Thinking Outside the Genealogy Box

 

When my ancestor John Suckling of Pluckley Kent England died in 1644, accounts from other villagers for their assistance were submitted to the Parish Church for payment.

Starting in April 1643 the Church provided support for the Suckling family for 13 months, with candles and money.

We can also see from the account listings that one of their children had died in this time period.

Finding this wonderful bit of detail about John and his last days came about because I found an obscure Thesis from 1987 called “ Custom and Conflict in a Wealden Village; Pluckley 1550-1700” a 1987 thesis by Neil Davie,

Reading through the 400 plus pages I found it full of names and tiny facts about the villagers. I’m still gleaning information about several of my Pluckley ancestors and about the village in general.

Thinking outside the box and looking for alternate obscure records can provide many happy findings. So don’t  overlook the less obvious sources  of information as you go about your genealogy journey.

Ancestor Most Wanted Charles Fuller

1841 Census Lenham

Here is my Number 1 of 10 Genealogy Mysteries: My great-great grandfather Charles Fuller. When and where he was born is anyone's guess. Here is what the U.K. census takers recorded during his lifetime spent in Lenham Kent England:

1841 census Lenham - Charles age 14 (b. 1825) - no birth location given in 1841 but I believe this is my ancestor
1851 census Lenham - Charles age 23/25 b Faversham (b 1826)
1861 census Lenham - Charles age 32 b. Milton (b 1829)
1871 census Lenham -  Charles age 44 b Faversham (b 1827)
1881 census Lenham -  Charles age 52 b. Lenham (b1829)
1891 census Lenham-  Charles age 60 b Frinsted (b 1831)  

THE KNOWN  Here is what I know about Charles: Marriage of Baptisms in St. Mary's Parish Church, Lenham. Entry #221:

Oct 17, 1858: Charles Fuller, of age, bachelor, labourer in Lenham. Father: John Fuller, labourer. Charles married Georgiana Golding, minor, spinster in Lenham.  Father of Georgiana given as George Norris, labourer. Married in the Parish church after banns. Witnesses: George & Sarah Earl. Neither groom, bride nor witnesses were literate, all signing with their marks.Marriage Cert. Parish of Lenham, Hollingbourne District, Kent.

1861-1891 census is definitely my ancestor.
1851 is almost certainly him as he is living quite near Georgiana Golding who later became his wife

I believe Charles died in the last quarter of 1892. His age was given as 68 giving him a year of birth of 1824.   

MY THEORY

1826 Baptism of Charles Fuller

I suggest my ancestor is the  Charles FULLER, baptised 31 Oct 1826, Faversham, Kent to John & Winifred FULLER  In 1830 Winnifred died. In 1839 John Fuller remarried to Sophia. In the 1841 census where I found the boy I believe is my Charles, he is living with a "mother" Sophia and a younger sister Harriet.

One of the clues that led me to formulating the theory that my Charles was the Charles baptised to John and Winnifred is the name "Mene" and others which repeat in the generations. John and Winnifred named their children

• Mene 
• Mary Ann 
• Sarah 
• Joseph 
• John
• Philadelphia
• Henry
• Edward
• Harriet
• James
• Frederick
• Charles

My ancestor Charles and his wife Georgiana named their children

• Frederick
• Elizabeth
• Harriet
• Martha Ann
• Charles *my ancestor - see photo below
  
• Alfred
• Mene
• Edward John 
• Walter
• Albert Henry 

For some of the children I do not have middle names but I have highlighted the names that repeat in Charles' children.

Charles Fuller son of Charles & Georgiana with wife Mary Ann Norman Caspall

MY GOAL
What I am hoping to find is proof that the Charles baptised in 1826 to John and Winnifred is my ancestor.

Do my readers have suggestions, ideas or thoughts? 

Losing 8 Generations of Ancestors

I just lost 8 (EIGHT) generations from our family tree......

Extracts of church records I found many dozens of years ago for a marriage in 1785 in England did not give all the data! I had previously found that my 5th great-grandfather Philip Hubbard married in St. Lawrence, Thanet, Kent England on 17 October 1787 to Elizabeth Moses. At least that is what the transcribed records listed. No image was available to compare at that time.

Then I found a scan of the original church register which showed his wife to be Elizabeth Moses Burbank, widow. Since I was curious about this first husband, I did more research and found that on 03 June 1785 Elizabeth Moses Hinds, spinster married Richard Burbank, a widower.

Thus it turned out that my 5th great grandmother was not Elizabeth Moses but Elizabeth Moses Hinds. Hinds was her maiden name, not a previous married name, and Moses was her middle name.

So my 8 generations of research going back for the lineage of Elizabeth Moses was wrong. Ouch. And yet...  I can have the fun of searching a new set of ancestors

In fact I have now found the baptism record of Elizabeth Moses Hinds in February 1764 to parents John and Mildred.

 

It pays to review old research!!! It also pays to be cautious accepting a transcript or extract without viewing the original.

Snce discovering the new surname, I researched the line back several generations in England, and wrote a small (28 page) book about the family. I originally wrote this book to share with my adult children but ended up also putting it on Amazon for sale.


The Hinds Family of Kent England

List Price: $6.99
8.5" x 11" (21.59 x 27.94 cm)
28 pages

The Hinds families were in Ramsgate Kent England for many generations. This book follows the descendants of Thomas Hinds and his wife Sarah Ammis who married in 1693 in Canterbury.

Don't Overlook Tokens if Your Ancestor was a Storekeeper

Henry Noldred Token 1650s

Last summer I found out that my 9th great-grandfather Henry Noldred of Ramsgate Kent England, was a grocer who had his own tokens created to spend in his store in place of official money.

Apparently that was often done in the 17th century when storekeepers would make their own money substitute.

I was so intrigued by this new-found information that I started researching to see if I could find any of his tokens and I found that one of his existed created circa 1650!. I also learned that Ramsgate was spelled Romansgate back then.

Once I found that one of Henry's tokens had been sold on an auction site a few months before, I became determined to find another and purchase it. I'm excited to say I succeeded! A rare coin and token dealer  in England found two for me, and I bought them both. The one is in the image above and the second one I bought is below. I plan on having a small plaque made with Henry's birth, death and location. Then I'll have the tokens and the plaque framed and it will have a place of honour on my wall.

This is the description of the tokens: (rosette)HEN.NOLDRED.IN.ROMANS , around beaded inner circle, three tobacco rolls / logs of wood.
Rev: (rosette)GET.IN.YE.ISLE.OF.TENNET , around beaded inner circle, HIS HALF PENY in three lines. M. Dickinson 454. Neither obverse or reverse dies represented in Norweb.

You never know what you might find on an ancestor if you look in unusual places! The Rare Coins and Tokens site I used has a very nice search engine if you want to start your own hunt for ancestor tokens.

New Book: The Hubbard Family of Kent England

The Hubbard Family of Kent England by Lorine McGinnis Schulze available now on Amazon.
26 pages. 8.5x11" $6.99

The Hubbard family has been found in Dover, Kent England back to Isaac Hubbard who married the widow Mary Ducy in St. James in 1698.

This book follows Isaac and Mary's descendants down four generations through their son Isaac, their grandson Philip, their great-grandson Philip and their great-great-granddaughter Milly Elizabeth who married John Caspall.

Full details plus images of all genealogy documents for the individuals named above are provided.  Basic information on all siblings is also included.