This research diary is the main tool I use to keep track of my genealogy progress. I jot down names, records and sources that I think are interesting but don’t currently fit in the tree or are speculative. My goal is to make it low effort to capture information quickly rather than in a formal way.
Since May 2023 I have written diary entries straight on this website but prior to that the diaries consist of a series of yearly word documents (now PDFs). I’m slowly migrating the old research diaries from PDF format to this site.
I’ve been writing up some of the DNA analyses we’ve been working on recently, using BanyanDNA to build trees of matches and evaluate different hypotheses.
The three cases we’ve focused on all involve trying to establish how our family connects to clusters of DNA matches that appear to form a distinct family group. To do that effectively, we need to research the unknown cluster independently, build a tree that places all the matches in relation to one another, and then form hypotheses about the likely relationships. BanyanDNA then evaluates each hypothesis against the strength of the DNA connections between matches, using the number of shared centimorgans as the measure.
For the past month I’ve been working on improving this site and genster, the program that generates it from my Gramps database. I’ve removed the dependency on the Hugo site generator which gives me more control over the templates and simplifies them a great deal.
This has also allowed me to add in more cross referencing. My goal has always to create a narrative about family history, to try and make it more than simply a dry list of names, dates and places. I want to weave together research, theories, speculation and evidence to present the best picture of my family history I can. I also want to make it more engaging for members of my family who aren’t quite as obsessed as I am!
My early conception of what I wanted was quite wiki-like and in the early 2000’s I was keeping research notes in a desktop wiki (ZimWiki I think) and I could transclude sources into a research narrative. Mentioning a census entry could bring a text transcription of it into the current page with a link to the original to delve deeper. I’ve been thinking how I could steer this site more in that direction.
In the meantime I’ve been improving linking together of the different types of content. The tag pages now group together people, stories, diary entries and questions: for example.
I’ve added summaries for diary entries to make it easier to browse them and pick out a half remembered one.
But the biggest new area is the section for open questions. Many of these existed in diary entries or in research notes attached to individuals. I’ve started pulling these out into more structured summaries of the research problems. Often when facing a tough problem I put it down for months or even years and having something to read when I pick it up again is very valuable. I started writing diary entries like this one that summarised where I had got to but I started forgetting when and if I had written a summary.
For example, this question about the parents of Alfred Rogers came about because I stumbled on a diary entry from 2024 that reminded me that we had done some interesting work and then parked it.
I’ve categorised open questions as brick walls where we have performed exhaustive searches, unresolved where we have parked a problem and puzzles that are questions that add to our knowledge but aren’t stopping us getting further. There is also a resolved category… for when we actually solve an open question!
I’ve also been doing lot more writing up of family history, as was my stated goal for this year. I finished the largest write-up of them all: a history of the Chambers family from Suffolk which runs to at least 55 printed pages. I’m currently working on a similar document for the Tew family and then I’ll move onto the Dineens and Hemmings who both have major brick walls in the early 19th century.
As a postscript I noticed that this site is now over 3GB in size! Obviously the majority of that is images stemming from my desire to have copies of the source documents readily inspectable.
Arms : Arg. three palets gu. on a chief or four mullets of
the second. Crest — An arm in armor, the hand grasping a
battle axe, all ppr.
Henry Tew, father of Richard Tew, of Newport, R. I ,
lived at Maidford, Northampton Co., England, and it was there
Richard Tew married Mary Clarke, as the following instru-
ment, recorded in Rhode Island, in Book I, Land Evidences,
Sec’y of State Office, shows “this indenture, made the 18th
day of Oct. in the 9th year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord,
Charles of England and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith,
etc. Between Henry Tew, of Maidford, County of Northamp-
ton, Eng. , Yeoman, and William Clarke, of Prior Hardwick, Co.
of Warwick, Eng., Yoeman witnesseth : That for and in con-
sideration of a marriage by the grace of God, shortly to be had
and solemnized between Richard Tew, son and heir apparent
of said Henry and Mary Clarke, one of the daughters of said
William Clarke, etc., etc.” Then follows an engagement
entered into by Henry Tew, to make over on his part, to his
son Richard, houses, barns, tenements, etc.
In 1640, Richard Tew and his wife Mary Clarke, came to
New England, his daughter, Seaborn, receiving her name
because born on the voyage over. In subsequent years he
became a Quaker, and had recorded upon the Friends’ Records
his children’s births. 1642 he lived in Newport. In 1654,’ 56,
‘57, ‘58, ‘6°, ‘63, he was Commissioner. In 1655, Freeman.
In 1657, ‘62, ‘63, ‘66, ‘67, he was Assistant. In 1661, he was
on a committee to receive contributions for the agents in
England, (Roger Williams and John Clarke). In 1663, he is
named in the Royal Charter, granted Rhode Island by Charles
II. In 1663, ‘64, ‘65, he was Deputy to the General Court.
In 1667, he was on a committee appointed in the matter of
Prison and Pound. In 1671, he was member of a special
court to try two Indians.
A tradition of the family relates that he died in London,
in 1673, where he had gone to look after some property.
His widow, Mary Clarke, died about 1687. His will was
proved March 27, 1674. Executors : Son, Henry Tew, of
Newport, and brother, John Tew. He calls himself of New-
port in Rhode Island in New England, Yeoman, and now of St.
Leonards, Shoreditch, Middlesex, Eng. “Being desirous to
settle my affairs and concerns which I have in Old England,
my native country, according as I have already done in New
England, etc. To brother John Tew, of Towcester, Co. of
Northampton, doctor of physick, 20s. to buy him a ring to
wear for my sake. Rest of goods in Old England to my son
Henry, of Newport, in Rhode Island, etc.
