The Suffolk Connection: A Family History Holiday

Through an odd turn of events I ended up staying in the village where my 5th great grand aunt Mary Freeman is buried. We uncovered her memorial stone under the altar at the village church, which describes her unusually as having died after 'a life of purity, piety and benevolence, and after having borne a long and painfull illnefs with truely Christian resignation and fortitude'. She had a brother John and sister Sarah and, confusingly, her parents were also John and Mary Freeman.

The link to my paternal grandparents is through Mary's sister Sarah, who married Edmund Lincoln, governor of the South Caribbean and St Vincent 1783-87. The mystery continues!

My Family in 1911!

Here's some of my family history, told through the stories of three of my ancestors living in different classes in 1911.

Upper Class:

My paternal great-grandmother Agnes Grace 'Jan' Cancellor (10) living in Kensington with her brother, aunt, and uncle, my paternal great-great uncle Henry 'Harry' Lannoy Cancellor (49). Her mother had died and her father had was exiled abroad for fraud, and she spent most of her childhood living with different 'aunts'. 'Uncle Harry' was a wealthy barrister and kept three servants. His wife, Lily 'Aunt Lil', ran a bookshop and was involved in the suffragette movement.

'Jan' Bateson (nee Cancellor), in her 80s

Middle Class:

My maternal great-grandfather Albert Miller (10), living with his parents Richard (67) and Sarah (49), sister Ruth (9) and housekeeper Ellen Message (41). His parents ran a laundry in Hailsham, Sussex.

Albert Miller, 1989 (aged 88)

Working Class:

My maternal great-grandmother Clara Wright (14), living with her parents William (37) and Clara (37), brothers Frank (9) and Frederick (3), and sister Ida (7). The family were poor and lived in the East End of London; the census shows that Clara gave birth to 2 children who later died.  Her father was a bricklayer and possibly Jewish. I believe that my grandfather Peter Wright was born illegitimately in Wandsworth in 1922, where he then was adopted and lived with a large family in Sussex.