John , Warwick, Callum, mother, Hilary, self, Margaret , Michael
Dear all,
This year has been dominated by Liz’s wedding to Liam, so time for research has been severely limited and, of course, information continues to be difficult to come by as I reach ‘brick walls’ on most lines of the family, having got back as far as is likely to be possible.
Highlight of the family history year was on the 24th March, with the unveiling of a plaque by the Wey and Arun Canal Trust at Bramley Lock Cottage, which was built and lived in by 4x gt grandfather James STANTON. A week before the ceremony, I was contacted by Michael STANTON, who is descended from Mary Jane, who was Gt grandfather Jesse William’s sister. Michael attended the ceremony along with his parents (John & Margaret) and son Callum, so (including myself, Warwick and cousin Hilary [nee STANTON] WALKER) there was one 3xgt grandchild, three 4xgt grandchildren plus one 5xgt and one 6xgt grandchild of James to unveil the plaque (all aided by two ‘Mrs’ STANTONs) , it was a very special day.
With little time and not much left to discover, ‘finds’ have been limited, however I did make some limited progress, although much of it is ‘probable’ rather than proved ! :-
* The SMITHs from Bristol/ Bedminster have always been difficult to research. The Old Man’s mother Ellen SMITH was the daughter of Samuel SMITH and Mary Ann (nee) SMITH. I have long suspected that these two SMITHs were related before marriage, but have not been able to prove it. I believed that Samuel’s grandparents were James and Hester, but there were two couples with this name on the 1841 census. I then realised that this was an error on the census, because it was the same family, recorded twice in different places. In both locations, James and Hester had the same son and grandchildren with them. This not only proved that this was the same family, it also gave me pointers to Samuel’s uncles and aunt, all of which pointed to family baptisms in Bristol 1794-1806. This family not only had a son James (Samuel’s father) but also a son John (Mary Ann’s father’s name), so I think it is highly probable that Samuel and Mary Ann were indeed first cousins.
* Continuing the research on the SMITH family, I moved onto research Mary Ann’s mother Elizabeth JENKINS. For a long time I had been stuck on researching this line, the only clue that I had was Elizabeth’s widowed sister Harriet, who was with the family in 1861. Unfortunately when I viewed the 1861 census record, in 2001, I misread it, and had been working on the wrong surname for 5 years!. When I realised my error, I was able to identify Harriet with her parents on earlier census’s, and thus able to follow the family back to Corfe Castle (Dorset), where there are baptism and marriage records for Elizabeth’s grandparents, gt and 2xgt grandparents.
* On the MacLEAN side, I have mentioned before the confusion over two Thomas STERNDALEs in Manchester (one a wealthy grocer, the other our 4x grandfather). I located a website which detailed how grocer Thomas’ daughter had married and where he came from. This allowed me to eliminate one of two possible Thomas STERNDALE baptism references, thus leaving ‘our’ Thomas as probably born Tideswell in Derbyshire in 1763, the son of James and Mary. Unfortunately there the trail goes cold, the marriage registers for Tideswell at this time are lost, so there is little hope of identifying Mary’s maiden name, and there are no obvious references to James birth.
* One positive result on the STERNDALEs did come to light. For a long time I have struggled to prove that 3x gt James was the son of Thomas (above). The only clue I had was that Thomas did have a son Thomas, and David had registered the younger Thomas’ death, this made me presume they were brothers. Another Web site then gave me a clue, it pointed to a reference to the birth of ‘David STANDALE’ in Manchester at exactly the right time. I still have to check this out (see the original) to confirm this is a transcription error, however, the parents names are correct and it was in the church that David’s mother Ann was baptised in, so it seems certain that this is the correct record, and gives me a likely reference to Ann’s parents marriage two years before her baptism.
* Currently I am pursuing references to 3xgt Maria (nee FOLLOWS) PHILLIP’s family. Until now I have been completely stuck on this, with the only baptism records available at the correct time being; one for a ‘Mary’ and another for ‘Mary Ann’. The PHILLIPS’s were a highly mobile family, moving from Leek in Staffs, to Essex, back to Leek, then to Kingston upon Thames and back again to Leek. With them in Essex where a Francis FOLLOWS and his family, this I have always presumed to be Maria’s brother (not proved, may be a cousin or coincidence!). However I have just found an 1851 census record in Kingston upon Thames for a William FOLLOWS from Leek, this is just after Maria had returned to Leek from Kingston, so strongly suggests some connection. I have traced this William through three marriages, and he did indeed have a son Francis, and is the father of the Mary Ann mentioned above. So I still havnt proved that Maria was baptised Mary Ann, but it does look very likely.
As well as the above findings, three new ‘cousins’ have contacted me:-
o Michael STANTON (see above), by coincidence Michael moved into the village of Normandy in Surrey, and was told by the local history society that they had a member called STANTON (me). Michael had done some research and realised that we were both descended from James STANTON and Mary HORNE. Mary’s father James was a very well known Methodist preacher in Normandy.
o Susan WOODS contacted me through my web site. Susan is descended from Marcy GWINN, who was 5xgt Ann STANTON’s sister.
o Catherine UPTON also contacted via the web site, she, like us, is (one of the many) descendants of John and Harriet UPTON