Family History Writing Challenge – Day 13

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Julie Goucher

I have in my study a set of notebooks, they are not anything special to look at, simply notebooks for jotting down the incidentals of life. To me these note books hold the key to my ancestry because they are the original notebooks that I used to gather information from my relatives. I am posting this particular post today, because today would have been my late Aunt’s 96th birthday and there are pages of notes, snippets of information that she passed to me that I wrote down. At the time some of those bits of information didn’t make sense and it was only through research that the information all nicely slotted into place.

As a child I would routinely visit the sisters of my Grandfather. They would chat with my Grandparents and I would presumably sit and play. I don’t actually recall what I did. I simply recall being transported back 70 years or so into the world they inhabited as children. As I got older I would ask questions, who were they?, where did they live?, and rather than be frustrated by constant questions, they loved it, and I loved them for sharing those snippets with me. Those visits as a child were from talking to my cousins unusual. Even the grandchildren of one of my Aunts doesn’t recall his Grandmother telling him or his brothers the details she shared with me. For that I am very lucky and I treasure those memories.
Those note books don’t just house the information from my Grandfather’s sisters. There are also snippets from my Grandmother, my Cousins who were the children of my Grandmother’s sister Elsie and from the first cousin of my Grandfather, and any other family member who happened to mention something that would lead me onto the path of discovery.
My Great Aunt Rose shared so much with me. She was very elderly, and had always been very active, gradually her body gave up and she spent time in a wheelchair. Her sight failed, but with the support of her family she remained in her own home up until a few years before she died aged 94. I would still visit her, and open the front door and call out my name and she would always be delighted that I had visited. I would make us some tea then she would usually ask how I was getting on with my research. I recall one day asking Aunt if she knew the name of her Grandmother’s mother, the reply was Prudence Budd. I jotted it down. A few weeks went by and I asked the same question and reply was the same. Then a few weeks later, another Great Aunt came with me to visit my Aunt and we were accompanied by their first Cousin Ivy. All three of them, sat and remembered earlier times and my pen could not move fast enough. I approached the subject again of Aunt’s Great Grandmother, to which the reply was “I have already told you twice, it was Prudence Budd” I simply didn’t believe that Aunt could possibly have know the name of someone who was three generations back from Aunt and had died long before she was born. Somehow, Aunt did and all three of them sat and chatted about a story they had heard, of events long before they were born. Now that is family history!
Word count 565
Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Family History Writing Challenge – Day 12

Posted on February 15, 2011 by Julie Goucher

Serendipity is defined by the dictionary as a noun

  1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident
  2. good fortune; luck
Is that a good description of ancestry, and in particular mine? Given some of the discoveries I have made.
I find the more I research and answer one question, that more questions appear and for some questions there is no answer, the answer is simply lost with the passage of time. Whilst to loose answers to the passage of time has a romantic feel to it. I find it also has an annoying and frustrating feel! Every now and again I have to stop researching, simply to digest what I have found and look back through the data that I already knew and then what I discovered along the path.
For the last 11 days I have taken part in the Family History Writing Challenge. Each day as I write I am amazed at the data that I have either found because someone told me, or that I have discovered along the way. I also have found that I have questions that have popped up, perhaps things I over looked whilst on the path of discovery. An example is the gap in the children of Alfred and Rose Butcher that I mentioned earlier. I must have noticed that before, but simply not remembered it. I have sat, each day as I have written these pieces and added to my to do list. More questions, but will there be answers to those questions?
I have an idea, which at some point in the next few months I may share with readers of this blog. I need to reflect more on the feasibility of the idea and is it achievable? That idea has grown out of the writing that I have done diligently each day and a few other posts that I have made recently. I read a book a few years ago called “So many books, so little time”, and that is what ancestry is like, so many ancestors who each deserve their place in the written word.
What I find truly wonderful, is that we can as researchers have a certain degree of expectation that ancestors who were well established would leave a trail of primary source documents. I have an ancestor who appears in the Manorial Records. Not surprising given his status. What I find amazing is that those records have survived and that the ordinary worker, the Agricultural Labourer has, in his own way left a written word, perhaps he literally signed with a mark, but nonetheless, a document exists that supports that individuals very existence.
Sometimes, we need to think “outside the box” An Agricultural Labourer perhaps left very little evidence, we all should leave a set of dates, a birth, marriage and death, but what else? Perhaps we should look at where the Ag Lab worked. Did he work on an estate? Did the owner of that estate own other land in another parish, another County? Does that open more doors for research and enable us as researchers to explore more avenues?
Word count – 518
Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , | Leave a comment

In My Mailbox – Week 2

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Julie Goucher

“In my Mailbox” is a weekly meme I spotted on The Story Siren Blog. Read all about the fine details to take part.

