Genealogy Chat

(What kind of School Fete goes on till nearly midnight?!?!) Done some sleuthing on the Walkers and it looks as if cousin Jim really WAS a cousin! (And therefore, so was the illustrious Gus Walker) I am just sending off for George Henry Walker's birth cert, to confirm that his mother was indeed Harriet Foden - I cannot believe that he would take a Harriet born Congleton, as his wife, and then take Harriet, born Congleton as his cook, its just too much of a coincidence. Wonder if he described her as a cook in 1901 as a kind of black marital joke? OC

:-))) need more biog on Gus, OC? btw I assume you know Holden is a big family in Bognor? xx Jen

Jen Thanks for the offer of the biog, but it is now his quiet brother Jim who is occupying my interest ...never born...never married...never died! I want to know why he was living with his cousin and not with his family. I'm not surprised to hear the Holdens are big in Bognor, they are big everywhere, as you would know had you ever tried to search for James Holden.....!! (They could never think of another first name for a boy, they were all called James) Olde Crone

:-))) ahh well, good luck to you! Have met a Rob H who talked of cousins inc Jeremy H, who both missed out on the Bognor Holdens' money! Hard to know difference between legends and reality sometimes. xx Jen

Oh well, there may be more than a grain of truth in it! The last remaining 'Heir of the Manor' died in Bognor I believe! But they werent called Holden, they were Greenwood, I think - the male line failed and Mrs Greenwood was the eldest Holden daughter. She applied to the College of Heralds and to the House of Lords, to be recognised as the legal Heiress, with the right to bear the Holden Arms and this was granted. My particular branch parted company with the Landed lot very early on unfortunately and havent got a ha'penny between the lot of them! Sad, isnt it. Olde Crone

I didn't see this before! TIP!! (for me!).......never look at Ancestry's transcripts when you can look at the original pages! Ancestry has Harriet as the cook of their next-door neighbour, Mr Liversidge, and I didn't notice! I couldn't understand who you were talking about before, but now it has all sunk in! The sort of fete that goes on 'til midnight is the sort where they insist on counting the money from all the stalls (about £3,500 in mixed loose change).........first each stall individually and then all the money in one pot. Finding the two didn't balance, but with £50 more than we should have.....they still decided we should check it all, which took flippin' ages and we didn't find any mis-calculations. What a waste of time! I suggested we buy some wine with the spare £50, which didn't go down too well!! ''Ooooh, but we would have been very concerned if the money had been short'' they said. (But it flippin' wasn't, was it!). I pointed out that if one of us wanted to nick £100, we would have just recorded that the white elephant stall took £100 less than they really did, and pocket the difference. lol Do you think they will be requiring my services next year???!! Merry

Something i found interesting in this thread too. The name Foden in Congleton.Makes me wonder if there is a connection to the two truck making factories in the area. Foden and ERF are the makes,two branches of the same family who made trucks from the early steam trucks through to about 2000. Glen

Oops, Sorry Laura!......****smacks hand very hard**** Glen.....for goodness sake.......you will have the Crone on here all evening telling us about her truck-making ancestors! This George Henry Walker, whose mum is probably Harriet Foden, was a mechanical engineer. Maybe he had his head under the bonnet of a truck?!! Maybe it was in his genes??! Merry

Christine, no, not as far as I can tell, but he does bear a very strong physical 'Holden' look! Oh God, Merry, was Harriet Foden REALLY next door's cook? I am going to KILL my brother - I have sent off for not one, but two BCs for George Henry Walker, both registered in the same quarter, same place and didnt dare put ANY checking points on, cos I want to know who the other GHW belongs to! As far as I know, this lot are nothing to do with Foden trucks, but then, I didnt know Harriet Foden existed until last week! All Foden men in the 1840s called a daughter Harriet, so there are about 30 to choose from and this could all be an awful coincidence.... Wish I'd minded my own business. Olde Crone

just for the record: my non-salary-earning mum always puts 'domestic manager' on census and antthing else that would normally require 'housewife' I think I'll do the same - sounds much more like the real job of running a house sarah :-)

Merry Now I remember why I resigned from my children's school parents' association! OC If you kill your brother that will be the extra homicidal looney I need to get the bonus award! Sarah Manager implies that you talk a lot of hot air and push paper about. Domestic Engineer gives an idea of the intricacy and technical expertise required. nell

Nell I fear we have lost all chance of any award, after Ron the genealogical printer's post - we only have 100,000 names, that man must have every human being who ever lived on this planet. Yes, very thankful that my School Fete days are over, School Fetes make arranging a Royal Garden Party for ten thousand guests look like a doddle. OC

No, no, no, no! She wasn't nextdoor's cook, but Ancestry think she is!! The page reads..... John Walker, head George Walker, son Harold Boratt, lodger Harriet Foden, cook Ernest E Liversidge, head etc.... The double line between households comes after Harold Boratt and before Harriet, so Ancestry have made her the first person in Mr Liversidge's household. If you look at the address column, John Walker is listed at 121 Victoria Road and Harriet is listed at 123 Victoria Road, BUT..... There is a very clear arrow showing the address (123) should be on the following line. Therefore the double dash from the enumerator should also be on the following line. Had it been, then Ancestry would have transcribed correctly! (Well, let's give them the benefit of the doubt, shall we?) They keep asking me if I want to be on the PA committee......well, they did up to Friday afternoon...........lol Merry

Is it too late for your brother? Merry

What did Ron say, then?? I can't see his post about feeding the 100,000 or whatever it was??? Merry

Merry Think Ron's post is on General. He has printed a tree for a customer, which starts with God.... Don't go on the PTA, all the other Mums will stop talking to you, thinking you have gone posh, and keep asking you when you are going to something about the parking problem outside the school. My brother has a temporary reprieve, due to Corrie. Oc

Do they have God's birth cert then? Oh..............I suppose He has always existed (in fact, rather like my 3xg-grandfather.......he was never born either!) Glad to hear your brother was reprieved by Corrie. I'm sure the Home Secretary will be pleased to know he is out of a job. Would take a Million to get me on the PA. Much more fun to criticise those who ARE on it! Merry

Oh, Merry, how well I recall the days of being the PTA treasurer (thank goodness my kids are grown up now). We had a bank manager on the committee. He was a complete nightmare when adding up small change. His wife claimed he only got to be a bank manager because he was so lethal as a cashier that they had to promote him off the front desk! Do you have to do the bit where you take several thousand pounds of small change to the bank in a very large container (takes 2 to carry it), with a couple of other mums riding shotgun? Sorry - quite off topic but it just all took me right back. Tina

Well I'm not doing that bit, but expect someone else is. Am used to change (small!) as I was a bank cashier for years....I loved it until we entered the 1990's and ''selling'' became the thing :o(( We used to have competitions to see how many bags of coin we could carry at once! lol Sad really! Merry

My ex husband was a Structural Engineer and one day he got a very flustered call from a local Post Office. We had just all been blessed with the one pound coin - the extra weight of these coins had caused the Post Office safe to fall through the floor into the foundations! OC