingford, the oldest of twelve children of Millice & Sarah (nee Barratt) and was a working currier by the age of 14, when the family were living in Railway Street, Stevenage.

In 1877 he changed careers completely, qualifying as a Doctor and was practicing in Stoke Newington according to the 1881 census. However, in another complete change, he then decided to take the family (Hannah & six children) to Australia, sailing on the New Zealand ship Ruapehu in 1891 to Melbourne. The southern part of the continent plainly wasn’t hot enough so they settled in Queensland, where Millice set up practice in Magull Road, Taringa (according to the Brisbane Courier of 16th June that year). Interestingly another entry in the Brisbane Courier tells us that he wasn’t registered as a Medical Practitioner with the Queensland Medical Board until early August 1891!

At some point I know that Millice became an MP for Brisbane and he & Hannah remained in Taringa. Hannah died in 1934 and Millice in 1941. They are both buried in the Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane.

Of their six children the one I feel I “know” the best is Millais Culpin, about whom the book “Letters from Laura” was written by his daughter. He too became a doctor (as did his younger brother Ernest) but his life deserves its own entry in this blog, not just a footnote to his father’s.

Rose Culpin, Millais’s sister, married John Howard Simmonds and became a well-known photographer; their brother Clarence, like his brothers, joined up to fight in the Great War and was sadly killed on the Somme in 1918. Daisy, the youngest of the family, became a headmistress in Brisbane.

Photographs of all of them can be found at the magnificent "Picture Australia", part of the National Library of Australia: http://www.pictureaustralia.org/index.html . Simply type “Culpin” into the search box and then sit back and watch the pictures come up.

More another time.

Fen children . . .

Richard Wright was born today in 1702 in Stretham, son of Thomas and Rebecka (nee Langford) . . . and that's all I know about him.

Moving on to tomorrow, to make room for a few marriages, I should like to introduce Jane Bigley, who was born in 1814 in Chatteris, daughter of John and Mary (nee Smith). She married David Young on 29 July 1833 in Chatteris and stayed in the small market town for the rest of her life. The family was in Slade Lode in 1841 and then in Hive Lane ten years later. By 1861 they were back in Slade End where she stayed until her death in 1874. She was buried at St Peter's church.

Staying in the area, meet Arthur Burrows Warboys who was born in 1862 in Manea, son of Ellis and Betsy (nee Burrows). He grew up to be a blacksmith and stayed in the village until at least 1891. He married Elizabeth Powell in 1888 and in 1901 he turns up in Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, as a potato merchant.

And finally for today, come back with me to Stretham: Nathaniel Wright, brother of Richard, was born in 1690 in Stretham. He married Anne Jermyn on 12 November 1734 in St James church, and sadly, died only five years later.

Now I've got to go and sort myself out for tomorrow - the gas man is coming to call (shades of Flanders and Swann, although it's not Monday).

More soon.

Yesterday . .

I meant to do this last night, but I got sidetracked by the Incoming Passenger Lists on Ancestry. So, pretend you've borrowed HG Wells' Time Machine and you've gone back about twelve hours . . .

Samuel Wright, born today in 1733, was my 4th cousin 7 times removed so he's quite a distant relative! The son of Samuel and Margery (nee Granger), he lived his short life (he died at 11 months) in Stretham.

Slightly closer, in two senses, was Ethel Culpin (1st cousin twice removed) who was born in 1904 to Millice Charles & Emily (nee Armes). The family lived in Swavesey at the time, and I think she married Alex Stephens in the 1920s.

And then there's the marriage of Susanna Fordham and James Mehew (Mayhew/Mahew). She was my great-great-great-great-great-aunt, born in Hemingford Grey and married there in 1799. I haven't found any offspring of this union and she died in 1806. Interestingly her gravestone has the inscription: "In memory of Susan, the wife of James Mahew and daughter of William and Susan Fordham of this parish . . ." Maybe her ma & pa paid for the stone because I've never seen one worded like that before.

Right, time to get back into the Time Machine and zoom forward to Wednesday!

More soon.

Quiet time

So, here we are again and, this time, we're in the middle of four whole days without a single ancestor birthday! And only one wedding . . .