Children of Richard and Mary (Clarke) Tew were:
Seaborn, b. June 4, 1640.
Elnathan, b. Oct. 15, 1644, d. Jan’y 11, 17 18.
Mary, b. Aug. 12, 1647, d. . . . 1688.
Henry, b 1654, was Deputy Governor of Rhode
Island in 17 14, and d. April 26, 1718.
The Tew coat of arms is in the North Burying Ground,
Prov., R. I., on a stone to Lydia, wife of Paul Tew, grand-
son of Richard. She died Aug. 30, 1751.
Henry Tew1 m. Ellen.
Richard Tew2 m. Mary Clarke, 1639.
Elnathan Tew3 m. Thomas Harris, Nov. 3, 1664
Nicholas Harris4 m. Anne Hopkins.
Jedediah Harris5 m. Patience Brown.
Nicholas Harris, M. D.6, m. Phebe Tibbits, Feb. 25, 1773.
Nicholas Brown Harris, M. D. 7, m. Martha Carmichael
Sept. 7, 1806.
Sometimes you discover evidence that makes you re-evaluate your interpretation of the past. Today was one of those days.
As I mentioned last time I’ve been cataloguing the images of Suffolk parish registers, adding citations to the appropriate events in Gramps. Today I was tackling the parish of Spexhall. This is where I believed my ancestor Robert Martin baptised several of his children with his first wife Mary Fisher (not my ancestor).
He married Mary Fisher on 26 May 1785 in Cratfield, a parish just a couple of miles away from Spexhall. He was a singleman, she a spinster. Their first child, conveniently named Mary Fisher Martin, was baptised there on 8 Dec 1785.
The family then appear to have moved to Spexhall. Their first child baptised there was Robert Francis Martin on 3 Jan 1787. The baptism entry reads “Robert Francis son of Robert and Mary his wife (late Mary Fisher Spinster) an infant” leaving no doubt that this is Robert Martin and Mary Fisher. They proceed to baptise a further four children until Mary dies in 1793. Her burial entry reads “Mary wife of Robert Martin of this parish aged 32 years”.
Now, this is where I previously believed that Robert married my ancestor Ann Chatten. I have them marrying five year later on 28 May 1798 back in the parish of Cratfield, he a widower, she a singlewoman. They went on to have seven children, all baptised in Cratfield, including my great-great-great grandmother Mary Ann Martin.
This was all neat and I was very happy with the sequence of events… Robert met Mary in Cratfield, they moved to Spexhall where Mary died, then he moved back to Cratfield to marry Ann.
The fly in the ointment came today when I noticed the appearance of some baptisms in Spexhall of the children of Robert Martin and his wife Jane, late Reynolds. This includes the curiously named Meyter Reynolds Martin in 1801 and George Martin in 1805. There was also the burial of their son, Robert George Martin in 1803 and a burial of Francis Martin on 2 Jan 1803 whose entry reads “Francis son of Robt Martin and Mary (his late) wife”. This was probably Robert Francis, the son of Robert and Mary Fisher, who had been baptised in 1797.
I wasn’t sure whether this was a different Robert Martin or not. The burial of Francis in Spexhall while my Robert was baptising children in Cratfield (including one, John, on 24 Jan 1803 just three weeks later) suggests that this is the same Robert who married Mary Fisher. But perhaps it really is a different Robert who happened to move to Spexhall with his wife.
I looked for the marriage between Robert and Jane Reynolds and found it in Lakenham, near Norwich on 27 Nov 1800:
Copy of entry of marriage for Robert Martin and Jane Reynolds, from the parish register of The Parish Church in the parish of Lakenham, Norfolk, 27 Nov 1800, Page 58, No 164
Here Robert is described as a widower of Spexhall!
So I have two Robert Martins, both widowers, marrying after the death of Mary Fisher.
Luckily, I now have the images from the parish registers of Suffolk so I can look at the actual marriage to Mary Fisher in Cratfield:
Copy of entry of marriage for Robert Martin and Mary Fisher, from the parish register of The Parish Church in the parish of Cratfield, Suffolk, 26 May 1785, Page 42, No 124
And I can compare it with the marriage to my ancestor, Ann Chatten, also in Cratfield:
Copy of entry of marriage for Robert Martin and Ann Chatten, from the parish register of The Parish Church in the parish of Cratfield, Suffolk, 28 May 1798, Page 62, No 185"
The first thing I noticed is that in the first marriage, to Mary Fisher, and the marriage to Jane Reynolds, Robert could sign his name. The Robert who married Ann Chatten could not sign. So this is pretty conclusive evidence that my previous interpretation of the records was wrong.
So, instead, the interpretation has to be:
A Robert Martin married Mary Fisher in Cratfield, they moved to Spexhall to have children, where Mary died, then he married Jane Reynolds in Lakenham, returned to Spexhall and continued to have children.
My ancestor Robert Martin married an unknown woman, then married Ann Chatten in Cratfield, going on to have seven children with her.
It means my tree is sadly less rich, but more accurate. I will also have to review the baptism I have for Robert (12 Mar 1760 in the parish of Redenhall with Harleston just over the border in Norfolk) to determine which Robert it belongs to.
One final thing to note is that I have a DNA match of my aunt’s connected to Robert and Mary Fisher. The match is only 8cM and they would be my aunt’s half 4th cousin 2x removed. Almost certainly now this person is related via another Suffolk connection.
Interestingly I have six DNA matches traced back to Robert and Ann Chatten, but only this one to Robert and Mary Fisher. I do recall thinking this was a little unusual, but put it down to the children or grandchildren of that marriage dying out. Now I have a better explanation.
