I have done very little work on family history during 2006, as I have been occupied by other interests. Mostly, what I have done was stimulated by receiving emails from other researchers, with comments on my website or additional information.
I have made a technical change to the website, to hide email addresses. They are now generated dynamically only when you move the mouse cursor over a link on the web page. This hides them from programs which search the internet automatically gathering email addresses, which are then used to send spam emails. So you can still be contacted by genuine researchers into your family tree, but you are safe from spam (from this source, at least!). For the technically minded, I did this by javascript programming, so the email links won’t work now if you have javascript (scripting) disabled in your web browser – but it’s usually enabled by default.
I have placed a link on my website to a short memoir written by my mother a few years ago at the age of 93 (she is now 96). This describes her life as a child growing up in Hampshire villages, as well as later episodes up to and including WWII. I have received several emails from people who found this book interesting.
During 2005 I had investigated some anomalies and problems in the Faithfull tree for the period around 1800-1845, in particular concerning John Faithfull b 1774 and his wife ‘Betty’ (actually, Elizabeth Pollen and not Betty Beon), their son John b 1807, and Edward Faithfull b 1812. When I published my “Summary of Research during 2005” (in February 2006), I was still under the impression that Edward was a nephew of John & Betty. However, this stimulated messages from Bev deLure and Brian Faithfull which changed my mind, and I am now convinced that Edward b 1812 was also a son of John & Betty, and a brother of John b. 1807 and James b 1823.
In all the evidence I have seen
from censuses, parish registers, etc. I can see absolutely no reason to think
that Edward b 1812 was not the son of John & Elizabeth Pollen. It makes
sense, too, that only this couple moved with their family from Froxfield to
Southwick, where they are all listed in the 1841 census (except John b 1807 who
had already died). John b 1773 and Edward b 1777 were brothers, sons of
Edward 1751-1840 & Susannah Small, but Edward stayed living in Froxfield
near Petersfield, which is where his descendants would have lived. His brother
John's descendants lived (initially) in Southwick.
So Cathy Brown and Janet Greenwell are my 5th cousins, our common ancestors being John Faithfull b 1774 & Elizabeth Pollen. They are descendants of Edward b 1812 whereas I am descended from John b 1807. Bev deLure is a 4th cousin once removed, since although she is descended from James b 1823, the brother of John and Edward, there are fewer generations descent. She is also a 4th cousin through descent from James Lutman & Harriet Mainer (actually, probably Maynard).
The original confusion arose from understandable errors in the original Tree W document, dating from before 2000, partly due to an incorrect Parish Register entry! My computer database had become quite messy with various alternatives because of these mistakes, so I decided to simplifiy it by removing all the links which I was now certain were wrong. The ‘Whole Tree’ document and Gedcom files on my website are generated from this database, so I also updated the website again in March 2006 to reflect these corrections.
Furthermore, Brian Faithfull has decided to update and re-issue Tree W incorporating the corrections and other data received from me and other researchers since 2000. At the current time (February 2007) he has not completed this work, but despite his busy schedule and bee-keeping activities, he intends to publish this shortly, and I will then include the update on my website.
In March, Janet Greenwell sent me some photos of family names and dates inscribed in Bibles belonging to her ancestors Edward Faithfull b 1843 and his wife Caroline Harris. The pair of Bibles were possibly engagement presents. I have posted these photos with transcriptions on the website, and updated the database. This reveals some interesting 1st or 2nd marriages which I did not previously know: Ethel May Faithfull was a widow when she married her cousin Gilbert Faithfull; and after Edward Wilson Faithfull’s wife Laura Cornish died, her married his wife’s niece Annie Cornish.
In May, Tracey Smith contacted me. She is a descendant of Emily Bow nee Faithfull, my Granny’s elder sister, and provided some more information about the Bow family.
In September, Alison Owen contacted me. She has done a lot of research on the Faithfull family.
New contacts for Faithfull: Allan Moore, Maureen Atkins, Tracey Smith, Alison Owen.
New contacts for Lutman: Lionel Smith, Mary Kilpatrick.
New contact for Fowler: Philip Avery.
In November, Vanessa Nicholson contacted me. She is a descendant of William Ware Pearce, and has her own family history website; I have added a link to it from my website We speculated about the probable Ware father of William W Pearce; this was almost certainly one of the sons of George Ware, who lived next door to William’s mother Harriet Pearce.
In November, I had further correspondence (after several years gap) with Conrad Roberts, about the connection between the Goldring, Ware, and Webb families living on Hayling Island and in Portsea. This clarified some relationships which I have updated in my database.
New contacts for Ware: Elizabeth Doe, Joan Phillips.
I received an enquiry about David Durant’s book about his life as a poacher, and subsequently Brian Foulger (who had a copy passed on by his sister-in-law Deryn Hutchins) agreed to convert it to computer files. I have posted this digitised book on my website.
New contacts for Durant: Helen Talbot, Alan Knocker.
New contacts for Houghton: Catherine Farmer, Matt Janes.