Godfrey Weston and my other Weston ancestors

Godfrey Weston (1785-1862). My 4th great-grandfather. Godfrey Weston took advantage of a young woman and then tried to evade his responsibilities to her and the daughter he fathered out of wedlock… He was born on 14 March 1785 and baptised three days later at St Mary’s Church in Banham, Norfolk. His parents were John Weston […]

Sarah Rice and my other Rice ancestors

Sarah Rice (1791-1871). My 4th great-grandmother. Sarah was the first of the Rice family to join my family tree. She was baptised on 3 July 1791 at St Mary’s Church in Balcombe, Sussex, to parents George Rice and Mary Harman. She married William Budgen at St Nicholas’s Church in Worth, Sussex, on 2 November 1808. […]

Elizabeth Maria Symonds and my other Symonds ancestors

Elizabeth Maria Symonds (1826-1911).My 3rd great-grandmother. Elizabeth Maria Symonds was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1826 and baptised in St Nicholas’s Church on 24 November that year. Her parents were fisherman Charles Robinson Witchingham Symonds and Susanna Waters (see below). Elizabeth married mariner William Mark Green, a Yarmouth native, at St Nicholas’s on 29 […]

Mary Ann Green (1853-1918) – widowed by a storm

Mary Ann Green (1853-1918), Frederick Rowland (1854-1881) and Daniel Robert Beales 1852-1909). My 2nd great-grand aunt and uncles. Mary Ann Green was born on 13 January and baptised on 17 April 1853 at St Nicholas’s Church, Great Yarmouth, to parents William Mark Green and Elizabeth Maria Symonds. Her first husband would drown in a notorious […]

Emmeline Louisa Wetherall (1872-1932) – widowed by a mill accident

Emmeline Louisa Wetherall (1872-1932) and Albert Robert Woods (1872-1917). My great-grand aunt and uncle. Emmeline was born on 2 June 1872 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and baptised in the town on 14 July at St Nicholas’ Church. Her parents were Benjamin Thomas Wetherall and Sarah Ann Elizabeth Green. Emmeline (pictured top with her children Leslie […]

Gertrude Wetherall (1877-1964) – war service and tragedy

St Nicholas Church, Great Yarmouth

Gertrude Wetherall (1878-1964) and George Albert Harvey (1882-1937). My 2nd great-aunt and uncle. Gertrude Wetherall was born on 5 December 1878 and baptised on 23 December that year at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk (above). Her husband, who fought in The Great War, killed himself on the railways. After growing up in Admiralty […]

Alfred Dolamore (1835-1910) – death in the canal

Alfred Dolamore (1835-1910) and Elizabeth Dolamore (1836-1904). My 2nd great-grand uncle and aunt. Alfred Dolamore was baptised on 15 February 1835 in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, to parents David Dolamore and Mary Ann Walker. He was brought up in and around nearby Leavesden. He was working as an agricultural labourer at the time of the 1851 […]

Alice Amelia Stolliday (1877-1929) and a tale of tragedy

Alice Amelia Stolliday (1877-1929). My great-grand aunt. Alice died relatively young, leaving her husband so distraught that he took his own life. She was born on 5 August 1877 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and baptised on 12 May 1878 at St Nicholas’s Church to parents Edward Stoliday and Harriet Goulty. She grew up in the […]

George Budgen (1826-1893) – Brighton publican

George in the 1891 census

George Budgen (1826-1893), Anne Maria Baker (1826-1873) and Margaret Cole (1835-1903) My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunts. Baptised on 28 January 1827 in Worth, Sussex, George was the son of agricultural labourer William Budgen and Sarah Rice. In 1841 George was living with his parents at Standing Hall Farm in the village and also working as a […]

William Budgen (1820-1864) – killed on the railway

The railway at Marden in 1890, a few years after William's accident

William Budgen (1820-1864) and Amy Frith (1826-1921). My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt. Baptised in Worth, Sussex, on 6 February 1820, William was the son of William Budgen and Sarah Rice and would meet a gruesome end. But that was some years after he married Amy Frith, the 18-year-old daughter of a gamekeeper, on 6 April 1844 […]

Jacob Finch (1866-1935) – death in a sandpit

Jacob Finch (1866-1935), Mary Ann Dodd (1870-1901) and Annie Elizabeth Lacey (1872-1955). My great-grand uncle and aunts. Jacob Finch was born in 1866 in Reigate, Surrey, the son of Isaac Finch and Phoebe Ann Ward, and was baptised on 19 August that year at St Matthew’s Church in Redhill. The 1881 census reported him working […]