I made an important new discovery today. A couple of weeks ago I discovered that Ancestry had added images and an index of the Suffolk Parish Registers. This was big news because I have never been able to look at the Suffolk registers, yet that county is the heartland of my maternal grandfather’s family. Up until now I’ve been relying on the excellent transcripts and indexes provided by the Suffolk Family History Society, and I’ve probably spent over £250 buying them over the past 10 years.
As soon as I learned the register images were available I extracted a list of all Suffolk baptisms, marriages and burials in my family tree (thanks Gramps for making this easy!) and set about taking copies of the images for each. That process only took a few days but since then I’ve been painstakingly reviewing them and adding citations for each in Gramps.
I reached the Brooks/Brighten part of the family and added all the various baptisms, marriages and burials around Eliza Brooks who married John Booty. Eliza was my ancestor Rebecca’s sister. Rebecca herself has always been a mystery. For many years, more than three decades in fact, all I knew about her was her name and that she was the unmarried mother of my ancestor George Brooks, baptised in 1819 in Weybread. After much searching back in 2021 I found her baptism as Rebecca Brighten just over the border in Norfolk as well as a number of siblings. Still, that was all I found, after 1819 she seemed to just disappear. I had always suspected that she may have married later on and I couldn’t find any records simply because didn’t know her married name.
That appears to be true. Ancestry turned up the Banns of Marriage between a Rebecca Brighten and James Rose in Weybread in 1820. This is due to the new Suffolk records being added. It didn’t suggest the marriage but I soon found that by browsing the register images:
Copy of entry of marriage for James Rose and Rebecca Brighten, from the parish register of The Parish Church in the parish of Weybread, Suffolk, 18 Oct 1820, Page 11, No 31
I am pretty sure this is my ancestor. She is marrying as Rebecca Brighten, although at the time the family were generally known as Brooks. She had been baptised Brighten, and her son was named Brooks, so it’s surprising that a year later she was calling herself Brighten again. Her father by this time was calling himself James Brighton Brooks.
The piece that convinces me is the first witness: Eliza Brooks. This is almost certainly her sister Eliza, who had been baptised Eliza Brooks, even though they shared the same parents.
Luckily both Rebecca and Eliza could sign their names so I can compare Eliza’s signature on Rebecca’s marriage entry and on her own three years later. They look very similar:
Copy of entry of marriage for John Booty and Eliza Brooks, from the parish register of The Parish Church in the parish of Weybread, Suffolk, 19 Jun 1823, Page 16, No 46
The first witness on Eliza’s marriage signed James B Brooks, which is Eliza and Rebecca’s father James Brighton Brooks.
One thing that gave me pause was Eliza’s age. She was born on 9th February 1808 which would make her twelve and a half at the time of Rebecca’s marriage (and nearly fifteen and a half when she married John Booty). I did some research and I learned that there was no legal age limit to be a witness to a wedding, the person just had to be capable of witnessing it (from Barbara Dixon’s incredibly detailed guide to civil registration in England and Wales, sadly offline but available via the Internet Archive)
I do wonder why Eliza was the witness and not Rebecca’s father, James. I also wonder what became of my ancestor and her son, George. From a cursory glance at the records it looks like Rebecca moved to the Chediston and Halesworth area about eight miles to the south-east of Weybread. The first mention of George after his baptism is his marriage in 1839 in Fressingfield, which neighbours Weybread. Did George live with his mother and her husband or did he stay with his grandfather on the farm in Weybread?
I found the burial of a Rebecca Rose on 8 Jul 1850 in Halesworth,which led to her death certificate. She died on 5 Jul 1850 of heart failure, survived by her husband James.
So, it’s that time again… another re-evaluation of all the Josephs in the Chambers line in Suffolk.
The problem is that I can’t determine which Joseph married Frances Brundish in 1787.
My last attempt at organising that (see diary entry for 18 Sep 2024) left the tree like this:
JOSROOT = (1) Mary Edwards = (2) Mary Hill
| |
| |
------------ |
| | |
JOS1680 JOS1691 JOS1714 = (1) Elizabeth Stigold
| (2) Frances Brundish
|
|
|
Elizabeth Gooch = JOS1738 = Sarah Meen
| |
| |
| |
| |
JOS1767 James (my ancestor)
| 1794
|
|
|
JOS1797
However since that date I found the burial of an Elizabeth Chambers in Fressingfield in 1810 noted as the “relict of Joseph”. I have attributed this burial to Elizabeth Stigold who married JOS1714 in 1737. This means that JOS1714 can’t have married Frances Brundish as he would have still been married to Elizabeth.
For reference, these are the relevant baptisms of the various Josephs that explain how I have labelled them:
27 Jun 1680, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph Chambers, of Fressingfield, in Fressingfield (JOS1680)
1 Mar 1691, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph Chambers, in Fressingfield (JOS1691)
6 Oct 1714, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph Chambers, in Fressingfield (JOS1714)
26 Dec 1738, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph and Elizabeth, in Fressingfield (JOS1738)
4 Jul 1765, baptism of Joseph, son of Mary Chambers, in Cratfield (JOS1765)
1 May 1767, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Chambers, in Fressingfield (JOS1767)
8 Jan 1797, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph and Susan Chambers, late Botwright, born 19 Nov 1796, in Wisset (JOS1797)
I labelled the father of JOS1680 as JOSROOT, this is Joseph Chambers baptised 1649 in Ubbeston.
