Genealogy Chat

i was looking in Hamshire records office for my Faichen rellies (4x grandfather) on the 1851 census for Southampton. An hour or so before I had been looking for the birth of another rellie called George Stillwell( again a 4x Grandfather) in Andover 1804 - When my grandfather and Grandmother married in 1925 in London, these two families were joined. SEE BELOW

Imagine my surprise then, when I found my Faichens and, immediately underneath a Henry stillwell - I thought 'I wonder if he was born in Andover?' and he was - in 1802! I went back to the parish records and discovered that he and George were brothers! So did these families know each other all those generations ago - or was this co-incidence? I don't know - but it only cost me 50p for the record instead of £1 for two so I'm well pleased in more ways than one! Alice

Alice, I have found a similar situation. I have a letter to my gran in 1920, from her cousin in Woodbridge, Suffolk called Lucy Marjoram. 3 years ago, I went to Suffolk and bought a book called 'The History of Middleton Moor', where my Baggott relatives (gran's mum was a Baggott) came from. In 1840, there are also Marjoram's living on the moor. In 1870, a Marjoram is a witness on a Baggott marriage, in Sweffling. In 1896 a Baggott and a Marjoram are witnesses to a Cattermole/Baggott marriage (g gran's mum was a Cattermole) in Aldeburgh. These two witnessess then go on to marry. Seems like the Baggotts and Marjorams go back a long way in Suffolk, almost following each other around!!! maggie

I am going to look more closely at the addresses on the census records - perhaps the families were close through the generations and it was not an accident that they lived so close to one another just before they were married. alice

I think this does happen Alice. People tended not to move around so freely and certainly not over distances in every day life, so there would be a tendency to often marry into neighbours families. I was amazed when looking at the watermens apprenticeships how often the same names would come up over and over again, obviously all intermarrying.

Networks of family, friends, neighbours and workmates have always been important. I have found second and third cousins in close contact with each other, or whole communities moving in search of work and forming small ghettos. As a young man, my father lodged in London with his father's cousin's sister-in-law, Kitty Brown. My mother went on a visit to her aunt Kitty, and her fate was sealed! But isn't it nice when you have one of those serendipity moments? Especially since you realised its significance when you had the opportunity to check it out.

Yes it was lovely when I found a 2nd cousin on here. My aunt (80) had been told by her aunt!! that '2 of our cousins went to Canada' Now my GGFx3 had gone to London in 1835 and lived with his cousin from Norfolk and married a local girl in Stepney. When I found said 2nd (?) cousin on here, HE had been told his great grandad had gone to Canada with his bro. That would have been the turn of last century. So, those families who moved from Norfolk in the mid 1830's were still in close contact 70 years later. Amazing, isnt it.

I had a strange coincidence I was tracing my father's side of the family and found him living in a street in Poplar, East London then later tracing my mother's side of the family and found her gt.grandfather living next door to my father's gt.gdf. I often wondered if they were friends because of course there was no family connection. Small world they both had almost the same address on their death certificates. Irene

Thank you for your replies - seems they could have known each other - it will give ma something to do while I am waiting for a brick wall to crumble. Alice

Alice I had a similar moment when I found in looking through the electoral rolls that my great-grandfather John lived nextdoor to a man with a wife & 3 children - a bit later on the wife had died and the man - John william Evans, married my gtgrandpa John's sister Emily. I knew that she had married an Evans, but then I started wondering, as John and Emily had a niece by another sister Lou who married an Evans. Sure enough, she married John Evans' son Frank by his first wife!!!! Just goes to show that one marriage leads to another... In villages in particular I think there must have been a lot of intermarriage - a lot of parish registers have only a handful of surnames in them. If you look on Genuki it sometimes gives the population of a village and some of my relatives lived in places with less than 300 people in them. Later on, the railway and industrialisation meant that people moved further away from their homes and met others who had moved a long way away. nell