During 2005 I mainly concentrated on investigating some anomalies and problems in the Faithfull tree, particularly for the period around 1800-1845.
I extended my collection of computerised records by buying the Vital Records Index (VRI) set of CDs from LDS. These seem to be much more comprehensive than the IGI, but both VRI and IGI are compiled from transcriptions of parish registers.
I paid several visits to the PRO at Kew, mainly to view census records. The censuses from 1861 on are now computerised and may be searched and viewed on the machines provided at Kew, which is much faster and easier than the old microfilms. Although these computerised records may also be searched via the Internet, viewing a census page is free at Kew whereas it must be paid for online.
I also visited the Hampshire Records Office in Winchester, to view microfiches of Parish Registers. Although parish records have largely been transcribed into the IGI and VRI computerised indexes, viewing the actual handwritten entries revealed interesting transcription errors or ambiguities, which helped to explain some problems.
I continued to receive emails from new people who have found my web site, and also via the ‘Genes-Reunited’ web site www.genesreunited.co.uk. My paid-up full membership of GR has now lapsed, and I have decided not to renew it (at least for the time being) since most of the contacts were unrelated. However, my trees are still posted on GR, so I may continue to hear from people with common ancestors.
From my study of the IGI, VRI, and visits to Kew and Winchester record offices, I believe I now have a clearer understanding of the period around 1880-1845 involving my great-great-grandfather John Faithfull and his immediate ancestry. There are some problems with the relationships listed in ‘Tree W’.
I have written a new note ‘Tree W Corrections’ which describes these problems and presents the evidence and my conclusions.
This affects and hopefully solves two problems that I have previously described in notes:
An associated problem is that the last-mentioned John & Betty are listed in Tree W as the parents of my great-great-grandfather John, despite the 33-year gap between their marriage and his birth. I now believe they were actually his grandparents; his parents were a generation younger, and were a John Faithfull and Elizabeth Pratt.
I have updated the ‘Whole Tree’ hyperlinked document on the website to reflect these changes, but I have not attempted to amend the ‘Tree W’ document itself, which remains as a historical record or research at an earlier date, and remains valid and very useful for earlier generations or more distantly related persons.
Cathy Brown sent me some more old photographs, including Edward and Caroline Faithfull who were discussed in the ‘Edward Faithfull problem’ note. I have posted these photos on the website.
New contacts for Faithfull: Lesley McBain, Janet Greenwell
New contacts for Lutman: Geraldine Gray, Lynne Woodroffe, Tricia Barnett (concerning Joseph Bailey who married Harriet Alice Lutman the eldest daughter of Alfred Lutman & Elizabeth Randall), Faye (Crosbie) Orchards (ditto).
.New contact for Fowler: Kelley Videbeck
I had previously established that Ann Gray was a daughter of Mary Jane Pearce and Samuel Henry Gray. Mary Jane was my mother’s great aunt ‘Polly’, and her daughter Ann was known as ‘Aunt Blanch’. Also, Ann’s daughter Annie Blanch was a piano teacher who taught my mother’s cousin Margaret around 1930 in Portchester.
I have obtained the marriage certificate for Ann Gray and Andrew Edward Blanch in 1904 in Swanmore near Droxford. The witnesses were Charles Edward Money (presumably a relation of Ann’s through her grandmother Eliza Money) and Ann’s sister Sophia Gray. Andrew was a carpenter in Bognor, and his father’s name Joseph James Blanch (a builder) allowed me to find this Blanch family in the 1881 census living in Essex, and in 1891 census in Bognor Sussex..
I discovered that Andrew Blanch was killed in 1914 early in WW1, a serjeant (sic) in the Royal Engineers, recorded on the Ypres Menin Gate memorial. This explains why Ann was living with or near her mother when my mother and her cousin Dorry were children..
I believe that Ann and Andrew Blanch had only two children: Arthur Edward Blanch born 1907, who communicated with Ken Money; and Ann Elizabeth (Annie) Blanch born in 1909 in Christchurch who was a piano teacher. I have Arthur’s birth certificates: he was born in 1907 in Aldershot (his father was then a 2nd corporal in the RE). [Confusingly, another Arthur Edward Blanch was also born in 1907, in Hambledon, Surrey near Cranleigh, the son of William Blanch – I have his certificate too! This William might be Andrew’s older brother shown in the 1881 census.]
I also have Annie’s marriage certificate in Portsmouth in 1935 to Tom Webb, an Able Seaman. Her brother Arthur was a witness.
I recently took my
mother to Portchester to visit her cousin, and we were interested to see a book
of old Portchester photos she had, published in 2003. I noticed there were
several Durant family pictures, so you might be interested too if you don't
already know it. The book is "Images of England PORTCHESTER" compiled
by Derek Pearce, Brian Taylor and E. John Towse, published by Tempus Publishing
Ltd, ISBN 0 7524 2845 4. I have bought a copy for myself online from Amazon
for about £10.
New contact for Houghton: Linda Lambkin