I also labelled the following marriages:
1 Oct 1674, marriage of Joseph Chambers and Mary Edwards, in Fressingfield (JOSMAR1674)
25 Aug 1713, marriage of Joseph Chambers, of Fressingfield, and Mary Hill, in Woodton, Norfolk (JOSMAR1713)
3 Feb 1737, marriage of Joseph Chambers, singleman, and Elisabeth Stigold, singlewoman, in Bedfield, (7 miles south of Fressingfield) (JOSMAR1737)
28 Jul 1766, marriage of Joseph Chambers,singleman, and Elizabeth Gooch, singlewoman, in Metfield (JOSMAR1766)
25 Jul 1785, marriage of Joseph Chambers, widower, and Sarah Meen, in Fressingfield (JOSMAR1785)
17 Jan 1787, marriage of Joseph Chambers, widower and Frances Brundish, widow, in Fressingfield (JOSMAR1787)
13 Oct 1788, marriage of Joseph Chambers, singleman, of St James, and Susanna Botwright, singlewoman, in Wisset (JOSMAR1788)
And the following burials
29 Aug 1676, burial of Joseph Chambers, in Bardwell (20 miles to west of Fressingfield) (JOSBUR1676) (note that in 1685 a Mary Chambers was buried in Bardwell with the note that she was the wife of Joseph a deceased merchant, her abode was London)
14 Jun 1684, burial of Joseph Chambers, infant, in Fressingfield (JOSBUR1684)
26 Mar 1694. burial of Joseph Chambers, son of Joseph, in Fressingfield (JOSBUR1694)
6 Jul 1765, burial of Joseph Chambers, son of Mary, in Cratfield (neighbouring parish) (JOSBUR1765)
16 Aug 1777, burial of Elizabeth Chambers, in Fressingfield (ELIZBUR1777)
21 Feb 1782, burial of Elizabeth Chambers, wife of Joseph, in Fressingfield (ELIZBUR1782)
11 Oct 1807, burial of Joseph Chambers, in Fressingfield (JOSBUR1807)
21 Mar 1815, burial of Joseph Chambers, age 79, in Fressingfield (JOSBUR1815)
3 Dec 1854, burial of Joseph Chambers, age 85, in South Elmham (neighbouring parish) (JOSBUR1854)
To these I have added
30 Jan 1810, burial of Elizabeth Chambers, relict of Joseph, in Fressingfield (ELIZBUR1810)
8 Jul 1820, burial of Sarah Chambers, age 70, in Fressingfield (SARAHBUR1820)
6 Jun 1784, banns of marriage for Joseph Chambers, widower, and Sarah Robinson, widow (JOSBANNS1784)
1 Nov 1799, marrriage of Joseph Chambers, singleman, and Eliza Arden, spinster, Bury St. Edmunds. He was a serjeant in the 46th regiment of foot. (JOSMAR1799)
I don’t know who Sarah Robinson is. As far as I can tell there were no deaths of a Robinson in Fressingfield at all, so I don’t know who she was married to. The marriage itself does not seem to have taken place.
The current situation on the tree is as follows:
Joseph Chambers (JOSROOT), b. 1649, d. ???, married:
Mary Edwards, b. ???, d. 1713 in 1674
Mary Hill, b. ???, d. ??? in 1713
Joseph Chambers (JOS1714), b. 1714 , d. 1807 (JOSBUR1807), married:
Elizabeth Stigold, b. 1716, d. 1810 (ELIZBUR1810) in 1737 (JOSMAR1737)
Joseph Chambers (JOS1738), b. 1738, d. 1815 (JOSBUR1815)
Elizabeth Gooch b. ???, d. 1782 (ELIZBUR1782) in 1766 (JOSMAR1766)
Sarah Meen, b. 1751, d. 1820 (SARAHBUR1820) in 1785 (JOSMAR1785)
Joseph Chambers (JOS1767), b. 1767, d. 1854 (JOSBUR1854), married:
Susanna Botwright, b. 1762, d. 1830 in 1788 (JOSMAR1788)
In my previous diary entry I had JOS1714 marrying Frances Brundish after the presumed death of Elizabeth Stigold. However I now believe Elizabeth died in 1810. In the entry this Elizabeth was described as the “relict of Joseph” which is consistent with JOS1714 who died in 1807.
The 1785 marriage between Joseph Chambers and Frances Brundish describes them both as widowed. Frances appears to have been born Frances Meen, and married Daniel Morley in 1753, then William Brundish in 1766. A William Brundish died in 1785 in Fressingfield. This suggests she was born some time before 1735. There is a baptism of a Frances Meen in 1714 in Redenhall, just over the border in Norfolk. As far as I can tell there is no close connection between Frances Meen and Sarah Meen.
I have also discovered something else that may help the mystery. JOS1738 had a sister, Sarah, b. 1742, who married a William Brundish, b. 1743. William’s parents were William Brundish, b. 1708 and Mary Reuben. Mary died in 1758, and in 1766 William married Frances Morley, née Meen.
This would mean that Frances Brundish had been married to the father of Sarah Chambers’ husband William. This is suggestive that Sarah’s father JOS1714 was the one who married Frances Brundish née Meen, since they would be of the same generation.
In other words Frances Meen married Sarah Chambers’ father-in-law, then may have married Sarah’s father.
However, currently none of the Joseph’s in my list could have married Frances Brundish, or could have planned to marry Sarah Robinson:
We can rule out JOSROOT since he would have been far too old, over 138!
We can rule out JOS1767 since when he married Susanna Botwright in 1788 he was described as a singleman.
I have JOS1714 married to Elizabeth Stigold from 1737 until his death in 1807. This assumes that ELIZBUR1810 “Elizabeth Chambers, relict of Joseph” in 1810 is Elizabeth Stigold.
I also have JOS1738 married to Sarah Meen from 1785 to his death in 1815 (fathering 5 children with her). This assumes his previous wife, Elizabeth, died in in 1782 as per ELIZBUR1782 “Elizabeth Chambers, wife of Joseph”
Finally I have JOS1765, the illegitimate son of Mary Chambers, born in Cratfield but he died the same year
To help organise my thoughts I put together a timeline of the Josephs and their spouses.
