Frolic!

Back in 1987 when I first walked into Weston Longville churchyard with my Dad and saw a row of gravestones carved with the name Bates - and one with Robert Bates etched into it - I had no idea what an influence that day, that place would have on my life.

Last weekend I organised the Annual Frolic for The Parson Woodforde Society, a jolly jaunt that including joining the congregation for a Harvest Thanksgiving service and lunch at the Weston pub that carries the Parson's name. 

Standing there in Weston churchyard, giving Society members a 'guided tour' of who was who in Woodforde's day was a rather surreal experience. Since 1987 I have come to be a bit of an expert on, er, those buried in the ground in Norfolk!

Slightly more cheery is another consequence of my passion for family tree: meeting long lost or rather never-known cousins.

I was delighted that my Dad attended the Frolic with me this year so that he could meet another new cousin - Midge - and once again catch up with Linda, whom we met in April. Dad and I went to see the lovely Derek and were joined by Midge and Linda - as well as Derek's two daughters, granddaughter and great grandson! 

I have no idea whether, given how distantly related we are, there is even any DNA that we share. What I do know is that these are wonderful people that I would never have met or known without Parson Woodforde and his Diary. And that is worth celebrating with a Frolic!

Stop press: another new cousin revealed - this one in France! 

Under the Parson's Nose...a Bates Family (Re)Union

One of the many joys of family history is connecting with like-minded people, drawing together strands of the family tree that have not been in contact for years, sometimes for generations. And meeting these people in real life.

Last weekend I brought together three branches of my Bates family tree in Weston Longville, the village in which we can all claim to have strong roots.

Sunday lunch in the Parson Woodforde pub - formerly the Five Ringers and the home in which my grandfather's aunt Emily lived as a young woman - was the perfect way for us all to get to know each other, share our own stories and look through old photographs.

Being Norfolk, there were - of course - many connections between us all, beyond our blood ties! It is, even in the 21st century, a small world.

Saluting the Parson, whose diaries were the catalyst for my genealogy hobby, I led the group across the lane to All Saints churchyard and gave a guided tour of the Bates, Gray and Dunnell gravestones to show how we were all related to each other.

We then headed to the site of Bates Farm - long since gone - and where a couple is building their dream home. As we stood at the gate taking photos, the couple approached and asked what we were doing: very swiftly we were all invited on to their property and given a guided tour. A real highlight for all of us.

Above: the Bates family - and supportive spouses - at All Saints, Weston Longville. The plaque on the church porch is Henry Duning, our ancestor. I wonder what he would of make of it all...

Always keep your eyes open!

I first visited Weston Longville in Norfolk in 1987. I was there again last weekend (for what must be 50th time!) to see the parish so familiar to generations of my ancestors - and enjoy a delicious Sunday lunch at the recently renovated Parson Woodforde pub.

Pootling about the churchyard in the late September sunshine, I spotted a grave bearing the name Mary Dunning (left). Yes, my great x 7 grandmother. She'd been there all the time, obviously, as she died in 1773 . . but despite countless hours looking at each stone over the years, I'd never managed to decipher the name.

She lies right opposite the porch door: her husband, Henry Duning, and son David (along with his young wife, Mary) all died in 1738 and are commemorated on a wall tablet right by the doorway of the porch (right) .The tablet says that Henry lies near that spot - perhaps in the same plot as Mary, his wife who outlived him by 35 years.

Moral of the story? Always keep your eyes open and don't be afraid to search, search and search again even when you think you'll found out everything there is to know!

Finally cracked it?

When I started looking into my family tree in 1986, I didn't even know where my grandfather Bates was born. Today I may have nailed it and found a link on my paternal side right back to the 1550s.

I've yet to check evidence such as Wills, Terriers etc but the Registers of Felthorpe, Swannington and Elsing in Norfolk (at FREEReg and FamilySearch websites) suggest that I can now trace my direct male line back to Thomas Betts and Katherine Candell who married in 1572 (at Elsing).

The line would be:
Thomas Betts & Katherine Candell; Thomas Betts & Cecilie; Thomas Betts & Ann; Joseph Bates & Mary Parker; Joseph Bates & Hannah Miller; John Bates & Mary Dunnell; Thomas Bates & Mary Buck; William Bates & Mary Gray; William Bates & Ann Sayer; John Bates & Mabel Hill - then my grandfather, father and me!

Time to visit Norfolk Records Office methinks!

My Aunt May - Lenin's neighbour?

Living in London, I don't know my neighbours' names. In fact, given that there are five sets of neighbours (not counting opposite and behind) I probably wouldn't even recognise most of them if I passed them on the way back from the Tube. However, I'd like to think that in days of yore even Londoners were a little more acquainted with those living nearest to them, hence the potential link between Aunt May and V I Lenin.


