In search of the family

  FUN AND GAMES I have noticed that some of my ancestors, after retirement, having continued to work, but in leisurely pursuits. Both 'Granny Swatridge's' husbands worked as deck chair attendants. Her first husband, William Richard Pitts 1876-1958, at Canvey Island and her second husband Harrison Robert Peter Swatridge, Uncle Bob at Bogner. But for this weeks post I am writing a short post about a more distant ancestor from my 'Youell' family:-  The Tatler 1901 'Setting Sail' Southampton Boat Pond  History of the Boating Lake | The British Newspaper Archive Blog John Soanes 1821-1898. John was the eldest son of my 3x Great Grandfather, William Youell's sister Esther, who married Robert Taylor Soanes in 1820. John spent his life in Suffolk living throughout within 5 miles of the coastal resort of Lowestoft. His occupation for much of his working life was as a hemp dresser, sometimes known as a 'hackler', this job was to seperate the coarse parts o...

  On the Farm    Hadlow Castle and Tower www.thehadlowtower.co.uk Most of the castle was demolished in the 1950's for building materials  The tower remains and has been renovated and converted to accomodation. There are so many stories I could write under this heading. Like most people, I have a number of Agricultural Labourers within my ancestry. Some have won prizes at local Agricultural Shows for ploughing matches and others have been rewarded for having the 'largest family in the area who have not relied on Parish relief. A large number of my Pye ancestors have been 'gentleman farmers. A daughter of these 'Gentleman farmers' married Henry Seymour Tett, head of a Kent company that made farming implements including threshing and hop washing machines. There are also links between the Pyes and the Avelings. Thomas Aveling alongside Richard Thomas Porter, went into partnership and developed a steam engine, developing an agricultural locomotive engine for threshing, p...

 MARIAN PYE 1861-1936   It may appear a little strange for me to chose a Victorian lady for this weeks theme of work. No less so when you discover that she was the daughter of the Gentleman Farmer Henry Pye, the so called King of the Hundreds and an innovator in his own right. But such men as Henry can be relatively easily researched using internet search engines, whereas someone like his daughter disappears into the ether and needs a bit more of an effort to discover her story. Those of you who may have discovered my family history stories may have noted that I have labelled some of my posts:- 'All the single ladies', this weeks 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks story also comes under this category. Marian Pye was a spinster with no children, who's story would get lost in time but like other ladies I have written about, Marian has a story of her own to tell. As I write each of these posts I review all the information I may have and look to see if there is anything new that may have...

The Education of Girls in Victorian England This weeks theme has been a bit of a challenge, I even considered writing about my own schooldays, but I like to keep some anonimity. I really wanted to write about some artists that feature in my family, I was quite looking forward to writing about their lives but sadly whilst it would be lovely to be able to say they came under the heading of 'School of English Artists', this would be stretching the truth. The school of English Artists were artists of the 18th century, such as John Constable, JMW Turner, whilst my ancestors were of the Victorian era. Whilst a couple of them exhibited at the Royal Academy, they were not part of an area such a Newlyn School, no matter how hard I tried to find a School of Littlehampton! Plenty of documents to link them to various Societies, such as the Society of English Watercolourists, but no affiliations to any 'Schools'. So I will have to save them for another day. So as a fall back I am wr...