25 Aug 1713, marriage of Joseph Chambers, of Fressingfield, and Mary Hill, in Woodton, Norfolk
6 Oct 1714, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph Chambers, in Fressingfield
4 Dec 1716, baptism of Elizabeth Stigold, in Saxtead
3 Feb 1737, marriage of Joseph Chambers, singleman, and Elisabeth Stigold, singlewoman, in Bedfield, (7 miles south of Fressingfield
26 Dec 1738, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph and Elizabeth, in Fressingfield
30 Mar 1751, baptism of Sarah Meen, in Laxfield
24 Apr 1753, marriage of Daniel Morley and Frances Meen, in Mendham
4 Jul 1765, baptism of Joseph, son of Mary Chambers, in Cratfield
6 Jul 1765, burial of Joseph Chambers, son of Mary, in Cratfield
28 Jul 1766, marriage of Joseph Chambers,singleman, and Elizabeth Gooch, singlewoman, in Metfield
4 Dec 1766, marriage of William Brundish, widower and Frances Morley, widow in Fressingfield
1 May 1767, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Chambers, in Fressingfield
16 AugFressingfield 1777, burial of Elizabeth Chambers, in Fressingfield
21 Feb 1782, burial of Elizabeth Chambers, wife of Joseph, in Fressingfield
6 Jun 1784, banns of marriage for Joseph Chambers, widower, and Sarah Robinson, widow
2 Mar 1785, burial of William Brundish, in Fressingfield
25 Jul 1785, marriage of Joseph Chambers, widower, and Sarah Meen,singlewoman, in Fressingfield
17 Jan 1787, marriage of Joseph Chambers, widower and Frances Brundish, widow, in Fressingfield
13 Oct 1788, marriage of Joseph Chambers, singleman, of St James, and Susanna Botwright, singlewoman, in Wisset
8 Jan 1797, baptism of Joseph, son of Joseph and Susan Chambers, late Botwright,
11 Oct 1807, burial of Joseph Chambers, in Fressingfield
30 Jan 1810, burial of Elizabeth Chambers, relict of Joseph, in Fressingfield
8 Jul 1820, burial of Sarah Chambers, age 70, in Fressingfield (b. approx 1750)
21 Mar 1815, burial of Joseph Chambers, age 79, in Fressingfield (b. approx 1736)
3 Dec 1854, burial of Joseph Chambers, age 85, in South Elmham (b. approx 1770)
As far as I can tell, there are no other Joseph Chambers active in Suffolk or Norfolk at this time.
One very big missing piece of evidence is the death/burial of Frances Chambers Née Meen. Possibly she remarried yet again though.
Restating the problem again in a simpler timeline:
In 1766 I can definitely state that in Fressingfield there were two Joseph Chambers, both married to an Elizabeth.
An Elizabeth, no qualification, died in 1777 (ELIZBUR1777)
An Elizabeth, wife of Joseph, died in 1782 (ELIZBUR1782)
A Joseph, widower, planned to marry Sarah Robinson in 1784 but never did
A Joseph, widower, married Sarah Meen, singlewoman, in 1785
A Joseph, widower, married Frances Brundish, widow, in 1787
A Joseph died in 1807
An Elizabeth, relict of Joseph, died in 1810 (ELIZBUR1810)
A Joseph died in 1815, age 79 (born approx 1736)
A Sarah Chambers, age 70, died in 1820 (born approx 1750)
The main problem is ELIZBUR1810, the burial of “Elizabeth Chambers, relict of Joseph”, in Fressingfield, I have associated this with Elizabeth Stigold who married JOS1714. But perhaps this is wrong. If so, when did she die?
ELIZBUR1782 the burial of “Elizabeth Chambers, wife of Joseph”, in Fressingfield is associated with JOS1738 which means he was widowed and then could marry Sarah Meen three years later in 1785.
Then, there is ELIZBUR1777, the burial of “Elizabeth Chambers”, with no qualifier. I have associated this with the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Gooch. It can’t be Elizabeth Gooch herself since she was having children up to 1780 (the register notes the parents as Joseph and Elizabeth). I feel associating this burial with a child of four is justified as on the same page the minister has clearly written the name of another woman as “W. of xxx” and another as “Widow”, which suggests the entry for Elizabeth refers neither to a wife nor a widow.
I don’t have a satisfactory resolution of the problem at the moment. On one level it doesn’t really matter: there were no children of the marriage and Frances isn’t in my direct line of ascent. But it’s untidy and leaves me feeling that there is an inconsistency that could have wider consequences.
For example, what if there is another Joseph Chambers and he married my ancestor Sarah Meen, and the Joseph who married Elizabeth Gooch went on to marry Frances Brundish? That would mean that I wasn’t related to any of the Joseph’s I’ve been researching!
There is circumstantial evidence that suggests that JOS1714 married Frances Brundish:
she had been married to the father-in-law of his daughter Sarah
she was possibly the same age, being baptised in 1714
no children from the marriage, suggesting she is too old to bear them (unlike Sarah Meen who married a widowed Joseph two years later)
I’m left with trying to formulate some hypotheses and trying to find evidence to support or disprove them.
Elizabeth Stigold died before 1787 and JOS1714 married Frances Brundish.
The circumstantial evidence suggests this.
Find a burial of an Elizabeth Chambers, or assume ELIZBUR1777 refers to Elizabeth Stigold
Find another marriage between a Joseph Chambers and an Elizabeth to account for the 1810 burial ELIZBUR1810
Find a burial for Frances Chambers
The Elizabeth in ELIZBUR1810 actually refers to Frances Chambers. Elizabeth Stigold died before 1787 and JOS1714 married Frances Brundish.