Aunt May was my great grandfather's sister. She was born Marion Eleanor Bates in 1870 in the Norfolk village of Felthorpe, and moved to London after marrying a man from Kent called Charles Holder. Their first son, Percy, was born in Norwich in 1899; second son Albert was born in London in 1902; and daughter Florrie arrived in 1905. A daughter Emily was born in 1894 but died aged 3 years.

In 1911 the family is listed as living at 20 Holford Square, London. Charles is described as a bill poster, a worker 'outside', while "Marion" is noted as 'House Wife'. The three children are all attending school. Two other families shared the address: Frank Webb, a shop assistant, and his wife and toddler; and Harriet Grieves, aged 54 and noted as 'At Home' with her son Harry, a bath attendant, and a 22-year female boarder [given these three shared just two rooms, it must have been cosy].

I recall my Great Aunt Freda saying that her Aunt May had lost her Norfolk accent and sounded like a Cockney. Apparently, she dressed in a very old fashioned way (old fashioned to a woman born in 1909!) and her voluminous skirts would rustle as she walked along. In 1931 Aunt May attended Freda's wedding in Spalding with son Percy and daughter Florrie. More recently I was in contact with a long lost cousin who was Marion's granddaughter who told me that during WW2 her grandparents' house was destroyed in an air raid.

So I set about trying to trace Holford Square via Google. Pretty swiftly it became apparent that the area around Holford Square - just to the south east of Kings Cross - had been very badly hit during WW2 bombing raids. Holford Square was almost completely flattened during a raid in May 1941 and my Aunt May made homeless aged 70. There is plenty of online documentation (thanks to a marvellous website called LocalLocalHistory.co.uk) that describes how the area was rebuilt after the War, including a War Damage Map that pinpoints exactly where 20 Holford Square once stood and that its state was described as in 'total destruction' after the raid.

So what about Lenin?

Well, isn't Google a marvellous thing? Type in Holford Square and it is revealed as the former home of one rather well known Russian called Vladimir Lenin and his wife between 1902-1903. Sources suggest that their behaviour raised a few eyebrows: according to Sarah Young, lecturer at UCL Mr and Mrs Lenin disturbed their landlady, a Mrs Yeo, by 'hanging curtains on a Sunday'. A small misdemeanour given the upsets to follow.

Lenin and his wife lived at 30 Holford Square, while Aunt May - the same age as the Russian revolutionary - lived at number 20. Whether Aunt May was at that address in 1902-1903 is yet to be confirmed (Albert Holder's birth certificate would prove it), but the Holder family lived in the square for several decades until it was bombed in 1941.

Aunt May died in 1966 over in Hounslow, west London. She would have known about the Lenin link as a memorial was unveiled to honour him in the bombed out Holford Square in 1942. Pathe News recorded the auspicious occasion - the severity of the bomb damage is very much visible - watch it here.

Maybe it always pays to know your neighbours!

*My thanks to those individuals and organisations whose material is referenced here.

Bates

Most people know at least one person with my surname - in my life, I've gone to school with, lived next door to and worked with people called Bates. Movie stars and authors boast the name. At least two of my close friends have Bates ancestors (I've done their trees). But none of us is related.

I know this because I have traced my Bates line back nine generations to Joseph Bates who lived in Great Witchingham, Norfolk. To find a possible link to any other living Bates* I have to go back five generations: my great x 3 grandfather William had two older brothers, and the male offspring of the elder brother were producing male Bateses into the 20th century.

Since I started researching my family history way back in 1987, it was clear that Joseph Bates was at the top of the tree - in 24 years I've not been able to establish where he came from. Until today! I need to check the registers as the information has been gleaned from Archdeacons Transcripts (ATs) available free online at FamilySearch.org but the information makes sense...

Tree-topping 'Joseph Beates' married Hannah Miller at a central Norwich church in 1736, both parties noted as 'of Great Witchingham', and their only child John Bates was baptised in Great Witchingham in 1738. Hannah died when her son was very small as Joseph took a second wife, Sarah Fuller, at Great Witchingham in 1739, going on to have eight children with her. Joseph died in 1766, Sarah in 1769.

It appears that the tree-topper was baptised at Felthorpe, Norfolk on 10 January 1707/08, the son of Joseph and Mary Bates. Felthorpe is close to Great Witchingham and the age would fit. Also, John (born 1738) is documented in various sources as owning property and land in Felthorpe, assets that he could have inherited (wills and court rolls need to be checked).

The ATs also reveal that Joseph's father was dead by the time he was born: Joseph Bates was buried on 28 August 1707 - four and a half months before his son's baptism.

Checking FreeREG, there is a possible marriage of Joseph's parents: Joseph Beates married Mary Parker of Swannington in 1705 at Wood Dalling. Both villages are neighbours of both Great Witchingham and Felthorpe. The Parkers of Swannington can be traced back to the 1640s.

