22nd OCTOBER

1920 - James George Pitcher died and was buried two days later in Taruheru Cemetery, Gisborne, New Zealand.

(Image: copyright © Diane Oliver.)

23rd OCTOBER

1885 - Aubrey Jones Dando was born 126 years ago.

1889 - Charles Tidmarsh Dando died at Chatsworth House, Tyndalls Park, Westbury on Trym, Bristol. He was the son of my 4 x great-grandparents, Joseph Dando and Ann (nee Murch), and was aged 75 at the time of his death.

24th OCTOBER

1814 - Harriet Free (nee Rowlandson) was the first wife of my great-great-grandfather, Stephen Free. Harriet was born 197 years ago.

25th OCTOBER

1863 - James Rice Pitcher died at Uley, Gloucestershire, 148 years ago. He lived at Hodgecombe Farm and his will was proved in the following January by his brother, Timothy. James left 'under £800'.

1874 - the eldest son of my great-great-grandparents, Richard Arthur Weaver, was born in Curry Rivel, Somerset.

26th OCTOBER

1834 - Philip Martin was the eldest son of my 3 x great-grandfather, also Philip Martin, and his first wife, Maria Bate or Bote. He was born in Bradford in North Devon, 177 years ago.

1895 - Thomas Smale, was my great-great-uncle and was born on 26th October, 116 years ago. 'Uncle Tom' lived well into his nineties and I can remember him very well. He once gave me an ivory covered prayer book which had belonged to his wife, Nellie, which I've kept to this day.

1921 - Alfred Chudley was born at 13 Market Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth.

27th OCTOBER

1810 - 201 years ago, my 4 x great-grandparents, George Newbold & Ann Parker, were married in St Peter & St Paul's Church, Exton, Rutland.

30th OCTOBER

1834 - Stephen Dando was the son of my 6 x great-grandparents, John & Susanna Dando. Stephen died 177 years ago and was buried in Bunhill Fields Burial Ground, London, on the 3rd November. His obituary was published in the Evangelical Magazine in the following May and stated that "When under deep distress of feeling, occasioned by shortness of breath, he was frequently heard to exclaim, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"...he calmly waited for his dismission from earth, and died in the Lord on Thursday morning, 30th October, 1834, in the seventy-fifth year of his age...".

1820 - Edmund Cotterill & Sarah Evans were married in St Mary's Church, Kidderminster, Worcestershire. Edmund was my 3 x great-grandfather and Sarah was his first wife.

31st OCTOBER

1814 - Emma Dando was born. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Dando, the elder, and his first wife, Hannah (nee Langston).

1815 - my great-great-grandfather, Stephen Free, was born in Hadstock, Essex, 196 years ago.

Happy Anniversary to you, Mum and Dad!

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Family Tree section

• Added further footnotes for my 6 x great-grandfather, James Pitcher.
• Added my 7 x great-grandparents, Arthur Pitcher (d. 1708) and wife, Ann Ansley.
• Added Arthur and Ann's other children, Margaret, Sarah, Ann, Arthur (1696-1770), Edward & Hannah.
• Added Margaret's husband, Francis George, Hannah's husband, John Ball and Arthur's wife, Jane Marshall.
• Added Jane Higgs, the wife of James' son, Arthur (b. abt 1739).
• Added footnotes for all of the above.

Relevant place names: Aylburton near Lydney, Hawkesbury, Hewelsfield, Newland, Scatterford, Clearwell, Stow, St Briavels, all in Gloucestershire, and Ross on Wye in Herefordshire.

Resources > Biographies section

• Added a biography page for Ann Ansley (later Pitcher).

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Family Tree section

• Added Mills Gwinn and son, Stephen plus footnotes. Mills was the second husband of Mary who was formerly married to James Pitcher (abt. 1691-1746).
• Added Mills' parents' names, Henry & Susan Gwyn.
• Added a few more footnotes for James Pitcher and son, William (d. 1738)

Relevant place names: Aylburton near Lydney, Gloucestershire, plus Hawkesbury and Woolaston, also in Gloucestershire.

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When I was growing up I didn't have a great interest in football. My elder brother used to be, and still is, extremely enthusiastic about the sport and so I adopted a favourite team when I was about 9 years old. That team was Chelsea, picked out simply because I liked the colour they wore. Since those days, I've become an avid football fan and it's good to see the team doing so well in the last few years.

Where is all this leading, I hear you say! Bear with me, there is a genealogical point here. Back in the 1970's you may remember two footballing brothers with the same surname as me – Terry and Kenny Hibbitt. I can still see Terry in Newcastle's black and white strip and Kenny in the distinctive gold of Wolves. Hibbitt, being a relatively unusual name, particularly with this spelling, I often wondered if we were related.

So recently, I set about researching the brothers' ancestry and, to my surprise and delight, I found a connection. We are/were (sadly Terry passed away in 1994) fifth cousins. My 4 x great-grandparents, Luke Hibbit and Mary (nee Leerin/Leeson?), were Terry and Kenny's 4 x great-grandparents too. They are descended from the couple's son, Luke, whereas I am descended from their son, Amos.

My brother supports Plymouth Argyle (well it's tough but somebody has to) but his son supports Newcastle United for reasons unknown. However, it now seems my nephew's team choice wasn't so obscure after all.