Find a burial of an Elizabeth Chambers, or assume ELIZBUR1777 refers to Elizabeth Stigold
Frances was known as Elizabeth?
The vicar wrote Elizabeth when he meant to write Frances?
JOS1767 married Frances Brundish, she died, then he married Susanna Botwright
This would mean there was an error when he was recorded as single when he married Susanna
Find a burial for Frances Chambers née Meen between 1787 and 1788
An as-yet unknown Joseph Chambers arrived in Fressingfield and married Frances Brundish. This is the least disruptive scenario. Nothing changes in my tree.
Maybe I could find a burial of a Joseph Chambers and Frances Chambers in proximity after 1787
An as-yet unknown Joseph Chambers arrived in Fressingfield and married Sarah Meen and is therefore my ancestor. JOS1738 married Frances Brundish.
Find evidence of another Joseph Chambers, such as an earlier marriage since he was a widower when marrying Sarah Meen
Potentially use DNA evidence to connect with a different line of Chambers
Find a burial for Frances Chambers née Meen
(DISCOUNTED) JOS1767 married Sarah Meen, who died by 1787 and he then married Frances Brundish
There were four children of Joseph and Sarah baptised between 1787 and 1794 so clearly Sarah was still alive
Who else does the burial of Sarah in 1820 refer to?
Here are the profiles of the Joseph Chambers discussed and their wives:
I’ve been dealing with a mild crisis of confidence in the Chambers family tree over the past couple of days. I’m in the process of writing the history of the Chambers line and reached Joseph Chambers and Mary Hill. I unpicked the very confusing state of the records a year or so back (see diary entries for 18 Sep 2024 and 24 May 2025) and was quite satisfied that Joseph married Mary Hill shortly after the death of his first wife, Mary Edwards in 1713. I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with this interpretation since Joseph would have been around 64 at the time of this marriage and I have no date of death. I also know nothing about Mary Hill, except that she would have been of an age to bear four children between 1714 and 1720.
The crisis of confidence was caused by looking again at the dates of the events of Joseph’s first wife’s burial and his subsequent marriage:
Mary Edwards was buried on 9 Jan 1713 in Fressingfield.
Joseph married Mary Hill on 24 Aug 1713 in Woodton, Norfolk.
I suddenly realised that pre-1752 the new year began on 25 March which makes the January date ambiguous. In the legal and clerical calendar January 1713 would occur after August 1713. If this was the case then it would blow up the current interpretation of events making it impossible for the Joseph married to Mary Edwards to have married Mary Hill.
It all comes down to what actual day the text “9 Jan 1713” represents and where it came from. This burial entry comes from the Suffolk Burial Index prepared by the Suffolk Family History Society. Their policy is to write dates as they are written in the register and leave any interpretation up to the researcher. However, this policy can’t be taken literally as it was common for registers to write the year at the start of a new section and then only the month and day against each entry. Thus it would be possible, and quite common, for the sequence of entries to run Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb within one year.
The Suffolk Burial Index doesn’t contain any indication of the order of entries, but the Suffolk Baptism Index does. Each entry has a number XX/YY which indicates the page and sequence on the page.
The Suffolk Family History Society published a list of corrections for their indexes in March 2025 which luckily included a large swathe of baptism entries for Fressingfield in 1713 in entry order.
Here’s the entries in order for the crucial part of 1712/1713:
10/12 - 28 Sep 1712 John CORNABY
11/1 - 21 Nov 1712 Samuel HALL
11/2 - 5 Dec 1712 Sarah TALLANT
11/3 - 14 Dec 1712 Ann BORRETT
11/4 - 31 Dec 1712 Elizabeth MILLS
11/5 - 20 Feb 1713 William COOPER
11/6 - 20 Feb 1713 Ann LOWDE
11/7 - 8 Mar 1713 John ALEGOOD
11/8 - 13 Mar 1713 John CARTER
11/9 - 12 Apr 1713 Mary HAMBLIN
It’s obvious here that the minister was changing the year in January. 1 January was widely recognised as the natural or civil New Year long before 1752.
I checked another parish, Dennington, and saw the same convention being used at that time. So I’m satisfied that the burial of Mary Edwards occurred on 9 Jan 1713 before the marriage to Mary Hill on 24 Aug 1713. Crisis averted.
In dual dated form, 9 Jan 1713 would be written as 9 Jan 1712/3.
I found a mention of a William Snowling receiving parish assistance for emigration from Suffolk in 1836 in the Suffolk Roots Journal, Vol 14, No 2, Apr 1988 on Page 40. The entry reads:
SNOWLING William, age 15, parish of Fressingfield
This must be the son of William Snowling who was sentenced to transportation to Australia in 1822. The younger William was baptised on 30 May 1824, but this entry suggests he was born earlier, in 1821. This answers a question I had about his parentage since he was baptised after William senior was convicted and transported. If he was born in 1821 then he is almost certainly William senior’s son.
Unfortunately the page does not state where William emigrated to but presumably it was Australia, where his father was.
Update 20 Feb: In the booklet “The Evolution of a Village” it states that 6 families and 2 single men emigrated to America from Fressingfield. The parish paid £275 for a total of 25 people who sailed from Ipswich
Wid. (p. 80), Cookley, 2 hearths with William Hunt sen.