So, I now have a different Joseph Bates atop my family tree!

*Strictly, there is one in addition to me and my dad: the unmarried granddaughter of my great grandfather's brother is called Bates and lives in Nova Scotia.

Birthday

Happy Birthday to me. And today I remember my great aunt Freda, my lovely Aunty Freda, who told me wonderful stories, was great company and provided a link to my ancestors.

When I held her hand I knew that hand had once ben held by people born in the 1820s. Amazing.

So here is Freda as a young woman (top) and on her 1930 wedding day with my grandparents and great grandparents (mad hat alert).

Wedding Wall

The whole country has gone mad for the latest Royal Wedding, between Prince William and Kate...sorry, Catherine Middleton (what would be wrong with Queen Kate? It's not exactly as if the previous Queen Catherines had a lot of fun!).


So here are some happy nuptials from my family tree, my own Wedding Wall.


First, the happy day in 1970 when my own wonderful parents tied the knot on a gusty August day in Blackburn. I have always marvelled that they married so young - my mother was 21.5 years old! Most of the people in the picture are now dead, the church is long gone and the town itself...well, if you've ever been to Blackburn no more needs to be said.

Back to Farnworth in 1920 and my great grandmother Bertha looks ever so slightly delirious with delight in her floppy hat and white dress. Great granddad Tommy Meehan had fought throughout WW1, ending up being rsponsible for the well-being of thousands of Chinese labourers brought over (enslaved) to dig trenches.


The others in the picture are two of his sisters, Polly Critchely and Rose Littler (left), and brother in law James Littler. Shortly after this, Rose emigrated to Canada while Tommy & Bertha named their first daughter (my grandma) after her.




Summer 1935 in Whaplode, Lincolnshire and the wedding day of my grandparents Geoff and Ruby. Gathered here we have a jolly little band of (left to right): Desmond, Tony & Richard Warner (my gran's half brothers); Denzyl Cartledge (my father's cousin) and Nancy Hewson (my gran's cousin).


The happy couple honeymooned in Wales and lived in Whaplode for a few years before moving to Spalding, where my dad came along. He stayed in contact with Nancy, and her daughter Diane can be seen on the church steps in the top photo.

Uncle Albert Edward Bates in India

A splendid and evocative photograph of my great x2 uncle Albert Edward Bates, taken in India in the early 20th century. Possibly the only Bates to wear a pith helmet! A well travelled man, he was born in Norfolk, served in India and The Cape, and then spent many years in Canada where he died.

Parson Woodforde Society Committee

I am delighted to be co-opted on to the Committee of The Parson Woodforde Society.

I joined the Society as a Life Member when I was 18, having already had one research feature published in the quarterly Journal, its members' newsletter. A second feature followed...and then I never got round to writing more. However, on my mind's 'to do' list are at least two features that now I am to take some responsibility within the Society, I really should commit to paper.

First, I'd like to write a follow up to the article I wrote about my own direct ancestors whom James Woodforde knew and wrote about in his diaries - John Bates the carpenter and Mary Dunnell and her sons Harry, Thomas and Barnard.

The aim would be to correct some mistakes from previous features and shed new light on some Woodfordean characters.

Then, I wish to turn my attention to the entwined relationsips of several Weston families, including Andrews and Engledow. I have yet to establish that I am directly descended from the Andrews family, but I've discovered that my great x6 grandmother - Woodforde's 'Mrs Dunnell' - was born Mary Engledow and that her sister Bridget was stepmother of Stephen Andrews 'the Elder', one of Woodforde's closest neighbours and a key diary figure.

So - time to get writing!

More map fun

Family historians are a funny lot. Who else would get excited by the arrival of a death certificate?

I ordered one last week from GRO for my great x 5 uncle (we weren't close, don't worry) John Bates who died in Hackney in 1838 ( I gleaned that from his will). I only discovered he existed beyond the baptismal register last year and was thrilled to find he moved south from Norfolk and made a life for himself as a cabinet maker in east London (quite rural Middlesex in those days).

So, John - born in 1768 in rural Norfolk and the second son of my great x6 grandparents (John Bates, shoemaker and his wife Mary Dunnell) ended his days at 2 Coleharbor Street, in the subdistrict of Hackney Road in Bethnal Green. Aged 70 years he had succumbed to 'decay of nature' (don't we all?) and died at the home of his only surviving daughter, Ann Pank.

Again using Greenwood's amazing map and A Topographical Dictionary of London and its Environs by James Elmes (handily readable due to the wotsit on Google) I can place the street in modern times as under a basketball court immediately south of Bethnal Green itself. It must have been a very different place 181 years ago.

I'm sure my lot would be classed as 'boring' by the Who Do You Think You Are gang (as were Michael Parkinson's) but I still get excited when I find out a bit more about one of them.