The Reverend Andrew Amos, 1863-1931, Footballer and Vicar

Andrew Amos; bottom, third from the right 

Andrew Amos was born in St Stephen's Vicarage on the New Kent Road, to the Vicar of St Stephen's and his wife. He went to Charterhouse school, studied for a Bachelors degree at Clare College, Cambridge, and took an MA in 1891 (having "connections", the admissions procedure was slightly different for him than it is now). Not only was my three times great-uncle part of the Church of England clergy (ordained Deacon of the Diocese of Durham in 1887, and Priest-in-Charge of the Clare College Mission in Rotherhithe, London 1889-98), but he also played "soccer"! He played for Corinthian Eleven and was part of the amateur England Eleven. He was also political, a member of the Labour party. His wife, Susan Amos (nee Connolly), was also an elected Labour Councillor in 1922. Andrew Amos died on the 2nd October 1931 at Guy's Hospital, London.

The insightful inscription on his tombstone says:

Andrew Amos Priest

Passed over 2nd October 1931

"I have fought the fine fight

I have kept the faith."

New Year, New You? | 2015 on Days With The Dead

Hello to you and I hope that 2015 is treating you well. Lets not mention the unacceptable gap between my last post and this one, which leads me onto my main point. I've never been much of New Years Resolutions person and 2015 isn't much different. Generally we make too many ambitious resolutions and give up the gym, teetotalism or museum date nights after January. However, I've decided to put finger to keyboard and set in stone some historical goals for the year ahead. 

As I mentioned before, I have been atrociously bad at keeping up with this blog over the past year and that has partly due to not having time and not making time for genealogy. I hope my goals for 2015 will change this!

1) Start researching more of my family tree again.

2) Blog my progress here on Days With The Dead.

3) Volunteer in a museum/archive/library.

4) Read at least 1 non-fiction history book.

What are your historical goals this year?

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!

An Online Adventure: Researching for Free and 18th Century Aristocracy

I have a lot to thank my paternal grandparents for in terms of all the family history and enthusiasm for research that they have passed down to me. When I was contacted by my grandad a couple of years ago concerning who his great-great grandparents William and Caroline Lamb were I hit a brick wall. Shamefully, with little information to go on and records going back to the 18th century scarce, I gave up very quickly. On Friday I finally picked up the research query again, this time simply using the free research engine that is Google and came across not one but a whole line of 18th century aristocrats, the Ponsonby baronetcy! In genealogy you frequently have to take a leap of faith and working out that William Lamb (my grandad's great-great grandfather) and William Lamb (1779-1848) 2nd Viscount Melbourne and Prime Minister of England were one and the same opened up the family tree to a plethora of stories. As a prime minister he seems not to have been regarded highly, but is described as "kind, honest, and not self-seeking". He was the son of Lady Elizabeth Lamb (nee Milbanke), socialite and London lady. Lady Melbourne was known not just for her political influence but also for her friendships and romantic relationships with members of London society including Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, George, Prince of Wales and Lord Byron. I'm happy to say that I can finally answer my grandad's questions about his family!

Happy Hunting!

Secret Millionaire: In The Family!

So, I don't live in a mansion or take tea with the queen, but the other day I made a very interesting discovery about one of my ancestors. As far as I was aware none of my ancestors have every been particularly rich. That was until I found the 'England and Wales National Probate Calender', which records how much money people left in their will when they died, and discovered that one of them had left a lot of money. My three times paternal great-grandfather William Albert Stratton (1824-1893), who  was born and lived in Sussex, England, was a landowner and left £91,295 19s 2d (the equivalent of £5,467,714.94 in today's money) to his family in his will. I was pretty amazed as it seems he wins the prize for my richest ancestor. I wonder where my share is?!

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.

Blue Blood and 13th Century English Monarchy

Through some documents passed down to me by my granny I can trace my history to King Edward III of England (and Edward II and Edward I)! While it's exciting to be able to say that he is my 22nd great grandfather, given the 700 year history between us it also means that a lot of people can also claim the same relationship! He was born in Windsor, England on 13th November 1312 and married Philippa Hainault of France. So here are the links, beginning with my paternal great-grandmother Agnes Grace Cancellor.

Agnes Cancellor (1901-1994) daughter of Ada Radcliffe (1866-1906), daughter of

Rebecca Fenwick (1837-1923) daughter of Nicholas Fenwick (1802-1843), son of

Robert Fenwick (d.1829) son of Robert Fenwick (1716-1802), son of 

Elizabeth Clavering daughter of James Clavering (1665-1707), son of

John Clavering (1641-1688) son of James Clavering (1620-1702), son of 

John Clavering (1591-1648) son of James Clavering (1565-1630), son of 

Ann Grey (1532-1616) daughter of Dorothy Ogle (1515-1570), daughter of

Margaret Gascoigne (1473-1515) daughter of William Gascoigne (1445-1487), son of

Joan Neville (1431-1464) daughter of John Neville (1416-1482), son of

Mary Ferrers (1394-1457) daughter of Joan Beaufort (1379-1440), daughter of 

John Plantagenet (1340-1399) son of Edward III (1312-1377)

Ffew!! I'm exhausted at the idea of being related to all those people who lived through 700 years of English history!

Welcome to My Family Tree!

My love of history and investigative research led me to start researching my family tree on Ancestry.co.uk, in 2006. I have now been periodically adding to my tree, and researching different stories that it has brought up, for 6 years and have 549 family members in my tree. That's some family gathering! So welcome to my blog where I will sporadically update the blogosphere with some of the twists and turns of the lives of my ancestors, over 700 years in some cases.