Widow (p. 134), Halesworth, 2 hearths, certified, with Widow Glandfeild[sic]
Widow (p. 180), Kelsale, 3 hearths, certified, hearths shared with Widow Ade and Hallocke
Widow (p. 239), Rickinghall Superior, empty house with two hearths
Wid. (p. 239), Rickinghall Superior, 2 hearths, certified, hearths shared with Andrew Nurse
William (p. 281), Thelnetham, 4 hearths shared with Thomas Ward
(unnnamed) (p. 290), Ubbeston, 2 hearths, certified, in house with Francis Rush
The hearth tax returns contain three Chambers households in Ubbeston:
James, 2 hearths
Just the surname “Chambers”, 2 hearths, certified as being poor
Mary, 2 hearths, certified as being poor
I suspect that James was the James buried in 1684 and Mary was the spinster buried in 1676
The unnamed Chambers may have been Jeremy/Jeremiah chambers and his wife Rachel. They had at least three children, the last of which was baptised in 1669 in Ubbeston. Jeremy was buried in 1692, still in Ubbeston, so it’s likely he was living there in 1674.
This week we visited Risca and the Gwent Archives to search for more clues about the origins of Joseph Ximenes and to give us an opportunity to get more familiar with the local area.
On Monday we drove down to Risca and spent the afternoon exploring. First we visited the site of Full Moon cottages, a row of small houses where Bridget Dineen and her daughters, including my great grandmother, Louisa Hemmings, lived in the 1890s. There are no traces of the buildings now and the light railway that ran in front of the cottages now forms a walking path called the Sirhowy Valley Country Park.
This photograph was taken at the Full Moon junction looking east. The cottages would have been at the base of the hill to the right just beyond the small building. The Full Moon Inn was opposite, on the left of the picture. The path on the left leads down, quite steeply, to the Sirhowy river across from which would have been the North Risca Colliery where Joseph lost his life. The river is close enough that it can be heard constantly at this location, although it can’t be seen due to the overgrown vegetation. The colliery would have been close enough to see from the cottages and certainly close enough to hear and feel the explosion that night.
After lunch we visited Waunfawr Park in Crosskeys where a plaque was erected commemorating the four large mining accidents that struck the village. The plaque is a couple of hundred metres west of the bandstand on the ground in a small well tended garden.
We then made our way to Risca Old Cemetery to see if we could locate the grave of Louisa’s older brother Frank Hemmings. We knew it was there because it has been catalogued as part of the Find-a-Grave project.
After a while we found it adjacent to the central path that runs through the cemetery. The cemetery rises there giving a brilliant view of the surrounding mountains. The gravestone has developed a list and the writing is beginning to fade. It’s a memorial to Frank and his widow Emily who died 41 years after him in 1957. A second, smaller, memorial stone to Frank is installed below the main headstone.
After the cemetery we walked down to the war memorial which is further down the road. Beyond that lies the church of St. Mary the Virgin which is where Joseph, along with thirty nine other miners, was buried after the mine disaster. As far as we know there is no memorial to the miners there and we didn’t have time to visit.
We had planned to spend Tuesday and Wednesday at Gwent Archives at Ebbw Vale. We managed to make excellent progress on Tuesday and looked at all the records we had planned. We decided to take Wednesday off to look around the area some more. In the event we had to cut our trip short and return home as we got a call from our neighbour to tell us our house alarm had been triggered.
Catholic Registers
We examined the register of baptisms for St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church on Stow Hill in Newport. We hoped to find entries for Bridget and Joseph’s four children that might contain clues as to other possible friends or relatives of Joseph. We searched the entirety of the last register which covers the period we were interested in 1872-1880 1
Unfortunately we didn’t find any baptism entries of the Hemmings children. We had assumed they would be there because Bridget herself was baptised there and married three times at the church, including in 1872 to Joseph.
However we did find the baptisms there of Bridget’s earlier children John Bryan and Jane Palmer.
John was baptised on the 30 Oct 1865 under the name John O’Brien. As with all the entries in the register the priest wrote the main entry in Latin and the side entry in English. John’s parents were recorded as Patricii OBrien and Birgitta OBrien formerly Dineen. His godparents were Gulielmus Dineen and Julia Murray. These are both new names and Gulielmus (William) Dineen could be a new relative to investigate.
Jane was baptised on 11 Oct 1868 under the name Mary Jane Palmer. Her parents were Danielis and Birgitta Palmer formerly Dineen. Unusually only one godparent is given: Anna Probert.
A catholic chapel was consecrated in 1967 so I asked where the registers would be. Risca falls under Pontypool, a single set of registers which appear to cover about 20 local chapels. I imagine there was one priest who would officiate baptisms at the various chapels as needed.
In those registers we found the baptism of Frank Hemmings2. He was baptised as Francis Hemmings on 15 Jun 1873 in Risca, just over a month after he was born. His parents were given as Josephi Hemmings and Birgitta Hemmings formerly Deneane. The godparents were Dionysius Deneane and Maria Mansell. Dionysius is most likely Bridget’s brother Dennis and Maria her sister Mary who married Edward Mansell in 1872.
We also found the baptism of Helena2, noted as Ellen Hemmings, baptised on 25 Jul 1880, just seven days old and only ten days after her father, Joseph, was killed. Her parents were recorded as Josephi and Birgitta Hemmings, formerly Dineen. The godparents were Jeremias Deneen and Joanna Townly. Jeremias is probably Bridget’s brother Jeremiah. I don’t know who Joanna Townly is but the name seems familiar.
We did not find the baptisms of Louisa or Rosearia despite searching carefully twice over the period 1872 to 1880 and also looking beyond to about 1887. Either Louisa was baptised later, as an adult, or there is another chapel or register that we did not find. Louisa and Rosearia were both born in Newtown, Mynyddyslwyn which is probably to the north and west of Risca along the Sirhowy river (the precise location of Newtown has not been identified, but Full Moon is often stated as being in Newtown too). There is a chapel at Usk that has baptisms from 1876 which could be looked at next time, or Tredegar which is at the northern end of the valley in which Risca is situated. All these Catholic registers are in the process of being digitised so hopefully they will be online soon.
