#One this Day 15 September 1905

 

        My great grandmother was Ellen Eldridge and she died on this day in 1905.

        She was born on December 6, 1868, in the village of Bodiam, in Sussex, England. Her parents were William Eldridge and Caroline Poile. 

        Ellen was baptized in the local church and lived in the area whilst still a child. Life took a tough turn when her father passed away just a few years later. Despite this, Ellen’s mother, Caroline brought the children up and remarried a few years later.  By the age of 12, Ellen had taken on the role of a domestic servant in nearby Stonegate.  

        As she grew older, she met George William Clark, a postman from Hastings. They married on September 28, 1889 in Salehurst, Sussex.  They were both just 20 years old.  They settled in Hastings, where they built their family of five children: William, Rose, Thomas, George, and Bertram.

        Tragically, Ellen’s life was cut short when she passed away on 15 September in 1905 of diabetes. Her daughter Rose recounted how she had to look after the younger children until her father remarried Jessie Short in 1907. George continued his work as a postman and ensured their family remained together until they married and left home.  He passed away in 1935.

        An earlier blog post with a picture of George and Ellen can be found here

Who were her parents?

 SOPHIA RUMMERY was my 3x great grandmother.  But who were her parents, Joseph Rummery and Hannah Blackford or Richard Rummery and Elizabeth?

There is more than a little confusion as the dates and ages do not really add up between baptism, birth, census, death and burial, nor does the birth location tie up in both instances with the place of baptism!  A tangled web indeed and one to be solved before I can put Sophia's parents in my database.

Her daughter, Eliza Keeley, was my 2x great grandmother and my mother had a photo of her with her husband George Gadd and has recorded that detail on the back of the photo.  Eliza appears with mother Sophia on the 1841 census in Hurst Green, Sussex and it is marked as born in county.  Unfortunately Eliza was born before civil registration.  Later census records say Eliza was born in Hawkhurst.  She married George Gadd in 1857 and she was  24 on the certificate, so born about 1833. It says her father was George Keeley and the witnesses were John and Sarah Keeley which was also the names of two of her many siblings.  

Even though the name Keeley has been recorded as Caley, Kaley, Kealy and Keely on various documents I am happy that Eliza is indeed the daughter of George and Sophia (sometimes recorded as Sophy!!) and a baptism at the end of September in 1833 for Eliza Caley in Hawkhurst, with parents George and Sophy Caley is likely to be the right entry.

So back to Sophia ....Quite a lot of the children shown on the various censuses were born after 1837 and the entries on the GRO gives Sophia's surname as "Rummery" which leads us nicely back to which one!!!

Sophia died 30 June1892 in Burwash and the death certificate says she was 78.  The burial register also says she was 78.  This indicates she was born about 1814.

Her marriage was in 1831 and so before registration and the records do not give her an age or show the name of her father.  There is a Stephen Rummery - could this possibly be an uncle or a sibling?

All census records say she was born in Salehurst and gives her age as: 1891 - 79; 1881 - 66; 1871 - 57; 1861 - 47; 1851 - 38 and the 1841 records her age as 25 but of course that would be rounded to the nearest 5 years.  Did she really know her age when she was asked?

Searching the Salehurst baptism I found  Sophia baptised on 8 September 1816 at 5 weeks old, dau of Joseph and Hannah Rummery.  That doesn't really tie up at all datewise though.  Unfortunately at this time there was a Richard and Elizabeth Rummery (I think that is Elizabeth Hawkins/Hawkings) also having children baptised in Salehurst!!  There was even a baptism for a Sophia Rummery to Richard and Elizabeth in Hawkhurst in 1813.  Are these Richard and Elizabeth families the same ... did they move to Wigsell in the parish of Salehurst and thus Sophia thought she was born there?  This record ties up more datewise and she could well have been confused as to where she was born.

Pondering, pondering ......... and a few extra bits found since first posted this.

Searched for a Stephen Rummery (possible marriage witness) and found a baptism in 1810 in Salehurst, parents Richard and Elizabeth!!

Hawkhurst to Wigsell is only about 6 miles distance.

Joseph Rummery and Hannah Blackford married in 1806 in Salehurst and Richard Rummery and Elizabeth Hawkins married in 1802 in Salehurst.  Witnesses were the same at both weddings.

On the 1841 census there was a Henry Rummery aged 5 years younger than Sophia.  Obviously no relationships are given on this census.  A Henry Rummery was baptised in 1819, parents Richard and Elizabeth Rummery so could well have been a brother.

