Coats of arms in 16th and 17th century London
This is a guest post by John Lehman of the Coats of Arms Database website. In London in the 16th and 17th centuries basically the levels of society were commoners, gentleman, knights, baronet, baron,...
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The family origins of William Roe of Luton (b. 1811)
I wrote recently about new evidence connecting my Roe ancestors with the part of England where I now live. My distant relative Keith Roe has found a Roe family living in the village of Pirton, just a...
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The Watsons of Barkway
In my recent post about the origins of the Roe family, I reported on new information shared by my distant relative Keith Roe about Elizabeth Roe of Barkway, Hertfordshire. It seems likely that...
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My ancestors in the London of Charles Dickens: December 1843
I’m in the habit of reading a Dickens novel in the weeks leading up to Christmas. This year it’s Nicholas Nickleby, last year it was Bleak House, and the year before that Our Mutual Friend. My...
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William Robb at Witherby’s
My cousin Alison has kindly sent me some documents about our family’s history that belonged to her late mother – my Auntie Kit (Katharine May Jesse Tulk, née Robb, born 1923, died 1985). The documents...
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The death of Caleb Evans
I recently took delivery of a copy of the death certificate of Caleb Evans, a coal porter of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, who died on 3rd February 1842 at the age of 65. The certificate reveals that the...
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ThruLines™ to shared ancestors
Ancestry DNA® results can be tantalising – but also extremely frustrating. Being given a long list of strangers who may be your 5th to 8th cousins is certainly exciting – but in most cases it’s...
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Roes in Luton: the family of Peter Roe (1801 – 1873)
I continue to be intrigued by the Roe family of Luton – specifically, Peter Roe and William Roe, both of whom were shoemakers in the town in the first half of the nineteenth century. I’m convinced that...
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Roes in Luton: the family of William Roe (b. 1811)
Continuing with my exploration of the Roe family of Luton, and following on from my last post about the family of Peter Roe, in this post I’ll summarise everything I’ve managed to discover about the...
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The death of Daniel Roe, shoemaker
Yesterday I made an important discovery about my maternal great great grandfather, Daniel Roe. I’ve managed to find out a great deal about Daniel and his family, but until now I hadn’t known when he...
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Roes in Luton: the family of George Roe (1811 – 1857)
In writing about the Roes of Luton, I’ve overlooked the existence of a possible third brother – George – to go alongside Peter and William, and I’m grateful to my fellow researcher Margaret Lewis for...
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Roes in Luton: the family of Ruth Roe (d. 1840)
I’ve written recently about three members of the Roe family who lived in Luton in the first half of the nineteenth century, all of whom were shoemakers: Peter Roe (1801 – 1873), William Roe (1811 – c....
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A new blog about my Glasgow ancestors
I’ve started a new blog – Merchant City Cousins – that grows out of my research into the family of my 4th great uncle, George Robb, a merchant in early nineteenth-century Glasgow and the brother of my...
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Revisiting the French family
As often happens, an email from a distant relative has prompted me to revisit a neglected branch of my family tree. Gareth Sanger is, like me, a descendant of Stepney bootmaker Frederick French (1810 –...
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Frederick French and Emily Hindley
In the last post, I summarised what we know about the origins of the French family, and reported what I’ve managed to find out about my 3rd great grandfather Frederick French (1810 – 1887), a...
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Charles Edward Stuart Robb – schoolmaster?
I’ve discovered two ‘new’ records which throw fresh light on the life of my paternal third great grandfather, Charles Edward Stuart Robb. I’ve written about Charles in a number of earlier posts, but...
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The Robb family in Whitechapel revisited
On Saturday we were in London, visiting our daughter whose flat is on the borders of Aldgate and Whitechapel. We’d booked a table for lunch at a pub in Wapping, and our route there found us crossing...
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