The only book that I have purchased during the last week was from the British Heart Foundation Charity shop in town, when I bought

The Long Shadow by Cynthia Harrod Eagles book 6 of the Moreland Dynasty Series.
Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged | Leave a comment

Family History Writing Challenge – Day 11

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Julie Goucher

I mentioned a few days ago that I have some surnames repeating themselves in my ancestry and the families do not always tie up together.

I was told by my Grandmother, that Uncle Alf married Rose Butcher and lived with his large family in High Path Road Guildford. I remember asking my Grandmother if she really meant that, and being given a very stern look. The reason for my query was that my Aunt, my Grandfather’s sister was Rose Butcher before she married. So had Gran got the details wrong?
No, she had not. Alfred Elstone did indeed marry Rose Butcher in Merrow on 11 February 1899. Together, they had 11 children between 1901 and 1926, and like his mother before him, Alfred and his wife had a child every two to three years, with the exception of a large gap between Lilian May born 1909 and Louise Mabel born 1917. As I type this I don’t recall noticing the gap before and wonder if there were stillborn or miscarriages during that period or was there another cause?
I did ponder on Rose Butcher. Did her Butcher family connect in any way to my own Butcher family or was it simply a coincidence? Rose was born in 1880, the third of 13 children, to Henry Butcher of Alfold Surrey. Whilst there was no obvious connection to my own Butcher family, the two families were not very far from one another. I left that research for another day and do still need to go back to it.
As I sat in the Muniment Room in Guildford extracting all the Elstone and Butcher references from the Merrow records I spotted something else. Rose Butcher had a sister called Louisa born in 1895 and who in 1919 married Albert Goacher. It was one of those almost heart stopping moments. Not one of those hooray moments, but a moment that meant I had to sit and really read what was in front of me. The reason for my surprise is that I married a Goucher whose family had been established in Derbyshire from between 1715 to 1901 and who were often recorded as Goacher instead of Goucher. Was this a coincidence?….another one.
I have never established a connection between these Goachers and those of my husband, but have established that a Goacher family arrived at some point in Sussex and made their way into Surrey. It has not been established just where those Goachers arrived from. When I got home that evening and shared the facts with my husband he simply looked at me in complete surprise and I guess we both wondered, could it possibly be?…..
Word count 443
Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Family History Writing Challenge – Day 10

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Julie Goucher

Having established that my Great Great Grandparents James Elstone and his wife Mary nee Denyer moved their family of 9 children from Bramshott to Merrow, Guildford I wondered why? According to the 1881 Census for Merrow James Denyer was a labourer, and I wonder if he worked for a farmer who held land in both Bramshott and Merrow? or was it simply that he was paid more in Merrow?

Mary Denyer having married James Elstone in 1857 had their first child, James in the same year and then almost systematically had the remainder of the children every two to three years for the next 23 years, the last child being my Great Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Elstone born in 1880, when Mary was 42 years old.

The line up, all born in Bramshott Hampshire, looked like this:
James born 1857
Ann born 1859
Eliza born 1862
Alice born 1864
Henry born 1867
William born 1872
Alfred born 1875
Frederick born 1877
Mary Elizabeth born 1880
My Grandmother often spoke of several of her mother’s siblings Ann, Eliza and Alfred, who my Grandmother always refers to as Uncle Alf. The remainder my Grandmother never spoke of and until I researched the family I didn’t know of their existence.
I knew from my Grandmother that one of her mother’s cousins lived in Merrow and he was apparently the school’s inspector for Guildford,who would visit my Great Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth in Guildford asking why my Grandmother’s brothers had not been to school. Mary Elizabeth would always be furious and always smack the boys for playing truant, and when I asked for the name of the inspector it was not known. Research has not provided those details, and I can imagine that my Great Grandmother was a stickler, and according to my Grandmother she indeed was!
The photograph here is of my Great Grandmother Mary Elizabeth when she was approximately 18 years of age. It is such a sad photo and at some point before I inherited it, it had been torn and fixed together with tape.
Word count 343
Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Distant Hours by Kate Moreton

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Julie Goucher

  • Hard cover: 688 pages
  • Publisher: Mantle (14 Oct 2010)
  • ISBN-10: 0230748325

The book starts with a letter posted 50 years previous delivered to Edie’s mother. From that moment on Edie, a book editor, is thrown into intrigue about her mother’s life during war torn London, and her mother’s evacuation to Kent. Edie’s mother, Meredith is sent to live with three sisters and their father at Milderhurst Castle in Kent. The father, is non other than the author of a favourite book of Edie’s. A chance visit for work sends Edie to Kent where she decides, rather last minute to visit the castle and see if she can piece together the secrets from her mothers time there.