We found the marriage of Joseph and Bridget in 1872 and got a better photograph of it. We also found Bridget’s marriages to Patrick Bryan and Daniel Palmer. We already have civil registration copies of these so there is no new information but it was interesting to see the original register entry too.
I had ordered the Newport Board of Guardians workhouse minute books4,5 to search for references to Bridget and her family. Many years ago I had found a Bridget Palmer in the Workhouse in 1871 but I wasn’t fully convinced that it was my ancestor. I felt that the name wasn’t that unusual and had seen another Bridget Palmer. The census entry stated that the Bridget Palmer was aged 32, married and a needlewoman, born in Ireland.6
In the event I didn’t find anything of interest or relevant to Bridget and her family. We requested the Admission and Discharge books for Oct 1869-Sep 1871 and found the Bridget Palmer from the census entering the Workhouse7.
She was admitted on the 11 Feb 1871 with two children John and George. She was the wife of Samuel Palmer a sailor and was born in 1835. This is more than enough to be able to say that this Bridget was not Bridget Dineen.
This leaves a mystery: where was Bridget Dineen in 1871. Her son John Bryant was resident as a foster-child with Sidney and Charity Smith in Radstock, Somerset (there appears to be no family link that I can find). Her daughter (Mary) Jane Palmer was living with Bridget’s mother Mary Nihan and two of her brothers: Jeremiah and John Dineen.
Crew Lists
The other main set of records we examined were crew lists for ships bound to or from ports in Portugal or the Americas, hoping to find a mention of Joseph. The problem with these records is that there are hundreds of possible ships to check and each ship would lodge three or four lists per year. We also don’t actually know when Joseph arrived, just that he married Bridget in October 1872. Finally, all this is compounded by the fact that only 10% of the relevant crew lists are present at the record office. A further 10% are at the National Archives, 10% at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich and the remainder are at the Maritime History Archive in Newfoundland. This distribution was made to cater for the vast number of records. Gwent Archives seems to mostly have records from the years ending with a 9, in our case the most relevant ones were 1869.
We weren’t sure what to expect but now we have reviewed some they are quite short documents, usually 2-3 large pages listing the crew, including their places of birth. If we found Joseph in one of these records then it would be invaluable. In the event we did not find any trace of Joseph. We also thought it would be good to find Patricio Herrera, a Chilean national who was living in Risca in 1871. We know he arrived on the the Forest King from Spain in 1868 and there’s a very small chance that he and Joseph arrived together. Unfortunately Gwent does not hold the crew lists for that ship at all.
The Forest King was one of a fleet of ships owned by Nelson Hewertson, a timber merchant who had established himself as a successful merchant (he was later to become Mayor of Newport). Some of the the ships, including the Forest Prince, Forest Princess, Forest Queen and Forest King were plying route including Lisbon, Pomaron (Pomarão) in Portugal and Madeira. Pomaron was the nearest navigable point on the Guadiana River, upstream of which was the São Domingos Mine, an English-run copper mine.89
We examined the following crew lists:
D907 Newport 56525 - Forest Prince - 163 tons 1869-1879
D907/1/13 Official log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1869
D907/1/14 Offical log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1869
D907/1/15 Account of voyages and crew, home. 1869
D907/1/16 Official log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1868
D907/1/30 Official log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1869
D907/2/22 Official log book, crew agreement and release, foreign. 1869
D907/2/23 Official log book, crew agreement and release, foreign. 1869
D907/2/24 Official log book, crew agreement and release, foreign. 1869
D907/2/25 Official log book, crew agreement and release, foreign. 1869
D907 Newport 16938 - Forest Queen - 139 ton 1869-1879
D907/1/6 Official log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1869
D907/1/7 Official log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1869
D907/1/8 Official log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1869
D907/1/9 Account of voyages and crew, home. 1869
D907/1/10 Official log book and crew agreement, foreign. 1869
D907 Chepstow 16349 - Eliza - 51 tons 1870-1879
D907/10/27 Account of voyages and crew, local. 1870
D907/10/28 Account of voyages and crew, local. 1870
There are many more (over 100) ships with crew lists in the Gwent Archives, but these are the only ones we have identified made trips to Portuguese or American ports.
As I mentioned before, there was no trace of Joseph. In general the crews were around 8-10 people and typically English. We saw a few crew members from Sweden, Denmark and Russia. There was one trip that included a Portuguese sailor Miguel de la Ruez who joined the Forest Princes from Lisbon in Feb 1869. The crews seemed to change quite a bit from voyage to voyage.
Gwent Archives; Newport, St. Mary’s Stow Hill, Baptism Registers, D/RC4/1-5 ↩︎
Gwent Archives; Pontypool, St Alban’s, Baptism Registers, D/RC1/1-7 ↩︎↩︎
Gwent Archives; Newport, St. Mary’s Stow Hill, Marriage Registers, D/RC4/6 ↩︎↩︎
Gwent Archives; Newport Board of Guardians, General Administration, Minute Books, Aug 1869-Mar 1871, CSWBGN/M1/12 ↩︎
Gwent Archives; Newport Board of Guardians, General Administration, Minute Books, Mar 1871-Oct 1872, CSWBGN/M1/13 ↩︎
1871 England and Wales Census; Class RG10, Piece 5348, Folio 23, Page: 16; ancestry↩︎
Gwent Archives; Newport Board of Guardians, Workhouse Administration, Admission and Discharge Books, Woolaston House, Oct 1869-Sep 1871, CSWBGN/I/208 ↩︎
