Baldock/Fagg/Small Family History

Ancestry has recently released the England & Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) for the period 1861 to 1941.

This has already proved (pardon the pun!) its worth – a search for the surname HAGESTADT reveals a lot of information!

The Calendars often give siblings and/or spouses as executors, and can also give dates and places of death as well as occupations of both parties, all to help populate your tree details.

Give it a look!

Last week I paid another visit to Canterbury Cathedral Archives, and had more success. I finally found the baptism (and parentage) of my unusually-named Bean HATTON (at Whitfield, near Dover), found another couple of siblings in my Eastry FAGG line (one of whom, after a quick census check, may have been a proprietor of the Five Bells public House in the village), more DAWKINS, and a whole bunch more BALDOCK line at Westwell (connection as yet unknown).
These finds enable me to take my HATTON line back another generation, further my FAGG connections, and hopefully provide more BALDOCK tools on the road to linking those multiple lines!

I have believed for quite a while that my great-great grandmother was Louisa BURROWS; I have a copy of her marriage certificate to my great-great-grandfather, Stephen CASTLE, and she was indexed as BURROWS. Her certificate is ambiguous – the ‘u’ in BURROWS could be an unclosed ‘a’. Yet I was not able to trace a birth record. I recently revisited this predicament, and believe I have solved it.

I took a pot luck and did a wildcard search online for Louisa B*RROWS, and struck gold. Various sources indicate Louisa BARROWS was born Q3 1852 in Stelling Minnis, and appears to be the daughter of George BARROWS and Mary SUTTON. This fits well, since a witness at Louisa’s wedding was one Jane SUTTON, possibly a cousin or aunt (yet to be determined). In 1861, Louisa was at the home of her SUTTON grandparents, but in 1871 was at her parents’ home, along with her grandfather, Henry BARROWS.

I can finally trace further back on my mother’s line …