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.

Missing Thirtle

What is a Thirtle?

A Thirtle is one of, if not the most elusive of ancestors! Over two decades the Thirtle (first name Charlotte) has eluded me, foiling my quest to name all of my great grandmother Mabel's great grandparents' parents (I know, I should get out more).

So, Charlotte Thirtle (or Thurtle) - where are you? This is what I know about her.

Married on 17 October 1819 at Horsford in Norfolk to James Booty, Charlotte Thurtle was about twenty years old. A woman who would appear to be her sister, Susannah, witnessed the wedding along with the groom's brother, Thomas. Susannah had been baptised in Horsford in June 1798, as had her siblings William (bp1791), James (bp1794) and Elizabeth (bp1810) - children of James Thirtle and his wife Ann. No baptism for Charlotte, though.

Late 1821 brought Charlotte's first child, John Booty, and he was baptised privately* on Christmas Day. On 6 January 1823, Susannah Thirtle married Thomas Booty at Horsford - two sisters married to two brothers, all living in the same village. Cosy.

But then just weeks later tragedy struck the Booty family: James, aged just 24 years, died and was buried on 19 February 1823, leaving Charlotte a very young widow with a toddler. Charlotte carried on with life and on 2 August 1824 married her second husband, a man originally from outside the village called John Jarvis. He was from nearby Corpusty and was 21.

Their son, James William Jarvis, was baptised privately on 15 May 1825 - a cousin for Martha Booty (Susannah and Thomas's first daughter).

November 1826 was a momentus month. On 12 November, Susannah and Thomas had their second daughter Charlotte (after her aunt, I believe) privately baptised. The two sisters now had four children between them: Charlotte with two boys and Susannah with two girls. A week later at Horsford, on 19 November 1826, Susannah buried both her husband and her sister.

Thomas Booty had died in Horsford aged 31 years and his sister in law Charlotte Jarvis - who had moved to her husband's village of Corpusty - had died aged just 27 years. Poor Susannah must have been beside herself.

It appears that Charlotte's older son, John Booty, remained in Horsford and lived with his maternal grandparents James Thirtle (died 1832) and Ann (nee Woodcock, died 1843) - he was living with his widowed grandmother for the 1841 census. His half brother James William Jarvis was raised by his father John and stepmother: within three months of Charlotte's death John had foudn a new wife in Maria Wright alias Bird** whom he married at Corpusty on 4 February 1827. James William Jarvis grew up, married and had ten children; he died aged 87 years in March 1912. His father John and stepmother Maria died within days of each other in January 1863.

Widowed Susannah Booty remarried, on 28 December 1828, and by her second husband James Doughty had a son James (who died in infancy) and a daughter Elizabeth before she died, aged 34 years, in May 1833. James Doughty himself died aged 33 years in November 1834.

So the story of Charlotte Thirtle is one of tragically early demises. Having searched the registers of Horsford to no avail, I'll keep checking other parishes in the hope of finding her baptism and the proof that Charlotte was the sister of Susannah, and daughter of James and Ann.


*Private baptisms for the labouring classes occurred when the child was perhaps not expected to survive. The act was undertaken either at the child's home or that of the curate or Minister. The child had then to be received in church at some point - if it survived. If it didn't, it could be buried in consecrated ground.

** Maria Wright was the illegitimate daughter of Margaret Wright, baptised at Briston in 1805 (so aged 22 when she married Jarvis); Margaret married Thomas Bird in Corpusty in 1828 (register reference to 'Maria Wright alias Bird' predates Margaret's and Thomas's wedding).

The Hills are Alive! Well...

I made an old woman jump recently.

Picture the scene. An Archives search room, silent other than for the whirr of micro film readers and the occasional pencil sharpener.

Suddenly, the beardy and slightly youthful (compared to the other researchers, at least) amatuer family tree detective exclaims "YES!" followed by "Found you!". The little old lady fair jumped from her chair. Glares worthy of Paddington Bear over half moon specs ensued, although I'm sure I detected a knowing nod from one old chap who looked as if he was checking for his own baptism record from the mid-18th century.

Fellow geneal-addicts will recognise that this was a Eureka moment for me - I had found a long searched for lost ancestor. I found the lead in a Will and I wholeheartedly recommend researchers to check out Wills for information/confirmation of relationships and social status - even suggestions fo family feuds. Even if your own ancestors didn't write a Will (or have anything to leave!), do check out Wills from people in the same community as they may receive a legacy or be Executor/Executrix to an aunt - or a witness at the signing of a Will. Servants and friends are sometimes named.

Similarly, Terriers can provide great leads on where your ancestors' homes and lands were located.

