| From Inner Tube to Shoemakers |
| part 6 |
| James Grocott Hawkins, spot on. We were on the right track! From the Birth Certificate we also got the name of his father....John Hawkins,and the name of his mother, Charlotte....nee Grocott..so that explained his middle name. At this point I'll just explain something about the Archives, you get to know a few people and an exchange of information takes place, so if I came across a name which someone else was looking for, I would make a note of it for them, and vice versa. Well, one such person I knew as Kath was aware of my quest and one day at the Archives she was looking at a microfilm and shouted me over. "Is this of any use?", she said, pointing to a partcular entry at "Northwood Farm". I was absoloutely delighted to see the names " James Hawkins"..."Phoebe". It was the 1871 census and the following people lived at Northwood Farm:- William Gould 52yrs. Sarah Gould, 50yrs., Sarah Gould, 23yrs., John Gould 19yrs., Anne Gould, 17yrs., John Gould, 1mth., James Hawkins, 19yrs., Phoebe Hawkins, 17yrs., Emma Hawkins, 1mth. So I had found the couple in 1871, apparently with their first child, obviouly living with the In Laws at this farm, well, I don't think that they lived in a farmhouse, I think it was just the area name. I couldn't thank Kath enough and she was delighted that she had been of help. We took stock of what we had found, where we were. Well, we had solved the Grocott mystery. It was his mother's maiden name. We had found Phoebe and the name meant nothing to my father, he had never known his Grandparents. James and Phoebe were to become somewhat of an enigma for us, as you will see. That blasted inner tube! All this work! We loved it! Before we go any further back, I should like to dwell upon James and Phoebe, they were quite a remarkable couple who produced no less than thirteen children, a remarkable effort, by anyone's standards! So Alfred, my grandfather, had twelve brothers and sisters, which means that my father had a staggering twelve aunts and uncles......not much family!!! My father was amazed! Of that twelve, seven were male, so somewhere out there I could have dozens of relatives, and I haven't a clue who they are! Just for the record, James and Phoebe's children were, with baptism dates...Emma, 1871, Frederick, 1873, James, 1875, Charlotte, 1877, Ann, 1878, Alice, 1879, Ernest, 1881, John, 1883, Lily, 1885, William, 1886,Moses, 1888, Alfred, 1890, Charles, 1891......phew!...Can I stop now? I bet Alfred was never short of clothes!! |