Rewind, 50 years to a young Meredith, who is living with three fairly eccentric twins Persephone and Seraphina and their younger half sister Juniper. Their father, returned from the horrors of the First World War a very different man and writes what is to become a well known children’s book. Meredith is encouraged to write and forms a strong relationship with the sisters.

The sisters are though, bound together by more than blood, there’s is a family steeped in mystery, death and domination, first by the sister Persephone, known and Percy and by their father.The book does have some interesting twists and although an enjoyable, read It certainly is not a favourite, despite the research aspects to the book, which I normally enjoy.

Cross posted to Book Reviews
Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Sunday Salon – 7th – 13th February 2011

Posted on February 13, 2011 by Julie Goucher

The last week has been an odd one. I have settled into my new job reasonably well and as such I have no stresses of my previous job and I have more time for reading. I also developed my 4th cold since November so am pretty grumpy!


Last weekend I posted in support of keeping libraries open and as I walk past the library on the way to and from work I had no excuse to prevent me from calling in on one of their two late nights. After having my card reactivated, it had more than 18 months since I had used the library, shame on me! I left with 4 books, out of a possible 12. I am likely to make it a regular stop on the way home on a Monday. I am currently three quarters through the biggest read of them all – The Distant Hours by Kate Moreton.

  • An Incomplete Revenge, A Maisie Dobbs Mystery by Jacqueline Winspear
  • Messenger of Truth, A Maisie Dobbs Mystery by Jacqueline Winspear
  • Trade Winds by Christina Courtnay
  • The Distant Hours by Kate Morton – current read


    • I also finished reading A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore and you can read the review here and I am still reading the wonderful The Girl on the Wall: One Life’s rich Tapestry by Jean Baggott.

    I am in the middle of the book review for the Autobiographical Recollections of John Bowring that I read for both the historical and Victorian book challenges. It is taking time as it also connects to my own ancestry.

    I am still looking for a book group that I can join, either online or in my locality. A tweet on twitter did not yield any, which is disappointing.

    I came across an interesting thread recently about book lists and online cataloguing and really must get around to making a suitable post. Certainly since my job change I have much more me and family time and tend to put it to good use.

    Have a good week everyone!
    Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , | Leave a comment

    Family History Writing Challenge – Day 9

    Posted on February 13, 2011 by Julie Goucher

    I am very proud of my heritage, from the Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex borders. I have no idea why, but when we travel back to my old stomping ground from Devon I always feel that I am home. Over the years I have met lots of people who have migrated to the South West, tempted by better climate and cheaper house prices and they have always vowed that would never go back. I always amaze them when I say I would!

    Having established the link between my Grandparents, apart from their marriage I was keen to establish the details of my Great Great Grandmother. Born Mary Denyer circa 1838. I say Circa because on every census the year of birth varies as does her place of birth. Incredibly frustrating!
    Remembering my earlier comments about the border of the Counties Surrey,Sussex and Hampshire being within a mile or so, I contemplated if Mary had in fact been born in Sussex. I simply hoped that her birth had occurred after the start of Civil Registration, which happened in 1837 and I hoped that given it was still a fairly new system at the point of Mary’s birth that she had been recorded.
    Her death, recorded as Mary Elstone was found in Merrow Guildford in 1913 aged 74. I knew from her marriage to James Elstone in 1857 that she was the daughter of Edward Denyer. I was therefore delighted to find the birth of a Mary Denyer daughter of Edward and Emeline Denyer in 1838 in Lurgershall Sussex, the last of 10 children.
    At this point, more than 20 years after I started researching, the lineage of my Great Great Grandmother is nothing more than the dates of her birth, marriage and death along with the details of her children. Much more research needs to be done to turn these basic, but important facts into the life that she would have lead, and to get to know her through whatever documentary evidence I can find.
    Denyer is a common name in this part of the world. In much of my ancestry I have family names that appear twice, and in some cases there is no obvious connection between the two lines of research. Is this simply because the families didn’t really move outside of the confines of these three Counties or is there more to it than that?
    The name of Elstone is not particularly common in those same three Counties. There are family connections to paper mills in Sussex and Hampshire and a lineage back to the surname of Pim (Pym, Pymm & Pimm). A few years ago we were away for a few days heading to North Devon when we drove through a small hamlet called Elstone, set on the banks of the River Exe where there was a paper mill. There are also connections to the surname of Pim in the County of Devon who were involved in paper making. Is there a connection or is it simply coincidence? I guess we shall have to wait and see!
    Word count 508
    Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