My whoop of joy was caused by finding the Will of Francis Hill of Itteringham in Norfolk, dated 1689. He mentions his wife Barbary, five sons and several grandchildren. One of the grandsons is Henry Hill, who was at the very top of my family tree for over 20 years. So this single document has taken me back two generations (I think Francis Hill must have been born about 1620), provided a detailed overview of the wider family, where they lived and what they did - and also given me solid leads for tracing other Hill families in central Norfolk.

YES indeed!

Dead man walking?

My grandad Archie never spoke to me about his family. It was his death, only six months after that of one of my grandmothers, that first sparked my curiosity about where I came from. After all, his surname is my middle name.

Archie was born in 1920 in central Glasgow, in a tenement. Nearly 40 years later members of the extended family were still in the same tenement when my mother visited Scotland as a child.

Archie had an elder half brother, Robert, and two younger half brothers who had the same father, John and Joseph. Sadly, we don't know who Archie's father was.

Among his effects was a scrap of paper bearing the the address in Rutherglen of 'Mr and Mrs Miller'. Apparently, grandad had once told my grandma that this referred to his uncle. We knew absolutely nothing more.

Research I undertook several years ago revealed that Archie's mother, Jeanie, was herself illegitimate, born in 1895 to widow Helen Scossa (born Helen Miller). Helen died in 1939 and so my grandad Archie would have known and lived with her until he left Scotland to fight in WW2.

Scossa is a very unusual surname (certainly not Scottish!) and so it was straightforward to find Helen's wedding to Arnold Scossa on New Year's Eve 1884. The location - Plymouth - was somewhat of a surprise, given that Helen's family didn't seem to have ventured outside of the Glasgow area for decades! Arnold was a waiter and so perhaps Helen was also involved in hospitality.

Helen was six months pregnant and the child was born back in Scotland at the end of March 1885. His name was Archimede Scossa - who was known as Archie Miller (and after whom my grandad Archie was named), the 'Mr A Miller' on the paper among my grandad's belongings.

In April 1895 Helen had a daughter - my great grandmother, Jeanie - whose father was John McCaul. Jeanie's birth certificate records that her mother was the widow of Arnold Scossa who died in New South Wales in 1886.

I've just discovered that Arnold Scossa emigrated as an unassisted emigrant from Plymouth - describing himself as British and single - on 21 August 1885, arriving in Sydney on 5 October. And then an Arnold Scossa died in South Balmain district, New South Wales in 1905.

So, it seems that Helen was not widowed until 1905.

As with all genealogical answers, it throws up more questions! Why did Arnold leave England when his son was just 6 months old? Why did he describe himself as single? What sort of life did Arnold make for himself in Australia? And did my grandad's uncle know any of this - or did he believe that his father had died in 1886?

Jarvis reunion

On 15th August, over 100 people gathered in Corpusty, Norfolk at a family reunion of the Jarvis family. This year marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of James William Jarvis, who had ten children and was my great x 3 grandfather.

James died in 1912, and my grandfather's cousin Kath told me she remembered him. Not bad - a first hand memory of someone born in the reign on George IV.

I wasn't able to get to Norfolk for the Jarvis reunion, so I printed out a descendant family tree including all the people I have in my database who share James William as an ancestor. The tree covered 37 A3 sheets!

I hear that the reunion - or 'frolick' as such events are called in Norfolk - went very well and that several people brought photos and documents to share. I look forward to seeing those and adding more flesh to the bones of the Jarvis tree.

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!

Friends - and family?

Twice in the past month I have been chatting with long term friends and got onto the subject of family trees (I tend to wait for it to emerge in conversation organically rather than being all evangelical about it!).

On the first occasion I offered to show my friend Mrs J the online sources I use. One thing led to another and within 40 minutes she was hooked - and we were back to the 1851 census...and a BMD marriage reference including a Bates from Norfolk. There was a pregnant pause as we looked at the screen and considered the ramifications - could we be related?

A little extrea research showed that while my Bates family come from near Norwich (and were probably called Betts before the 1730s), Mrs J's Bates family were from far west Norfolk. So if there is a link, it is way, way back.

Then yesterday I had a vino catch up with Mrs L, a Scottish friend. Talking about her mother's upcoming 70th birthday party she went on to mention her Glasgow grandfather, Tom - Tom Daly.

"Er...any relation to Fred Daly?", I asked.

Fred was my grandad's stepfather, father of uncles Joe & John who both still live in sunny Scotland.

Daly is a relatively common Irish Catholic surname in Glasgow, linked with the shipyards. But could there be a link that makes us not just friends, but family?