Caroline Lumley was Ari’s 4x great-grandmother, born in 1834 in Rous Lench, Worcestershire. According to my tree, she was the third daughter of John Lumley, a farm labourer, and Ann Loyd, a “field woman”. Rous Lench village green The 1841 census shows the family living at Rous Lench, where John is an agricultural labourer. In 1851, Caroline is sixteen and working as a glover. Caroline’s grandfather, Thomas Wright, is living with the family in Rous Lench. He is described as a

Ari’s 6x great-grandmother Ann Willis was born in Grafton Flyford, Worcestershire, in 1769. She was the second daughter of Edward Willis and Mary Marshall. Grafton Flyford Ann was baptised on 22 October 1769 at the church of St John the Baptist. On 16 October 1792 she married agricultural labourer John Bishop at the same church, with her sister Mary acting as a witness. She and John had eight children between 1793 and 1813. Ann died in October 1840 and was buried at the same

One of Ari’s 6x great-grandfathers was William Dancocks. He was born in about 1756 in Kempsey, Worcestershire, the son of Elizabeth Dancocks, and baptised on 16 October 1761 at St Mary’s Church. There are no records of William until his marriage in 1790 to Nancy Martin. There is a record of a William Dancocks being sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for poaching, but the criminal register gives his age as 25, so maybe a grandson? Worcester Journal, 9 March 1837, Findmypa

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

So Ari now has a new baby sister, Eva Rose Gwendoline, and of course all of these people are her ancestors too. I think she is going to have her own blog, once I’ve found an alliterative name for it 🙂 One of Ari and Eva’s 7x great-grandfathers was a yeoman, Francis Poole, born in Oddingley, Worcestershire in about 1745, the father of Betty. I haven’t found his baptism yet, but he had a brother John (baptised in 1741) and a sister Mary (baptised in 1745), both in Oddingley. T

John Perkins was Ari’s 6x great-grandfather, born in about 1772 (according to his burial record). He was a farmer, living in Oddingley, Worcestershire, and married to Betty Pool. Pasture and Church Cottages, Oddingley, photographed in 2006 by Robin Baker, Geograph.org.uk A document titled “Worcester Cathedral Muniments B Class leases and charters” (held at Worcester Cathedral Library) contains the following details about the land leased by John Perkins (spelling as original):

Elizabeth (Betty) Pool was one of Ari’s 6x great-grandmothers. She was born in about 1774 in Oddingley, Worcestershire, which is “pleasantly situated about 3½ miles to the south-east of Droitwich on the slopes of a valley through which run the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the Bristol and Birmingham branch of the Midland railway” (https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/worcs/vol3/pp456-460). Worcester and Birmingham Canal approaching Oddingley, Worcestershire Betty marrie

Ari’s 5x great-grandfather, John Tyler, was born in Huddington, Worcestershire, in 1811. I haven’t found his baptism or parents yet. On 25 Nov 1833, he married Sarah Perkins at St John the Baptist in Crowle. The church when we visited in October 2017. The first record we can actually see is the 1841 census. This shows the family in Sale Green, with a daughter Mary (born in 1839), Sarah’s mother Elizabeth (Betty), and a ten-year-old, Mary Hughes. Bluebells in Trench Wood, Sale

Ari’s 8x great-grandmother, Alice Robinson, was born in 1709 in Huddington, Worcestershire and christened on the 10th of April that year. Huddington St James. Churchyard gate. The year was remembered as being the coldest in Europe for 500 years (see this New Scientist article on the Great Frost). Four scenes of war, poverty and death. 1709 etching by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. British Museum Online Collection. Alice was the daughter of John and Mary. On 11 October 1731 she marri

One of Ari’s 6x great-grandmothers was Ann (Nancy) Martin, who was born in 1770, probably at or near Kempsey in Worcestershire. This reflected arch carries a footpath over the flooded Hatfield Brook near Kempsey church. I haven’t found a record of her baptism yet, so I don’t know who her parents were. In April 1790, she married William Dancocks, an agricultural labourer, at the church of St Mary in Kempsey. Ann and William had seven children: William, James, Thomas, Charlotte

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

One of Ari’s 4x great-grandfathers was Robert Butler, who was born in 1837 in Bredicot, Worcestershire. Bredicot is a small parish in the centre of the county, about 4 miles east of Worcester. A traditional Bredicot barn Conveniently, Robert was born in the year that civil registration of births became compulsory, so we know that his father was Thomas Butler and his mother was Elizabeth Reynolds. He was the first of their nine children, and was baptised on 5 October 1837 at t

The canal at Tibberton Joseph Sheppard was Ari’s 5x great-grandfather, youngest son of Joseph Sheppard and Ann Day, and husband of Mary Bishop. He was born in about 1806 in Huddington, Worcestershire, and married Mary Bishop on 15 August 1832 in Grafton Flyford. Their first son, Joseph, was born in 1840. In the 1841 census they are living in Sale Green, and Joseph is listed as an agricultural labourer. Another son, William, was born two years later, and then a daughter, Ann.

Ari’s 7x great-grandfather William Day was born in 1735 in Huddington, Worcestershire and christened on 30 September, the son of John Day and Alice Robinson. The little church at Huddington is in the grounds of a fifteenth-century manor house called Huddington Court, famous for its connection with the Gunpowder Plot. You can read the story in this interestingly named AA walking guide! You have to walk through the garden to get to St James’ church. On 14 Oct 1762 William marri

Joseph Sheppard (or Shepherd) was one of Ari’s 6x great-grandfathers, born in 1752 in Worcestershire, possibly in Hanbury, as that is where he was living at the time of his marriage. St Werburgh’s Church, Hanbury – monument to Sir John de Hanbury (detail) No baptism for him has been found in Hanbury, which is near Droitwich. When he was 33, Joseph married Ann Day in Huddington, as shown in the parish register: They had nine children between 1786 and 1806, the youngest of whom

Today we found the grave of William Sheppard, Ari’s 4x great-grandfather, and his wife Angelina. They are both buried at the church of St John the Baptist in Crowle, Worcestershire. William was born in 1843 at Sale Green in Worcestershire, and christened on 24 Feb. at Huddington church. Parish chest in Huddington church William’s father Joseph died when he was just five years old. In the census for 1851 he is living with his mother Mary, a ‘pauper gloveress’, and older brothe

Mary Bishop was Ari’s 5x great-grandmother, born in 1809 in Grafton Flyford in Worcestershire. Mary was the seventh of eight children of John Bishop and Ann Willis, who had married in 1792. She was christened on 30 Dec 1809 at the church of St John the Baptist, and married at the same church at the age of 16. Her husband was a farmer, Joseph Sheppard (spelled Shepherd). We can see Mary in the 1841 census living at Sale Green with her husband Joseph, an agricultural labourer,

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

This week I received a document from Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, discovered when I was searching the National Archives catalogue. It refers to Edward Willis, Ari’s 7x great-grandfather, and is titled: Epiphany 1766: Removal Order Edward Willis & wife Mary from Grafton Flyford to Upton Snodbury [sic]. It comes from the Worcestershire Quarter Sessions. The Epiphany quarter was January, and this document is dated 9 December 1765. What the document is telling

William Henry Sheppard was Ari’s 3x great-grandfather, born on 3 Nov 1865 in Crowle, Worcestershire. His mother was Angelina Tyler (see my post of 17 July 2017). From the various national censuses we know that William started out as a farm servant (indoor). In 1881 he was on a farm at Dunhampstead, Himbleton. By 1891 at the age of 25 he had married and was the head of his own household, listed as one of several families living at Malt House, Crowle, with his wife and their fo