Frances Ann Witchingham (1773-1847). My 5th great-grandmother. Witchingham is a reasonably common surname in Norfolk and probably derives from the village of Witchingham, north-west of Norwich. Over time the name has been spelled in a variety of ways including Wychingham, Wichinham, Withingham and even Wichengim. I do have concerns about the Witchingham tree below. Some […]
Public service
William Medway Ward (1828-1898)
William Medway Ward (1828-1898). My 2nd great-grand uncle. William was born on 14 July 1828 and baptised on 14 September at All Hallows Church in Tottenham, Middlesex, to parents William Ward and Mary Ann Downer. He married Maria Earnshaw on 25 November 1850 at St John’s Church in Hackney. She’d been born on 1 March […]
Samuel Symonds (1836-1909) – saving lives at sea
Samuel Symonds (1836-1909). My 3rd great grand uncle. Samuel was born to Charles Robinson Witchingham Symonds and Susannah Waters in 1836 and baptised on 20 July that year at St Nicholas’s Church in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He lived with his family until his marriage on 28 December 1856 to Ann Maria Masterson. She was also […]
Maud Jane Wetherall (1881-1958) and a golden wedding
Maud Jane Wetherall (1881-1958). My great-grand aunt. Maud was born on 15 June 1881 in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and baptised in the town’s St Nicholas’ Church on 29 November that year. She grew up with her parents Benjamin Thomas Wetherall and Sarah Ann Elizabeth Green and siblings in Admiralty Road. By the 1901 census she was living […]
Harry Budgen (1879-1944) – award-winning public servant
Harry Budgen (1879-1944).My 2nd great-uncle. Harry was born on 1 April 1879 in Reigate, to Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore. He was baptised on 25 May that year at St Mary’s parish church. Harry never married and for many years lived with members of his family. In 1901 he was working as a water works […]
Emma Budgen (1861-1925) – Mayoress of Reigate
Emma Budgen (1861-1925) and George Alfred Reynolds Ince (1863-1951).My great-grand aunt and uncle. Emma Budgen was the oldest of Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore‘s children. She was born in 1861 in Worth, Sussex, and baptised in the village on 1 September that year, but went from humble beginnings to become the Mayoress of Reigate. As […]