Rose Ann Bigley, the daughter of Charlotte Bigley and an unknown father (well, unknown to us, I like to think that Charlotte knew who it was), married yesterday in 1881 to James Vaughan. The wedding took place at Holy Trinity, Ely (the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral) and two weeks later she and her new husband (did I mention that James was her third?) were to be found in the census at Common Muckhill in Ely. What an address!

Fortunately they were soon to move to Nutholt Lane in Ely, an altogether nicer address, and they begat Abraham. They also had Rose's son Charles from her marriage to Frederick Constable and they took in the three youngest of her brother Isaac's children when their mother died. Must have been quite crowded.

That's all for now. More soon.

PM Discoveries

Today I'm nearly back to normal and I can present three birthdays, in order of closeness:-

Firstly, my great-great-aunt Eleanor Staden, born today in 1872 in St Ives, daughter of George and Sarah (nee Carter). She remained in the town, as far as I am aware, until her early death, at the age of 45, in 1918. She's one of a number of ancestors who grace the precincts of Broadleas Cemetery in St Ives.

And then there's Alfred Wade (1st cousin, 3 times removed), born in 1857 in Chatteris, son of Edward and Phebe (nee Bigley). Until about four hours ago, my last sighting of him was in the 1871 census but I have since found him two wives (not at the same time, honest), three children of his own and three step-children. All this and he found time to transmogrify into a market gardener by 1901.

Finally, meet James Fordham, my 1st cousin, 4 times removed. He was born in 1868 in Hemingford Grey, the son of John and Mary Ann and, like Mr Wade above, I had very little about him until this afternoon. Until, that is, I logged on and his Army Pension Records positively threw themselves at me. A farrier when he signed up at the age of 18 years 9 months, he joined the Hussars in January 1887 and stayed with them for the next 20 years, including service in South Africa during the Boer War. He was discharged in Aldwych in 1907, by which time he had also found time to marry Katherine (Christmas Eve 1894 in Ireland) and to begat six children. I must try to find them in 1911.

All in all, a good afternoon's discovering!

More soon.

Two birthday boys . . .

I'm a bit behind after time out on another project so I'll pick out just two anniversaries from the gap.

Firstly the birthday of my great-great-grandfather James Edmund Freeman who's already had a couple of mentions in this 'ere blog. He was born at 12 Johnson Street, Westminster, on 15th March 1853, the son of James & Eliza (nee Humphrey) who had, incidentally, married only eight days previously (bet the vicar was nervous!). By the age of 18 he is listed as a saleman in the 1871 census yet, when he married Mary Ann (Polly) Brown in 1875, he appears to be a ships' steward. After a further incarnation as a boot salesman, he moves with his wife and son to Hemingford Grey and turns into a farmer with a number of farms in the area. An eminent member of the local society, he became the chairman of the parish council by 1896 and, politically, an ardent Liberal. Once he gave up farming he spent more time at the firm he built up in the Borough and Stratford markets in London. According to the extensive reporting of his death, he started at the firm as a porter but hauled himself up by the proverbial bootlaces and was able to buy the company when the owner died.

There was some fantastic descriptive stuff on his funeral . . . "the floral tributes were of exquisite beauty . . " and "Certainly a more lovely collection of flowers has never before been witnessed in the little cemetery [Hemingford Grey]". Best of all, though, was the line from the Cambridge Daily News report on 9th September 1910: "On the coffin were placed four large white roses from the garden at Fulbourn, "From Mr Punch", Mr Freeman's favourite dog."

The second anniversary I picked out was the birth of John Langford, my grandmother's brother. He was born on 17th March 1876 in the village of Calver, on the Chatsworth estate in Derbyshire. Quite what his parents, Isaac & Emma (nee Quince) were doing up there, so far from Stretham, is completely beyond me but I have John's birth certificate so it must be true! By 1881 the family were back in Stretham where John married Harriet Sindall in 1903. They begat six children between 1904 and 1918 but both of them died relatively young; Harriet in 1918 at just 41 and John in 1920 aged 44. This meant that the younger children were scattered around the country, with Violet & Nellie going to Uncle Freeman in the Manchester area and Kate to Aunt Kate in Biggleswade. However, to this day, I still don't know who looked after the youngest daughter Rosie. I guess that, as she died in 1998, it's a bit too late to find out now. Shame.

Anyway, back to normal soon . . . I hope!