Florence was one of Ari’s great-great-grandmothers, born in 1900 in the village of Himbleton, Worcestershire. Her father was George Thomas Waters, and her mother was Mary James. Florence was their youngest child, and she can be seen in the 1901 census with her parents, two brothers and three sisters, living in Himbleton: Ancestry.co.uk The 1911 census shows that she was at school, aged 11. In 1918 Florence married Alfred John Sheppard, a railway labourer. They had six childre

Joseph is one of the fifty of Ari’s 5x great-grandfathers whose names we know. He was born in 1802 in Pershore, Worcestershire, the oldest son of William Waters and Sarah Andrews. His baptism took place at the church of the Holy Cross and St Edburga on 25 July. The church is a former abbey, built in the eleventh century. In about 1830, he married Mary, but no record has been found for this, so we don’t know her surname. In the 1841 census, Mary isn’t there, but Joseph is with

George Thomas Waters was Ari’s 3x great-grandfather, born in 1856 in Kempsey, Worcestershire and baptised on 23 March at St Peter the Great, in Worcester. Looking towards the Malvern Hills In the 1861 census we can see him age five and a ‘scholar’, living in Grafton Flyford. He is the third child of William and Emma, who went on to have thirteen children altogether. He has three little sisters, Mercy (4), Martha (1), Mary Elizabeth (five months), an older sister Sarah Ann (7)

Leigh Sinton is a parish in the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire where “the inhabitants are wholly engaged in agricultural pursuits” (The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland, 1868). Sixteenth century memorial in St Edburga’s church, Leigh. One of Ari’s 3x great-grandmothers, Mary James, was born there on 5 Mar 1857 and baptised on 5 Apr 1857. (It helps to know that the parish was called Leigh with Bransford, and the civil registration district was Martley.) Knowing h