#On This Day 8 Mar 1840

 My 2x great uncle, Samuel Weston, was baptised in Etchingham Parish Church on 8 March 1840.  He was the eldest son of Samuel Weston and Sarah Newick.  He married Jane Pilbeam on Christmas Day 1863 and had 12 children.  They followed their sons who had emigrated to America and left Liverpool in 1893 , settling in Portsmouth, New Hamphire.  Samuel was a brewery labourer.  The brewery that he worked for was called Frank Jones & Eldridge Brewing Co. The brewery is no longer in business.  He worked in the Portsmouth Naval Dockyard during WW1.  He loved gardening until well into his 90s when failing eyesight caused him to give up.  He died in May 1939 and there were articles about in him local newspapers because of his age.

Samuel Weston and Jane Pilbeam

This photo shows him sitting down as he was rather short and Jane was tall!!

#On This Day 11 Jan 1765

My 4 times great grandmother, Mercy Hyland, was baptised on 11 Jan 1765 in Battle, Sussex.  She was the daughter of John and Mary Hyland (nee Forward).  She had a twin brother Henry.

She married George Kemp on 20 April 1786 in Mountfield, Sussex.  They had 4 girls and 4 boys:  Mary, Sarah, William, Richard, Hannah, George, Henry and Harriot.

In 1841 she is head of household at Beech Cottages, Sedlescombe, a widow, together with William nd Richard.

In 1851 she is living in Seddlescombe as head of house, age 84 and a pauper.  Living with her were her daughter Sarah, also a pauper, William an Ag Lab, Richard also an Ag Lab and a lodger.

She was buried, aged 92, on 8 Feb 1857 in Seddlescombe.  

Annie Elizabeth Gadd

 I thought I would test out how Bing AI would cope with generating a short biography about my great Grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Gadd.  I generated a fact report from my Family Historian software and gave Bing AI that to work on.  It needed a little bit of fine tuning but otherwise seemed to work quite well.

Annie Elizabeth Gadd was born on September 8, 1857, in Etchingham, Sussex, England, to George Gadd (1833-1909) and Eliza Keeley (c. 1834-1909)

She was baptized in Etchingham on November 7, 1857 and appeared in the census on April 7, 1861, in Etchingham, aged 3 and also in Etchingham in the census on April 2, 1871, aged 13 .

On December 8, 1877, she married Albert Weston in Etchingham when she was 20 years old and he was 23 years old . The marriage was witnessed by Philip Goodwin and Louisa Keely . They had seven children together: Albert, Henry, Grace, Frank, Minnie, Tilly, and Percy .

Annie appeared in the census on April 3, 1881, in Etchingham, aged 23 but by the time of the census on April 5, 1891, she was living in Salehurst, Sussex, England, aged 33 . She was still there in the census on March 31, 1901,  aged 43 but by the time of the census on April 2, 1911, she was living in Robertsbridge, Sussex, England, aged 54 . At the time of the last census available in public records, she was still in Robertsbridge, Sussex on June 19, 1921, aged 63 years and 9 months.

Annie died on September 3, 1932, in Robertsbridge, aged 74 and was buried on September 7, 1932, in Salehurst.

There has been previous posts about Annie here.

On This Day-7 November, 1857

Advent calendar day 8

Advent Calendar Day 25 Christmas song

 

I think this Advent Calendar should have been called Going Full Circle because there have been many instances that I have highlighted this in it.  

The first day of the calendar was a particular memory and poem about Advent Calendars of my childhood.  Here we are on the last day and this post is about the words to a song we have on a Hawaiian CD that our daughter in law, Kari, gave us in 2009.

When this pops up in my memories on Facebook we go running to find the CD to play it.  The Christmas period has then been really welcomed in.  Mele Kalikimaka reminds of us being in Hawaii and trying to pronounce some of the words like "Kamehameha".  Their traditional  "Twelve Days of Christmas" (Hawaiian style) because of the different words used eg "my Tutu gave to me" is nothing to do with ballet as a Tutu is a grandparent and they don't have a pear tree but a papaya tree nor a partridge but a Mynah bird!!

This is the song on that CD though, that really tells the true meaning of Christmas to me and always has.

What would Christmas Be?

What would Christmas be without a tree?

The little girl asked innocently

Presents tied in pretty bows, don’t forget the mistletoe

Mommy, tell me what would Christmas be?

What would Christmas be without the toys

sent by Santa for all us good little boys

We take a few weeks off from school,

that makes Christmas really cool

Mommy, tell me what would Christmas be?

His mother smiled and drew him near,

holding back a little tear

And chuckled at the words her son had said

Christmas is the time of year

we celebrate the yuletide cheer

But honey don't forget why we were here

Christmas is the day Christ was born

Sent to earth to rescue the forlorn

A precious gift from God above,

He promised His eternal love

And sent to us His one and only Son

Now little ones you know it's true

how tenderly I care for you

A parents' loves is more than words can say

To know that God so loved us so,

He sent his son to earth below

Without Him, tell me what would Christmas be?

Composed by Nakani Choy

Executive Producers: NLP Music, Inc

Record Label: OneHawaii Music, LLC

Na Leo