Kathrina Perry - Local Historian

One of the most valuable websites I have found whilst doing my family research is www.rootschat.com.  Not only does it have a great chat room where people help each other with research and friendly chat to help relax when you're in the middle of a frustrating brick wall moment, but on the forum you never know when someone may see your post. In July I put a post to try to help find my great great Grandmother Annie Elizabeth Ayres (she has now been found - see my last post ).  Thinking that nobody had a connection I had forgetten about the post completely until this week.......... On Tuesday evening I received a reply to the post from someone believing they may be connected to Annie.  It turns out this lady is Annie's great granddaughter from her second marriage.  It turns out not only did she have a lot of information that I was missing but she also pointed me towards this photo of Annie.  Not only was this amazing but this photo had been posted on the Helmdon Vi...

This morning our wonderful postman posted two birth certificates through my door.  One was completely incorrect (to be honest I have no idea why I even ordered it but hey ho).  The other was for a Samuel Arthur Williams born in Tissington, Derbyshire on 22nd January 1897 His father was Robert Williams and his mother was...... wait for it...... Annie Elizabeth Williams late Major formerly Ayres!!! Yep you've guessed it, I have finally found my Great Great Grandmother.  The certificate proves what I had been told that she had moved away with Robert Williams.  This certificate shows that she was in Derbyshire and had taken Robert's name.  It's important to remember that her son Walter Edward Major (1892 - 1949) was only 4 or 5 years old when this other child was born and as we know that Annie registered his birth we can surmise that Annie left Timothy Major between 1892 and 1896 (this is assuming she had left him when she fell pregnant). So with this in mind it wou...

In another post I have discussed how important names came be when searching for ancestors. Often you may find a trend in names which pass down the generations or links between families. Sometimes this can get confusing, especially if you have numerous John Smith's in your tree (or Ralph Miller in my case).  This is where you have to be very careful on dates.  It's important to see your ancestors as people and not just names.  If I had a pound for every time I had seen a family tree with the father being married to a daughter or granddaughter because of a mix up where two people have the same name. Another tre nd which is very comm on in famil ies for a child to be given the mother's maiden name as a middle name.  This can help if you are searching for marriage and are unsure of the maiden name but noti ce an unusual middle name.   For example, my Great Grandfather was Thomas Brooks Miller (1875 - 1952), his mother being Margaret Ann B r ooks (1849-1925)....

Sometimes whilst researching family histories something grabs your attention and leads you into a journey of the unknown and, in the case I'm going to discuss here, irrelevant but fascinating information. I recently bought a book from the Northampton Museum called Stories Behind The Headstones edited by Anne Garraway. The book was written by a group within the Northampton University of the Third Age (Northampton U3A) and gives a short description of each person in the Towcester Road Cemetery who has a Commonwealth War Grave. This book got me thinking... a lot of my research is in and around Silverstone and Towcester.  So I thought I'd look to see what graves were on the website www.cwgc.org. The results for Silverstone (St Michaels) Church, which is where my grandparents and various ancestors are buried came up with two results..... (image from www.cwgc.org retrieved 7/10/2014) Neither of these are connected to my ancestry.  However, I was drawn to the name of Algernon Joseph ...

Anne Elizabeth Ayres - 1857 to ??????? Every once in a while when delving into family history you hit a brick wall.   In my family history I've been battling with a massive brick wall for at least the past year.  Every once in a while I like to revisit this brick wall to see if I can chip away at another brick.   So what do I know about this elusive woman.. Well first of all when she was born.    Anne Elizabeth Ayres was born in Helmdon in the 4th Quarter of 1857.  She was baptised in Helmdon on 6 December 1857.    Her parents were John Ayres (1825 - 1883) and Esther Cadd (1829 - 1882) In 1861 she was living in Helmdon, Northamptonshire with  John Ayres 33 Ertha Ayres 31 John Ayres 6 Eliz Ann Ayres 3 George Willm Ayres 1 Ann Cadd 27 Ann Cadd is Esther's sister In 1871 she was living in Helmdon, Northamptonshire with  John Ayres                        45 Esther Ayres   ...