Ari’s great-great-grandmother, Nellie Wheeldon, was born on 23 Feb 1911 at 167 Nottingham Road, in Belper, Derbyshire. Her father, John Edgar Pearson Wheeldon, registered the birth on 3 April. He gave his occupation as blacksmith (journeyman). Nellie’s mother was Elizabeth Anne Murfin. We have a copy of her birth certificate that was issued for the purposes of unemployment insurance in 1932. She appeared in the 1911 census at five weeks old: 1911 census, Ancestry.co.uk Her ch

Samuel Sims was Ari’s 7x great-grandfather. View of the Derwent valley from Broadholme Lane He was born in 1727 in Broadholme, Belper, Derbyshire, and baptised on 24 September that year at St Alkmund’s in Duffield. Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812, Ancestry.co.uk Samuel’s parents were James Syms and Hannah Barber, and he was their fifth child. On 11 February 1752 Samuel married Mary Smith at the church in Duffield. Derbyshire,

Henry Dawson was one of Ari’s 5x great-grandfathers. He was born on 18 April 1810 in Duffield, Derbyshire, the son of a linen weaver, Francis Dawson, and Martha Dunn. His baptism took place on 12 May 1810 at Duffield’s Presbyterian Chapel. England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567–1970, Ancestry.co.uk (Notes from Derbyshire County Council’s online catalogue: “The Presbyterian Chapel in Wirksworth Road, Duffield, was built before 1790. In the early 19th

Ari’s 6x great-grandfather John Sims was born in Heage, Derbyshire, in 1775 and baptised on 17 July at St Alkmund’s Church, Duffield. His parents were Samuel Sims and Mary Smith. Sheep grazing in the snow, below Heage Windmill On 19 May 1807 John married Sarah Badder at Bradley, near Ashbourne. They had a daughter, Sarah in 1810, and then John’s wife Sarah died in January 1815 just after giving birth to a son, John. Derbyshire, England, Church of England Burials, 1813–1991, o

Samuel Boothby was Ari’s 6x great-grandfather, born in Duffield, Derbyshire, in 1781. He was the fourth child and first son of Samuel Boothby and Anne Radford, and was baptised at St Alkmund’s in Duffield on 20 March 1781. Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538–1812, Ancestry.co.uk (Unusually, the mother gets a mention!) Makeney Road bridge from a public footpath between it and St Alkmund’s Church, Duffield, Derbyshire. The next record fo

Ari’s 5x great-grandfather William Boothby was born in 1809 in Milford, Belper, Derbyshire. The River Derwent from Milford Bridge, looking downstream and south. The river passes over two V-shaped weirs. The well dressing at Milford from 2017 William’s parents were Samuel Boothby and Elizabeth Saunders (both cotton framework knitters), and William was baptised on 2 July 1809 at St Alkmund in Duffield. Derbyshire, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538

Caroline Dawson was Ari’s 4x great-grandmother, the mother of Annie Morris (whose story is told in this post). Yesterday we visited Dale Road in Derby, where she lived, and found this Sikh gurdwara. The house is still there, but is now a little shop, Oceans Travel: Caroline was born in 1844 in Duffield, Derbyshire. In 1851 she can be seen in the census, aged six, living at Upper Green. Her father, Henry Dawson, was a silk glove maker and framework knitter, and her older broth

Ari has two 11x great-grandmothers whose names I know. One of them was called Judith, and she was born in about 1640, somewhere near Duffield, Derbyshire. (Charles I was on the throne.) She married William Eyre in about 1660, and they had at least eight children: William, Samuel, George, Mary, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Sarah and Ann. Judith died in December 1717 and was buried on the 29th of that month at St Alkmund’s in Duffield. This record describes her as “of Windley”, which i

One of Ari’s 9x great-grandfathers was Joshua Eyre, born in 1706 in Hazelwood, Derbyshire. He was baptised at the church in Duffield on 25 March 1706, the fifth son of Samuel Eyre and Hannah Tomlinson. On 11 June 1730, Joshua married Elizabeth Alsop, and the couple had seven children between 1731 and 1743. I think they actually lived in Hazelwood, which is a village just north of Duffield. Their marriage record says ‘of Hazelwood’, and this is also recorded on the baptism of

Recent research has allowed me to find a few ancestors of Ari’s who lived in England in the seventeenth century, some in Dorset and some in Derbyshire. I thought it might be interesting to look at the historical context, focusing on one of these ancestors, William Tomlinson. William is Ari’s 11x great-grandfather (one of two that I have found so far). He died on 3 March 1693 in Duffield, Derbyshire, and must have been married in about 1660 (based on the baptism dates of his c