    Family History Writing Challenge – Day 8

    Posted on February 13, 2011 by Julie Goucher

    My Grandmother’s family has always been tricky to research. This has been due to a number of factors, but mainly down to the fact that she knew fairly little about her relatives, and geography; as her father’s family originated from Warwickshire.

    In complete contrast, my Grandfather’s family hadn’t moved more than 40 miles in 300 years, although they did drift across the borders of Surrey, Hampshire and Sussex. Whilst these are three neighbouring Counties it does need to be remembered that you can cross the border from one County to another in this patch in perhaps a mile or so.
    I recall visiting the Bramshott and Liphook Preservation Society offices in Liphook one summers day during the early 1990s. I was on the trail of a connection from the Budd family of Puttenham and Richard Bridger, which appears on my Grandfather’s line of descent. Richard Bridger from Headley Hampshire in 1777 and married Mary Budd in Puttenham Surrey in 1797. I knew from researching another family line, the Harris’ that the movement between Frensham Surrey, Headley & Bramshott in Hampshire and Lurgershall in Sussex, was common and within a mile or two the boundary had changed.
    So, I was sitting writing out various entries from the births, marriage and deaths for the names that I was researching when I spotted the following Eliza Bridger daughter of Richard Bridger marrying William Elstone in Bramshott in 1828. I recall that I had written the entry and turned the page before the slow recognition that I knew those details already. Didn’t I? I turned back through my note book and saw that yes I indeed knew the name of William Elstone, as it appeared on my Grandmother’s line of descent.
    I stopped a moment to reflect. My Grandmother, Lilian Matthews descended from the marriage of William Elstone to Eliza Bridger. My Grandfather, George Butcher who married Lilian Matthews descended from Eliza Bridger who married William Elstone. I still have the scribbled tree that I drew out to see if I could establish just how many times removed my Grandparents were from each other. I recall being so excited. When I got home, I inserted the details into my family history programme then clicked on the relationship calculator button which revealed that my Grandparents were 4th Cousins, sharing the common ancestor of Richard Budd & 4th Cousin sharing the common ancestor of Sarah Collins.
    I know that my Grandparents would not have known that fact and I wonder just what they would have made of it. For me, that is just the wonder and fascination of researching my ancestry.
    Word count 435
    Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

    52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History – Wk 7 – Toys

    Posted on February 12, 2011 by Julie Goucher

    Week #7 – Toys. What was your favourite childhood toy? Is it still being made in some form today?
    Week 7: This challenge runs from Saturday, February 12 through to Friday, February 18 2011
    I started Sandfield School, at Guildford Surrey, just before my fifth birthday; I started in the September and my birthday was in the October. In the Summer, the school held its annual fete and all new attendees were invited to go to the fete. I remember Mum taking me and being allowed to select a toy from one of the stands. The toy I chose was a little finger puppet, about 3 inches long of a mouse, in red and white with a pink and white stripped tail. I called this little thing Moppet, and just where I got than name from I have no idea. Now, 38 years later, I still have Moppet, and it usually sits in my desk drawer!
    About the same time, the School celebrated its 75th Birthday and produced a mug to celebrate the event. I still have my mug, it hangs from a beam in our kitchen/breakfast room.
    I still have my childhood books, a set of original Noddy Books by Enid Blyton, lovingly read and may still have the Woolworths price ticket of 12p on the front. I have always kept them for my children, but as I don’t have any they sit in my study on a shelf next to a set of Beatrice Potter books.
    I do recall being given a jigsaw puzzle by my Great Aunt, it was a favourite and the picture when it was made up was of Noah’s Ark. I wonder what happened to it? I did used to love playing with Lego. I sadly don’t have any of my childhood pieces, although it is still made today. I also played marbles and do still have a few that I particularly liked.
    When I was about 3 I was given by my Grandfather a 1p stamp in a matchbox. I then spent lots of my childhood collecting stamps and still have that collection, although I do no longer collect.

    Posted in Archive - Imported from Blogger | Tagged , , | Leave a comment