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."

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!

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?!

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.