Joseph Samuel Allen was one of Ari’s 4x great-grandfathers. He was born on 2 April 1843 in Parkstone, Dorset, the fourth child and third son of Joseph Allen and Mary Anne Tilley. His baptism took place on 11 June, at Skinner Street Congregational Church in Poole. This building is the last remaining eighteenth-century church in Poole, “constructed at a cost of £1,400. This was 1777, one year after America declared independence, 12 years before heads would roll in the French Re

Ari’s 7 great-grandmother, Ann Best, was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, in about 1759. (I have found a possible baptism in 1757, with parents Benjamin and Anne, but not yet sure if this is her.) Books in the Chained Library, Wimborne Minster On 4 May 1779, Ann married labourer Henry Allen of Corfe Mullen at St Cuthberga’s in Wimborne Minster, after banns were read on three Saturdays in April. Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812, An

Elizabeth Butt was born on 27 July 1846 in Christchurch, Dorset. Sundial Cottage, Christchurch (not where she lived, but very pretty, and for sale!) She was the daughter of William Thomas Butt and Fanny Briant. We know that her mother died when she was just a baby. At the age of four, she was living with her grandmother Elizabeth (her father’s mother), in Mill Lane, Christchurch. I’m not sure where she was in 1861, but by 1868 she had moved to Parkstone, Dorset. She married a

One of Ari’s ancestors (a 4x great-grandmother) was Mary Anne Tilley. Her christening record at St James in Poole helpfully gives her date of birth: 9 February 1812 (in the Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812 collection on Ancestry.co.uk). The magnificent Georgian interior of St James comes as something of a surprise to visitors who know little of its history. Its building in 1819–21 resulted from the old parish church having deterior