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 …

One has to visit a cemetery such as that at Canterbury to appreciate its scale ….

I had gone along Sunday with the hope and expectation of finding missing CASTLE ancestors which I was unable to locate in St Dunstan’s churchyard. I should have been much wiser, having gone armed with a cemetery plan which show its segmentation into smaller zones. And as usual I had not contacted the local council to determine possible plots numbers…. !

All this meant that I was relying on my usual wanderings through gravestones and along paths, recording any names which were recognisable. However, this did result in my locating two or three CASTLE graves for people not in my tree, and a Charles HATTON, which I need to investigate.

One benefit of checking by this method is that one tends to find graves which may not otherwise have been found.

All this took around 3 hours – and still probably less than a third of the cemetery checked…. !

Note to self (again) – really, REALLY, must research plot numbers with councils before visiting more cemeteries!

Having recently failed to find CASTLE ancestors at St. Dunstan’s graveyard, Canterbury, it would appear that, like Womenswold, I need to extend my research to a second cemetery.

David Wood, Chairman of the Canterbury Branch of Kent Family History Society (KFHS), informs me that I may find them buried at Canterbury Cemetery, Whitstable Road (just up from St. Dunstan’s). This cemetery opened for business from 1877 and, despite being registered in the parish of St. Dunstan’s, they may be buried there.

This would fit, since the earliest burial of this CASTLE family I have so far is 1883 – time to get hunting again!

I visited St.Dunstan’s church at Canterbury today, seeking CASTLE ancestry of my mother. Although I was unable to locate the relevant graves, I am confident of their existence from my sources. I believe that they are marked by some of the many weathered headstones.

Following this search, I moved on to nearby Blean and the churchyard at St. Cosmos & St. Damian. This was merely investigatory, with the possibility of locating a HATTON grave. Although I was unsuccessful in this goal, I surprisingly found a BALDOCK grave, for a couple I do not have, buried in the late 20th century. I now hope to trace these back for any possible links.

On Thursday I finally visited Canterbury Cathedral Archives, got my reader’s card and and spent the afternoon buried in microfiche and paper. However, my aim of finding the baptism record of John William FULLER (supposed illegitimate son of Charles LUCKHURST), born ~1824 at Dunkirk, Kent, proved fruitless.

Dunkirk church was only established following the local uprising of 1838, and therefore John would have been baptised in another parish. Despite me hunting around, I could not locate a record. Dare I use that well-oiled cliché, “he just does not want to be found” !

Nevertheless, I did locate the mother of Daniel CASTLE, born ~1814 at Stelling, Kent, and that of his wife, Eliza PAY, born ~1823 at Stelling. They were named Elizabeth and Harriet respectively.

Having now experienced Canterbury Archives, I will go more prepared next time, and endeavour to make it a whole day.

A few weeks ago my mother sought the services of a professional photographic studio to attempt to “repair” one of her family photos. It was of her grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth CASTLE (née GOLDSACK) and her adopted daughter, Daisy (born to Frances Georgina FAGG).

Despite my insistence that the photo was really beyond saving, she chose to use the services of The Studio, at Herne Bay in Kent. Despite a little artistic license being required to rebuild baby Daisy’s facial features, I think you’ll agree they did a wonderful job from a very poor original!

Before retouching

After retouching

If you have need of such services, give them a go. Check out their details at http://www.theonlystudio.co.uk/.

I received a couple of marriage certificates yesterday – George CASTLE m. Sarah Elizabeth GOLDSACK, and Richard HATTON m. Margaret GARLINGE. The latter couple appear at the edge of online records, in the early 1800s. Despite me having supposedly found Margaret’s family in early censuses, the marriage certificate suggested I was wrong! Her father is not named as a William GARLINGE, as I had thought, but James GARLINGE!

I have retained the other family records, but now have to prove which is correct via another means, and that will probably be Parish Records. After all, it is not unknown for names to be incorrectly listed on certificates!

The other certificate at least verified my maternal gt-gt-grandfather was Stephen CASTLE, and after a couple of hours I traced back to my gt-gt-gt-grandfather, Daniel CASTLE (b. ~1814 in Stelling, Kent) and a gt-gt-gt-gt-grandfather of James PAY (b. ~1796-1801), his father-in-law.
The GOLDSACKs are just too numerous for me to assume anything at the moment, but I at least found Sarah’s immediate family.

I really must get some trees online!

I received a letter back from Keith Goldsack, of the Goldsack One Name Study. He did not have my gt-grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth GOLDSACK in his study, and was seeking any information I may have to contribute to his database!

Well, Keith. As soon as I have more, I will let you know. I expect to be ordering her marriage certificate soon, to enable me to confirm her father, and that of her husband, my gt-grandfather, George CASTLE. Once I have these two, I expect to make much further progress on my maternal grandmother’s side of the family.

Watch this space …

Call me naive, but when I began my family research, I thought that my surname, BALDOCK, was fairly uncommon and that tracing people would be quite easy as a result… how wrong I was!
To top things off, I received my maternal grandmother’s birth certificate on Monday, which revealed her parents as George CASTLE and Sarah Elizabeth GOLDSACK. Suddenly, alarm bells started ringing …
You see, GOLDSACK is a very well researched name, is undergoing a One Name Study, and appears to have more variations than you can shake your fist at!

Time to make contact with Keith Goldsack, the researcher, I think!