Instant Cousins : archiving my ancestry
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Welcome, James
After 44 years the Scott family had left number 7, Earlspark Avenue. Agnes,senior, died there; Agnes junior, died there, and George retired and left there for the Isle of Bute. The Scott family laid the foundations for the bulk of the legal documents that became the cornerstone of proof of ownership of the property. This…
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Widow of John McKie
This weeks post is the outline of an article that I have prepared for the Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society Newsletter this Autumn. The DGFHS is an organisation that has its own premises in the town of Dumfries. It was established in 1987 and is dedicated to supporting members with their family history research.…
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The Furnells of Kentish Town
This is a poor copy of a portrait of my great grandparents, Cornelius and Susan Walker. A scan of a photocopy of a photo. The photocopy was made by my late sister, Janet Walsham, and I don’t know where the original photo is or who is looking after it. They spent their married life in…
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No Carver without a Spillett
My title relates to the topic this week. Without the Spillett family there would have been no branch of the Carver family that I belong to. The union of these two families created a considerable dynasty of the Oxted Carver’s that stretches through five generations from my parent’s branch across the past 100 years. When…
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West Norwood Field Trip
On Monday this week we went on a field trip to West Norwood in search of my Great Great Grandfather, Samuel Walker who died in 1888. I have only the research and records of my ancestor’s life, there are no images of him or his wife Emma, that I have yet to find. In previous…
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George takes over
The amount of legal paperwork and activity that George Scott had to be involved in seems extraordinary by today’s standards. This paperwork also had to be preserved in the archives of law offices both at the solicitor’s office and in Edinburgh legal offices. One document transferred No 7 from George Anderson, the builder, to Agnes…
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A Victory Line-up
These four men fought or served during the First World War. They served in Biggin Hill, the North Sea, India and France. They all survived the War, which, given the outbreak of the so-called Spanish Flu that ended the lives of as many men and women as the War, was a miracle. They all lived…
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George and Doris
George was the first born of my Great Grandfather Henry Spilletts second wife, Sarah Emily Lynn. He was the younger half-brother to Henry Spillett, my Great Uncle who ran the bike shop in Oxted in the first half of the 20th Century. Before long, the Spilletts had moved from Bognor in Sussex to settle in…
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A Will and a Codicil
This week’s post is based on one piece of research that I am using that triangulates other stories from the National Archives. When my cousin Elsa died at the beginning of the Covid lockdowns, a funeral that I would not have missed under other circumstances, she also left some papers and photos that her brother…
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Nye Bevan knew my Uncles
This week my post is about an intriguing historical photograph of a group of men taken in or around 1922. They are formally dressed in suits, some in dinner suits. Seated and standing for a photographer to record them. They look serious, thoughtful and with meaningful intent. The Query Club, Tredegar, about 1922. Nye Bevan…