I thought Ari’s 5x great-grandfather, Henry Tarrant, was born in about 1793 in Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire. Hurstbourne Tarrant But that wasn’t quite right, as the story shows. As I start this blog post I don’t yet know who his parents were. There is a family story that perhaps his name wasn’t originally Tarrant, so there is a bit of a mystery that I’d like to solve. The first record we have for him is his marriage, to Elizabeth Liddiard, on 5 Oct 1823. Wiltshire, England,

Elizabeth Mitchener was one of Ari’s 4x great-grandmothers. She was born in Goodworth Clatford, Hampshire, in December 1840, in time to be in the 1841 census at five months old. Her father was Charles Mitchener and her mother was Mary Henrietta Smith. Elizabeth was baptised at St Peter’s church in the village. By the time of the 1851 census, Elizabeth was ten and attending school in the village, along with her little brother Walter. Her father Charles had died when she was on

Jane Day was a 6x great-grandmother of Ari’s. She was born on 29 January 1773 in Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire (we know this because the baptism record gives the date of birth as well). Her parents were Stephen Day and Martha Iles, and she was their second child and first daughter. St Peter’s, Hurstbourne Tarrant There are no records of her life until the 13th of October 1794, when she married an agricultural labourer, Thomas Smith, at St Peter’s Church where she had been ba

Joanna Collins was born in about 1745, and was Ari’s 7x great-grandmother. On 10th October 1765, she married John Holloway and they had four daughters. Joanna died in April 1797 and was buried on the 14th at All Saints, Upper Clatford in Hampshire. I had thought that this was all I knew about Joanna, but I have just found this website, which tells me that she was baptised on 19th July 1744, and was the daughter of William Collins and Joanna Bendal, who went on to have another

Ari’s 5x great-grandmother Mary Henrietta Smith was born in 1811 in the village of Chilbolton in Hampshire. The River Test between Chilbolton and Wherwell She was the fifth child of Thomas Smith and Jane Day, and was baptised on the 2nd of June at the church of St Mary the Less. There are no other records for Mary until 1832, when she married Charles Mitchener. They lived in Goodworth Clatford, where they had four children. Their first daughter, Frances Mary Edith (known as F

John Holloway, of Upper Clatford in Hampshire, was Ari’s 7x great-grandfather. The village of Upper Clatford is described as “long and straggling, lying on both sides of the Andover road” (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol4/pp359-365). The parish registers go back to 1571. On 10 October 1765 John married Joanna Collins at All Saints’ Church. This puts his date of birth at approximately 1744. John and Joanna had four daughters: Elizabeth, Joanna, Mary (who died as

Ari’s 5x great-grandfather Asher Butt lived in Christchurch, Hampshire (now Dorset). View from the castle Christchurch was originally called Twyneham, and this story from the National Gazetteer of 1868 explains how it got its new name: “This circumstance is accounted for by the monkish legend which relates the history of the building of the church. In order to expedite so good a work, Heaven aided the bishop with supernatural assistance, a supernumerary workman being always o

Charles Mitchener was one of Ari’s 5x great-grandfathers. He died young, and sadly very little is known about him. He was the youngest son of Richard Mitchener and Elizabeth Holloway, born on 1 Nov 1810 in Goodworth Clatford, Hampshire, and baptised on the 11th (the notes in the Hampshire baptisms collection on Findmypast say “11 days, nee Holloway, lab”). On 19 May 1832, Charles married Mary Henrietta Smith at the village church of St Peter. Charles and Mary had four childre

A blog about finding all of the direct ancestors of my grandson Ari, and learning as much about them as I can.  His birth has given me an opportunity to focus on part of the family tree, looking again at all the records I have and searching for new ones. I know at least a little bit about 547 of his direct ancestors. They lived in places as far afield as: Memel (now Klaipeda); Grafton Flyford in Worcestershire; Middleton by Wirksworth in Derbyshire; Corfe Castle in Dorset; Ba