Guildford from St Catherine’s

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Julie Goucher
I have very happy memories of St Catherine’s. In the summer holidays my Grandmother and I would walk to St Catherine’s. The reward a drink from the spring there, Gran would pack in her bag a small plastic beaker. It had red and white spots and would gently bend down and capture the water being careful to not capture any of the sand. We would have a drink and enjoy a rest on a seat before walking back to home.
I don’t know if this is a view I remember, but I am sure that it is one that my Grandmother would have seen many times.

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Guildford Railway Station – 30th August 1953

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Julie Goucher

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Stoughton Barracks Hospital Wing circa 1905

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Julie Goucher

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Desk Ramblings…..(21)

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Julie Goucher

It has been several months since I last shared a desk ramblings. The reason for this one appearing today is because someone wrote and asked me was I continuing the post themes as they missed them.

I am! Thanks so much to the person who wrote to me.

I have been busy focusing on numerous material that has needed to be attended to. I have been under the weather again and today the sun is out, or it is in my bit of Devon and I am looking forward to Spring.

We commemorated my late Mum’s birthday on Monday and on Valentine’s Day it was a year since Mum passed away. There has been so much that Mum has missed, even now I find myself reminding myself to tell her something then I remember. I don’t know if that will ever get easier or not, but all we can do is keep getting up, getting on and then repeating the process.

For those of you who are friends via Facebook will have seen a few photographs that I shared of Mum. There were some real beauties, of her as a baby, perhaps just a few weeks old, then through various stages of toddler hood and then into her childhood, up to about aged 9 or so. There are many more to scan and share, but I am sharing here my absolute favourite and apologies if you have seen it before, but I am sure you will agree Mum was a real cutie!

From the personal collection 
of Julie Goucher

I have had a rather large backlog of emails and things that needed attended to. I have three presentations to write for talks/lectures I am giving and whilst I had an idea of what I was talking about, I had not made a definitive decision on the actual material. Typically, ideas of inspiration always present themselves when I am not in a position to write them down, and in the case of one of those bursts I was not in a position to make a note using my smart phone either. Consequently I resorted to saying it out loud until I could write it down and received some very strange looks.

I had an email disaster last week, on Friday to be precise and whilst I am not superstitious, who really knows? I use Google for my emails. Then I can access anywhere. I routinely star emails that I need to come back to later. On Friday I noticed that there was 223 starred emails. So I selected all and moved them into another folder. Then I selected all again and deleted the lot. It was one of those moments when everything is in slow motion and try as you might you can not undo what has just happened. So if you have written to me and not received a reply your email was possibly one of those affected. Sorry about, and there are about ten people who I know I owed emails to and those names are safely on a rather long to do list, stored in Evernote.

“Normal” service to be resumed shortly…..

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Tuesday’s Tip – England Immigrants

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Julie Goucher

Last week I became aware of this fascinating site – England Immigrants 1330 – 1550.

I had a quick look at the site and did a quick search for my two One Name Studies surnames of Orlando and Worship. As I suspected no revelations were forthcoming, but if you select the option of advanced search the bottom box on the left marked “place of residence” might reveal some early inhabitants of the location you are researching.

I did a search for Puttenham,which is one of my One-Place studies. there were no hits, but a search for Wanborough a village about two miles away revealed a hit. (Actually the search revealed two, one for Wanborough in Wiltshire too).
There is an option to reveal a summary or the full details. In this case it showed the results for a Nicholas Frensshman (Frenchman), an immigrant from France paying taxes on 28th May 1440. The original document is located at The National Archives at Kew under catalogue number E179/184/212.
What is so fascinating about this site is the social, economic and historical context. This is a time before standard surnames were used. This particular document shows that there was taxation for those who chose to come and live in England. Remember that this would include those from Scotland. Henry VI was the reigning monarch.
A search of the site for my home town of Guildford Surrey revealed 23 entries for the period of 1394 – 1440 from a variety of places, Ireland, France, Belguim (described as Flemish) & Holland (described as “Hollander”). 
Copyright – Julie Goucher July 2014

For anyone who has stumbled across my blog Guildford and District will have seen a selection of postcards of the Castle ruins, the castle which pre-dates this period. As someone who grew up regularly visiting the castle grounds and seeing the ruins it is hard to imagine that the castle was once an inhabited venue. It would have had a remarkable view, indeed it still does!

The biggest tip is that every source, index or website that we encounter can assist us to put our ancestors into the social context of the time.

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Lords Hill, Shamley Green circa 1909

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Julie Goucher
This was such an unusual postcard that despite being in a slightly worse for ware state, I had to purchase it and ad to the collection.

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Fatal Smash, Epsom Road, Guildford ~ 9th Feb 1911

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Julie Goucher

 

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In Deep with the Book of Me – February Prompt 2015 – Explore. Dream. Discover

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Julie Goucher

You can read the Prompt Post HERE.
You can read my take on the prompt HERE
The web page with all the details on, including the prompts from the first series can be found HERE

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In Deep with the Book of Me – February Prompt 2015 – Explore. Dream. Discover

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Julie Goucher

I am going to respond to this prompt from the position of my husband’s paternal Great Grandmother, Annie HINDLE, Nee RHODES and formerly WORSHIP (1869 – 1953). If you missed the Prompt you can see it HERE.

Annie RHODES was born in Bradford Yorkshire in 1869 she married Charles WORSHIP in Bradford in August of 1899 and they had three daughters:

  • Emily born Bradford 1890 who married June Q 1915 to Sydney NEWBOULD in Bradford
  • Lillian born Bradford 1893 (my husband’s paternal grandmother)
  • Florence, born Bradford 1901.
At some point between 1901 and 1904 Annie met and had a relationship with Harry Hindle. They had a son together in 1904 who was registered under the surname of Worship and at this point Annie was still married to Charles Worship.
In 1905 Annie and the 10 month old baby boarded a ship bound for the United States. The passenger list states that Annie had been to the United States before and that she had £50 with her. She met up with Harry Hindle, took his surname and together they raised their son in Philadelphia.  Annie eventually divorced Charles Worship in 1921 and Annie and Harry marry in New York in 1922. Charles moved from Yorkshire to Scotland and married a widow there in 1922.
Harry and Annie Hindle with their son Henry Rhodes
Picture from the collection of Julie Goucher

The divorce papers cite that the petition for divorce was granted on the grounds of adultery and was typically written indicating that Annie was the instigator of the disintegration of the marriage. At this point in English Law divorce was granted usually in favour of the male.

We are researching in the period of the turn of the Century, a time that was very much focused on the values of the Victorian era and when women were still considered the property of the husband’s. It would have been especially harrowing to have registered the baby with the name of the father rather than that of her husband and slurs on the character of Annie were surely inevitable.
What Annie did was incredibly brave for the time. Her leaving her children in England would have been the only real thing she could  have done, as they were also viewed as the property of their father. It is known from family records that Annie, Harry and their son made frequent visits to England, and two of Annie’s children did visit them in the United States.
I am sure that Annie would have felt aggrieved at leaving her girls behind, and did she reflect back to 1905 when she left England for good? I am sure she did, I don’t get a sense that she regretted at all going to the United States with Harry and their son, but I do get a sense that she regretted not having the strength to fight for her girls and stand up against the established way of life in 1904.
I have over the years researched this family quite a bit and you can read about the family HERE

Information on The Book of Me and In Deep with the Book of Me can be accessed via this link

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Barnett Hil, Red Cross Building Wonersh circa 1953

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Julie Goucher

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