Baldock/Fagg/Small Family History

There are probably few of you reading this who remember watching British Pathé newsreels at the cinema (no, I don’t either!). In an age before television, they fed people news from around the country, and the world. This means became very important during World War II.

Well, why not see for yourself at the British Pathe website. It’s full of newsreels you can watch for free.

I searched for “Kent”, and found quite a few. Some showed families harvesting hops, another showed a ploughing match. A third showed the first electric train to Margate, the  Kent Coast Special Southern Electric, which has this wonderful closing line…

“It’s so quick, harassed mothers in London will soon be telling their children after tea, ‘Go down to Margate and play on the sands till bedtime!’ “

After trying so desperately to locate the family of my dad’s uncle Walter BALDOCK, I may have hit on something …

I had been searching Kent records (particularly Thanet, where they had lived) for marriage records, with no luck. I knew his wife was known as Jessie, but this could have come from anywhere. Nevertheless, I finally gained the patience to search systematically through Ancestry and FindMyPast.

And there I found it! Uncle Wally and Aunt Jessie were married in Norfolk  - Erpingham district, to be precise! Walter A BALDOCK married Jessie I ABRAM !

Now armed with a maiden name, I also found six daughters; we already knew the names of some, but this confirmed things, along with birth quarter-dates, a marriage and two grandsons. Of course, all this has yet to be verified.

I now hope to get the marriage certificate, and plan to further investigate the children to seek out possible marriages, further grandchildren, and maybe locate a family member living somewhere.

The Norfolk marriage is spooky, given my belief that the BALDOCK family may have some ancestry there. Maybe Jessie was from Norfolk? Or perhaps she was a Cromer seaside holiday romance?  The certificate will help …

I managed to trace some more of my mum’s ancestry back a bit further – the NORMAN family from the Buxted area of Sussex – to the late 1700′s. All thanks to the wonderful The Weald of Kent, Surrey and Sussex website at http://theweald.org – a definite destination if you have ancestors from the area. It is very well, but simply, laid out with good accessibility, features and resources.

Pay it a visit!