My second article has been published in the October issue of the Discover Your History magazine and is now available in the shops. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the magazine or buy a single copy online.

This month's story, appearing on pages 36 and 37, is about my great-great-grandmother, Sarah Louisa Oliver. It tells the tale of Sarah's turbulent relationships, how she ran away to Australia and had a child by John George Waldegrave Barnes, a man she never married. She returned to England with just her child and took up with William Elbert Dando, my great-great-grandfather. After marrying William and having a son, the relationship quickly disintegrated, leading to some unpleasant goings-on including Sarah's arrest. William tried to divorce Sarah without success and eventually bigamously 'married' another woman.


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Hibbitt Family Tree section

• Added baptism for William Elbert Dando and added Marriage Allegation details for W E Dando & Sarah Louisa Oliver.
• Added more details and notes for Doris May Geake and her 2 husbands, Thomas John Bishop and William T Gwyn.
• Added Thomas John Bishop's parents, John Bishop and Harriet Emma Hoskings with notes. Also Thomas' siblings, Elizabeth and Evelyn.
• Added John Bishop's parents, Thomas Bishop and Elizabeth Jones with notes. Also John's siblings, Joseph, Thomas, Elizabeth and Hannah.

Place names: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and London. Also, Merthyr Tydfil, Tonypandy and Ystradyfodwg in Glamorgan, and Sirhowy and Blackwood in Monmouthshire.



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Hats and shoes feature significantly in my family. Whilst hats aren't quite so in vogue as they once were, we all still need footwear, but how things have changed!

My Dando line were the hatmakers, my first confirmed hatter being my 6 x great-grandfather, John Dando (abt. 1715-1775). However, this profession died out in my family during the mid-nineteenth century.

Moving from heads to feet, from the title of this post, you might be thinking my ancestors were involved in the weaving industry, having a sideline in making shoes. Actually, Weaver is the surname of my shoemaking forbears.

My 4 x great-grandfather, Robert Weaver (abt. 1789-1869), lived in Curry Rivel, Somerset, and was described as a shoe and boot maker and also a cordwainer. Distinct from a cobbler who repaired shoes, a cordwainer made luxury footwear out of the finest leathers. Whether Robert was the first cordwainer in his line is uncertain as I haven't been able to confirm the occupations of his antecedents.

My 2 x great-grandfather, William Henry Weaver (1848-1944), lived with Robert and his wife Sarah, and it is therefore no surprise that he too, went into the family trade. He would have learnt his skills from his grandfather. Ironically, there is in fact, a weaving link as William Henry's wife, Jane (nee Arnold), had previously been a silk weaver, coming from a long line of silk ribbon weavers in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

Their son, Richard, had a short spell at shoemaking before embarking on a 40 year career with the post office. The need for homeworkers and factory outworkers met with a decline during the 19th century as factories increasingly took over the manufacturing processes and mechanisation in the industry was complete by the 1890's.

William Henry Weaver's granddaughter was my own gran, Phyllis Grace Geake (nee Weaver). Born in 1916, her connection with shoes was not in the making of them but in the selling. As a young woman she worked in a shoe shop called Leonards.

Footwear continues to play a large part today as our son, Phyllis' great-grandson, is the manager of a shoe store and so the connection with footwear, spanning at least eight generations of our family and four centuries, is still going strong.

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Just a reminder that the Discover Your History magazine is now available in all good newsagents or you can subscribe online here. Existing subcribers of Your Family History magazine will automatically receive Discover Your History from now on.

Henry James Weaver's story appears on pages 26 and 27.

When I was a girl, I would sometimes go to Tavistock in the school holidays to stay with my grandparents, William Hellyer Geake & Phyllis Grace Geake (nee Weaver). Grandpa would often be at work so I'd be at home with gran.

One of the highlights of the day was Elevenses. Mid-morning, gran would stop whatever she was doing and sit down with me with a cup of coffee and I'd have a cocoa or some other hot drink. A biscuit or two and a game of cards would often crop up too.

