D is for Dickenson

Thomas and Margaret Dickenson were my 7^th Great Grandparents.  I have not yet found anything about them apart from the fact they were the parents of my 6^th Great Grandfather, John.

John Dickenson was born in 1666 at Sutton Valence, Kent England and lived all his life there.  He was christened 10 May 1666.  He married Ann Masters who was born in 1670 at Mardon. 

They had eight children: Margaret, Mary, Anne, Thomas, John, Sarah, Elisabeth and Stephen.

John died at home in June 1746 aged 80 years old. 

George Edward Pearce. 1909 - 1942. Uncle George R.I.P.

 I never met my Uncle George who died in the war, four years before I was born.  But I do remember how everyone talked of him as being such a lovely person, quiet, strong and family-oriented. 

My Auntie Tibbie proudly placed a wreath at every Anzac service in his honour.  I think being the oldest in the family and him the baby, his death broke her heart and she never wanted him to be forgotten.  Their father had died in 1922 and when George died his mother Isabella was in her 50s and running the orchard with the other two brothers. Tibbie the older sister became more of a mother to her brothers. Uncle George and my father looked very much alike with my father being the thinner one. George was a bigger version, my mother said. 

I am placing some photos here, which I will eventually go through and write about.  I have collected so much information about Uncle George I still have in the cupboard to sort, I need to take time to do him justice.

George on left, Sarah(Ray, Bill, Isabella (Tibbie), Jim Pearce at Peebles Scotland about 1911.

C is for Cottam family of Culcheth

 Culcheth – a funny name to say.  A lot of my maternal relatives lived  in that area. 

My mother’s father Joseph was a Cottam and his father James emigrated from England in about 1852, married and settled in Victoria, Australia, continuing the farmer’s life. 

James ancestral line of Joseph, John, Peter, John, were all born around Culcheth.  

The early Cottam men are listed as yeomen, which meant that they held and cultivated a small landed estate making them freeholders. 

The Cottam family had lived in the Culcheth area from the 1700s and maybe longer, as that is as far back as I can verify at this point of time.  The areas listed on their documents, vary from Croft, Risley, Tyldesley, St Elphin and Leigh.  

Map showing Warrington close to the Lancashire Cheshire border.

The ocean is to the left of Lancashire.

B is for Bridie

Challenge: 

A red-haired woman with the very Irish name of Bridie Flynn arrives in Cork. 

In conversation with locals they say, you must be Irish?! 

She replies… 

 

The Challenge Response:

‘I am Irish - in my bones, my blood and hair, as you can see.  I have the features of my father who has the face and stature of the Flynns.

I come from a line of fighters - fighters for survival.  

My Great, great, great grandfather’s family of eight (like others) was struggling with hunger in the ‘Great Famine’ of Ireland.

A is for Alice Annie. A-Z Ancestor Challenge

Alice Annie Pearce was born into the Pearce family on 03 July 1868.  They lived in Dumbarton, Dumbartonshire, Scotland. 

Her father’s name was William (30 yo) and her mother was Sarah nee Clarke (32). Alice Annie was known in the family as Elsie. She was my Great Aunt, my paternal Grandfather's older sister. She was named Alice after her maternal Grandmother Alice Clarke.

  By the time she was 12 yo (1881 Census), the family had moved to Innerleithen in Peebleshire (abt 1879) and she lived at home there for about ten years.