This year I have done very little original research. However I have been sent emails by several new distant relations, as well as receiving updates from previous contacts, and I have used their information to amend my records and web site.
In May, John Dabson contacted me again. As well as Faithfull ancestors, his great-great-grandmother Eliza Bone is the sister of Mary Ann and Jemima Bone, who both married Lutmans. He gave me a full list of their siblings and parents.
In May, Judy Joynson also emailed me with info about Lydia Lutman, a daughter of John Lutman & Mary Ann Bone, and Lydia’s husband and sons.
In October, Glen Ford emailed me. He is a grandson of Rosina Alice Lutman, a daughter of James Richard Lutman (a market gardener) amd Mary Ann Maslen. James Richard Lutman was a brother of my great-grandfather Alfred Lutman. Glen sent me some photos which I have added to my website. They include James Richard, Rosina, and her brother Albert. Glen also sent me some interesting letters written home by James Richard’s oldest son James Thomas Lutman when he was serving in the army in India during the 1890’s. He is the grandfather of Sue Haynes and Graeme Lutman who contacted me last year.
My cousin Frank Pearson told me some years ago that he was once stopped by a lady who said she was a Faithfull relative. She gave her name as Ada May Houghton, and also named some siblings. I have finally been able to identify her as the daughter of John Faithfull, the brother of my great-grandfather George.
In May, Cathy Brown emailed me. She is the great-granddaughter of Gertrude Faithfull, a daughter of Edward Faithfull & Caroline Harris (See my item “The Edward Faithfull problem”). More recently, Cathy has sent me some birth and death certificates and 1901 census pages, and some old photos which I have put on my website. These include Gertrude and her sisters Ada and Ethel May, who married her cousin Gilbert Faithfull. Ethel and Gilbert’s grandson Nigel and his wife Lorraine were the source for most of ‘Tree W’.
In May, I also noticed an old Rootsweb posting by Jon Baker about Thomas Faithfull (my mother’s uncle), and I contacted Jon. His real interest was in Thomas’s wife Kate, whom he named as Kate Ryall of I.O.W.
I wrote a short article, based on my item “Who was Tommy Randall?”, which was published in the May 2003 edition of The Hampshire Family Historian. This article included the 1906 photo of my grandparents’ wedding (Annie Faithfull & Emmanuel Lutman), in which Tommy Randall appears.
Although I had a few responses, unfortunately none of these added any further to my knowledge about Tommy (or other) Randalls.
Noel Staley in Australia contacted me in December. He is a descendant of Ruth Houghton who came to Victoria Australia in 1854. Ruth was a daughter of Uriah and Sarah Houghton, and a sister of Samuel Houghton who married Louisa Lutman and emigtated to Canada. Noel has sent me a GEDCOM file which I have added to my website.
Cam Longhurst also sent me his new email and website addresses, and I have updated the URLs for links to these on my website.
In July I heard from Allan Stubbington in Australia. He is a grandson of William, the eldest son of my granny’s sister Ellen (Nelly) Faithfull and Harry Stubbington. He later sent me some photos and a newspaper cutting relating to the 1960 fire which destroyed Ellen & Harry’s cottage in Southwick.
In April, Ken Money emailed me with information on the Money family. He had previously been in contact with an elderly man named Arthur Blanch, who said his mother was Mary Jane Pearce, the daughter of Eliza Pearce. This is interesting, because it ties in with Dorothea Pearce’s mention of an ‘Aunt Blanch’; I had previously taken this to be the forename Blanche, but it now seems likely that it was the surname Blanch. Probably she was not strictly an aunt, but an adult cousin.
Mary Jane Pearce must have been a sister of my great-grandmother Harriet, although she is not listed as such in the list I received from Sheila Smith. Searches indicate that Mary Jane married Henry Grey in 1872, and their children includeHelen, Ann, Sophia, and Florry. One of these must be ‘Aunt Blanch’ and the mother of Arthur. Arthur also mentioned an Uncle Jack who had a pub in Reading.
Conrad Roberts contacted me in September with some info about Rosina Goldring who married George Ware. These are listed in my files, but there is some uncertainty about the relationship; this needs some more work.
Deryn Hutchins contacted me in December. He is a descendant of Anna Durant, a daughter of David Durant the poacher and his wife Sarah Money. Deryn also has a copy of the book about David Durant’s poaching exploits. I also heard from Deryn’s brother-in-law Brian Foulger. Anna Durant first married a William Kill, and secondly married a William Maynard. It is just possible that there is a relationship to Harriet Mainer (which may be a corruption of Maynard), the wife of my great-great-grandfather James Lutman, but this needs more work