It wasn't for the refreshments that Elevenses was so special (nice as they were) but this was my time with my gran and that was what made it so special.

[Why Thankful Thursday? This phrase has been included in the title in order to take part in Daily Blogging Prompts at Geneabloggers]

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Hibbitt Family Tree section

• Added baptism information for John Tyeth Feaston and details of his parents, Thomas Payne Feaston and Harriet Tyeth.
• Added the name of Alitea Waldegrave Barnes' husband, William Alfred Clarke, and their children, William Alfred, Elsie Maude, Violet Waldegrave and Kathleen Norah Clarke.
• Added death certificate details for Sarah Louisa Oliver.

Place names: Launceston in Cornwall, Upton Park and Kilburn in London.



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Exciting news! I was recently invited to write a few articles about my family history research for the Discover Your History magazine, a brand new publication due to be launched on 5th September. Published each month, the magazine will focus on family and social history and all aspects of heritage.

My first article is appearing in the first issue and tells the story of my great-grandfather, Henry James Weaver, who was accidentally killed during the First World War.

John Oliver was my 3 x great-grandfather. He was a farmer in a hamlet called Bramwith Woodhouse, a few miles from Doncaster in Yorkshire. John held a game certificate, presumably for killing wildlife or vermin, etc. and one summer night in 1847, two seventeen year-old lads broke into his house and stole a couple of double-barrelled guns.

These same guns were used in a second burglary the following night at another house. The young lads stood at either end of the bed of one Samuel Rudman with the guns in their hands and demanded 'his money or his life'. They were disturbed and made off with three shillings, a handkerchief and two ounces of tobacco. A few days later, John Oliver's guns were found in the possession of the two criminals and the lads received the sentence of transportation for 15 years.

I looked up the Criminal Registers and discovered that this was neither of the boys' first offence. Richard Bisbroun or Bisbrown had committed larceny in 1844 and was sentenced to be whipped and impisoned for 1 month. He was at it again in 1846 and was sentenced to be whipped and impisoned for 1 week. James Walker had also committed larceny in 1842 at the age of 12. He received the sentence of whipping and imprisonment for 1 month.

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Hibbitt Family Tree section

• Added detailed information and notes for my 3 x great-grandparents, John Oliver and Sarah Woodall.
• Added the names of their childrens' husbands and wives. The names include Styring, Woodhead, Moore and Gill.

Place names: Bramwith Woodhouse, Doncaster and Leeds in Yorkshire, Blackpool in Lancashire.

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Hibbitt Family Tree section

• Added information found in various local street directories to Stephen Free's profile. Also added details of the grant of probate and the sale of his land and property after his death.

Place names: Hadstock in Essex.

Resources > Hibbitt Tree Biographies section

Updated Stephen Free's Biography page with the above information.


Old newspaper articles often add to the detail of the lives of our ancestors. Stephen Free's estate was put up for auction in August 1883 when The Chelmsford Chronicle published the following advert...

HADSTOCK
FREEHOLD ACCOMMODATION LAND
AND
COTTAGE PROPERTY
(With Possession).
______________

Mr. Cheffins
Will SELL BY AUCTION, on Saturday, August, 25th, 1883, at the Rose and Crown Inn, Saffron Walden, in Six Lots, by direction of the Executors of the late Mr. Stephen Free.
THE Valuable Small ACCOMMODATION FARM, comprising a dwelling-house, homestead, productive orchard, and 7a. 0r. 3p. of highly fertile land, situate fronting the road leading to Bartlow; an orchard and one inclosure of Accommodation Land, containing together 3a. 3r. 16p., situate in Siggins-lane.
TWO Plots of Superior ARABLE LAND, situate fronting the Bartlow-road; and
FIVE COTTAGES situate in the Village, in several occupations of Hills, F. Fordham, Culter, and G. Fordham.
Particulars and Condition of Sale may be obtained of Messrs Freeland and Bellingham, Solicitors, Saffron Walden; and of Mr. Cheffins, Saffron Walden.

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