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

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The latest offering in the Online Shop is the 1910-1911 Post Office Street Directory for Tavistock, Devon. This transcript contains more than 1000 entries. Residents are listed by street for the town of Tavistock in Devon and there's also a schedule for the Parish of Tavistock Hamlets listed in alphabetical order.

These directories contain indexes for ordinary working people. Discover who lived in your house, find out where your ancestors lived and who their neighbours were.

[Note: All content on the Hibbitt Family History website and blog is copyrighted. Click here for conditions of use.]

11th OCTOBER

1875 - my 2 x great-grandparents, William Elbert Dando & Sarah Louisa Oliver, married 136 years ago in St James's Church, Westminster. Their marriage certificate confirms that Sarah called herself Sarah Louisa Barnes and she declared herself a widow. This was not actually true - Sarah had run off to Australia with John G.W. Barnes in 1865 and had had a daughter by him before returning in 1869 with no money or friends. She looked up her old flame (she and William had previously been engaged) and the couple lived together until Sarah became pregnant, at which time they married in the church which is just around the corner from Piccadilly Circus in London.

1884 - by some strange coincidence, William chose the very same day to wed again 9 years later when William Elbert Dando & Emma Sheriff tied the knot in Manhatten, New York. The main problem with this was that William hadn't divorced Sarah and so this second union was a bigamous match! This is probably why the couple travelled to America for the ceremony.

1874 - my 2 x great-grandmother went up the aisle 137 years ago. George Oakes & Hannah Maria Cotterill, were wed in All Saints Church in Birmingham. Hannah (or Annie, as she was also known) already had 4 children by my great-grandfather, Henry Ridley, but it appears that she and Henry never married.

12th OCTOBER

1811 - Ann Rigsby, my 6 x great-grandmother, died at the age of 57 and was buried in the Churchyard at Black Torrington, Devon.

1854 - Mariana Dando, the one year old daughter of Joseph Clifford Dando (1st) and Beulah Parker, died.

1850 - retired silk manufacturer, Joseph Spiers, the elder, & Elizabeth Tisdall, were married in Hove, Sussex. Elizabeth was Joseph's second wife.

13th OCTOBER

1852 - Joseph Clifford Dando (1st) and Beulah Parker, were married in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1806 - Jane Clark was the third wife of my 3 x great-grandfather, Joseph Dando. She was born on 13th October, 205 years ago.

1914 - Molly Irene Joan Fryer was was born at 13 Upper Church Street, Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales.

14th OCTOBER

1891 - 120 years ago, James Smale & Emma Friend were married in the Register Office in Tavistock, Devon. James was the son of my 3 x great-grandparents, William Smale & Mary Jane (nee Moore).

1817 - the third child of Nathaniel Dando, the elder, and his first wife, Hannah (nee Langston), George Dando, was born.

16th OCTOBER

1727 - it was 284 years ago when my 7 x great-grandparents, John Longman & Agnes Tucker, were married in Merton, North Devon.

18th OCTOBER

1783 - Joseph Fyer & Hannah Woodward, wed in St Mary the Virgin's Church, Arlingham Gloucestershire. Hannah was Joseph's second wife.

20th OCTOBER

1822 - my 4 x great-grandmother, Ann Fryer (nee Jones), died in Overton in Arlingham, Gloucestershire, and was buried 3 days later in the local churchyard.

1774 - Thomas Gethen & Ann Dando were married in the Anglican Church at Dursley, 237 years ago. Ann was the daughter of my 6 x great-grandparents, John & Susanna Dando, who had very strong Non-conformist links. Nevertheless, it was often the case at that time that weddings were conducted in the Established Church.


St James the Great Church, Dursley, Gloucestershire
21st OCTOBER

1862 - my 4 x great-grandfather, Richard Fryer, died of typhoid fever and bronchitis in the City of Gloucester at the approximate age of 70.

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Hodgecombe Farm was once the home of Benjamin Pitcher and his wife, Sarah (nee Rice), during the 19th century. Afterwards, the farm passed to their eldest son, James Rice Pitcher, and his wife, Ann (nee Powell).

The Online Shop now contains a 2 document bundle with information about Hodgecombe Farm...

• 1971 Auctioneer's Details - a transcript of the auctioneer's brochure when Hodgecombe Farm was advertised for sale in 1971. (4 pages)
• Hodgecombe Farm, A Brief History - a short account of the history of Hodgecombe Farm with 4 modern-day photographs. (1 page)

I've begun creating an Online Shop which contains a number of genealogy and family history documents which I've put together and made available as digital downloads. The fees are quite small and help towards the running costs of my web site. I'll be adding to the shop in the next few weeks but in the meantime, you can buy:

• Bigland Transcripts for Fretherne
• 28 page document about the Fryer Family of Overton, Arlingham, Gloucestershire

Family Tree section

• Attached Charlotte S Dando to her parents' page (Joseph Dando & Helen Sheriff).
• Added Charlotte's second husband, William A Thompson.
• Added William A Thompson's parents' names, William Thompson & Catharine Mattison.
• Added the names of my 5 x great-grandparents, Stephen Cotterell & Elizabeth Pitt.

Relevant place names: New York, USA and Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

As Christmas approaches some of you may be thinking about a genealogy gift to give to someone special or maybe you'd like to give your own family the nod about something you'd quite like them to buy you.

Last year, I posted some links to offer inspiration for the perfect gift and this is a quickie to remind you once again. Here's the link...

Christmas around the corner - genealogy gift ideas (UK)

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