Annie Puddle's origins.

My great grandmother Annie Puddle's origins are without doubt my most frustrating brickwall. She gives only the surname Puddle for her father's name on her marriage certificate, suggesting I think that she may have been illegitimate. I can find trace of neither a birth certificate nor a baptism record, and in both the 1881 and 1891 censuses she is found lodging with an old lady called Eliza Jones, with no indication of any relationship. For further details of what I do know about Annie Puddle, please click on the following link

Richard James's birthplace.

Richard James appears on the 1841 census for Nottingham aged 60 and born somewhere outside of the county. As he died before the 1851 census, I have no idea where he was born. His wife Elizabeth seems to have been born in Lincolnshire, but as I've found no marriage for the couple, I don't know her surname. It's possible that Richard may have been born in Lincolnshire too, but I can't find a suitable baptism of a Richard James there. For more information on the James family, please click the following link

What happened to Ellen Rowberry?

My 2 x great Aunt Ellen Rowberry is proving very elusive. The last definite record I have of her is in the 1881 census in Hereford. I can't find her in the 1891 nor the 1901 census. I think she had an illegitimate daughter called Alice in 1904 in Hereford and that Alice died in 1908. I can't be sure that Alice's mother was my Ellen Rowberry, but she was living at 58 Catherine Street, which would have been next door to my great grandfather Albert Edward Rowberry (who would have been her brother), so it seems likely. For more information on this part of my Rowberry tree, please click on the following link

Teddy Brookes

My Dad remembers that we were supposed to be related to a radio sports commentator from the 1940s or 1950s called Teddy Brookes, but I have yet to find any mention of him anywhere. I think Teddy may have been short for Albert Edward and that he would have been the son of Albert Brookes born in 1885 in Herefordshire. For more information on the Brookes family, please click on the following link