Cambridgeshire
(See the site map of Cambridge and district, on which most of these villages appear, and also the site map of Ely)



Barway

In 1930, my grandparents Edmund Stanley Cornwell and Winifred Ellen Reynolds left Cambridge to live at River Bank beside the Great Ouse at Barway, one of the bleakest spots in the fens. My grandfather worked as a horseman on a farm. Three of my aunts and uncles were born and baptised in Barway. The church is now a private house. In 1933, the family crossed the river to Grunty Fen, part of the parish of the larger village of Little Thetford.



Bourn

My grandfather Edmund Cornwell's great-grandmother Elizabeth Farrington and her daughter Frances Huckle were born in Bourn in 1799 and 1828 respectively. When Frances was young the family moved to Comberton, and she married into the Cornells of Histon.



Cambridge

Eight of my sixteen great-great-grandparents were born in villages on the outskirts of the city, and would have known it well. My great-grandfather Thomas Reynolds, a horseman on farms around Cambridge in the early years of the 20th Century, brought his wife Alice Mary Anable and their family to Cambridge when the First World War broke out, and he went off to fight. They were living at Benson Place, North Street off of Huntingdon Road in May 1915 when my grandmother Winifred Ellen Reynolds's younger sister Lydia died. She was buried in Histon Road Cemetery. Their sister Salonika Ruth (Lon) was born in the same house the following year. At the end of the war, my grandmother was a servant at the great Peace celebrations on Parker's Piece in the centre of the city, and appears on this photograph.

When my great-grandfather returned from the War, he took a job as a drayman with the Star Brewery (later Tolly Cobbold) on Newmarket Road. The family moved to 4 Shelley Row on Castle Hill, where they would spend the rest of their married life. My grandmother's brother Ernest Reynolds ran a motor repair business from the house in the 1930s and 1940s. My mother remembered visiting the house often in the 1940s. Apart from my grandmother, the other girls of the family were all married at the nearby St Giles Church on Castle Street. My great-grandfather died in 1944, but my great-grandmother continued to live in the house for a number of years. She died in 1966 at her daughter Lon's house on Kings Hedges Road.

Although my grandmother and her husband Edmund Stanley Cornwell moved away from Cambridge to live in Barway and Little Thetford on the outskirts of Ely, where my mother would be born, my father, born in Ely as I was, brought the family back to Cambridge in 1964. He was working for Pye TVT, and we first lived in a series of flats in Harvey Road, before moving to St Andrew's Road and then Edinburgh Road.

Three of my grandparents died in Cambridge. Before my mother died there in 2016, we worked out that all sixteen of her great-great-grandparents had been born, lived and mostly died within twelve miles of Edinburgh Road.



Comberton

My grandfather Edmund Cornwell's great-grandfather William Huckle was born in Comberton in 1798. He moved to Bourn to marry, and then took the family back to Comberton where he died in 1848.



Dry Drayton

Both sets of my grandmother Winifred Ellen Reynolds's grandparents were living in Dry Drayton when she was born there in 1904. Her mother's side of the family stretch back through the parish registers into the 16th century. Her mother, Alice Mary Anable, was born in Dry Drayton in 1882. Alice's parents were Samuel Anable, born in 1849, and Lydia Stearn, born in 1856. Samuel's mother was Rachel Rodgers, born in 1825. Alice's brother Harry Anable is the first name on the Dry Drayton First World War memorial, and the Anable, Stearn, Rogers and Chapman names appear regularly through the Dry Drayton parish registers..



Duxford

Duxford was the birthplace of my great-grandfather Thomas Reynolds, who was born in 1880. Both his grandfathers, James Reynolds and John Carter, had moved their families to Duxford Grange for work in the middle of the 19th Century, the Reynolds from Great Sampford in Essex, the Carters from Shudy Camps in Cambridgeshire. The village has two parishes. The Reynolds and Carter families lived next door to each other at Duxford Grange, and two of their children, Thomas's parents, my great-great-grandparents Robert Reynolds and Mary Ann Carter, grew up there and married in St John's church in 1864. Thomas was probably baptised at St Peter's church in 1880. Robert and Mary Ann later moved their family to Dry Drayton, to the west of Cambridge. Robert's parents James and Abigail are buried in Duxford Cemetery.



Ely

See map. Two of my eight great-grandparents were from Ely families of long standing. They grew up in the poor Waterside district of Holy Trinity parish. Their daughter, my grandmother Phyllis Alice Page was born in Back Hill, Ely, in 1913. her father Arthur Page was born in Ely in 1879 and her mother Sophia Cross in Ely in 1882. Sophia's father was Thomas Cross, born in Ely in 1852. In the historic parish registers of Holy Trinity parish, Cross is by far the most common surname. Arthur's mother was Alice Wiseman, born in Ely 1855. The 19th century censuses for Ely contain the names of hundreds of my family from the Page, Wiseman, Cross and Carter families. Later, all four of my grandparents would be living in or very close to Ely. My grandparents Vincent Helgia Knott and Phyllis Alice Page lived at Willow Walk from 1935 and then in Chief's Street from 1947 until their deaths in 1996 and 1990 respectively. My father was born in Ely, and so was I. You can see places significant to the Page, Wiseman, Cross and Carter families on the site map of Ely.



Foxton

My great-great-great-great-grandfather Robert Page was born in Foxton in 1781. he later moved to neighbouring Harston to marry.



Grantchester

My great-great-great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Constable was born here in 1800. She married Henry Anable in Grantchester in 1823, and my great-great-great-grandfather William Anable was born later the same year and baptised in Grantchester church. Two years later, his mother died in childbirth. Elizabeth Anable is buried in Grantchester churchyard. Henry and William moved to Dry Drayton, where there were already other Anables, presumably relatives. William first married Ann Rutter in 1841, and after her death in 1847 he married Caroline Kester.



Great Shelford

My great-great-grandfather Henry Page was born in Great Shelford in 1851. His parents Robert Page and Eliza Wilson had been born in neighbouring Harston and Stapleford respectively, but they spent the whole of their lives together in Great Shelford. In the 1870s, Henry moved to Ely. He was a stonemason, and was probably working on the restoration of the Cathedral. He stayed in Ely. Other Page families in the city were possibly relatives.



Great Wilbraham

At the time of the 1911 census, my grandmother Winifred Reynolds was seven years old, and was living with her parents Thomas Reynolds and Alice Anable at Valley Farm, Great Wilbraham, where her father was a horse keeper. Her younger brother and sisters Cecilia, Ernest and Abigail were also in the household. Although the family left the village before the First World War broke out, the war memorial in the church is likely to contain names of men they knew.



Hardwick

My great-great-great-grandmother Caroline Kester was born in Hardwick in 1832.



Harston

My great-great-great-great-grandfather William Cornall was born in Harston in 1793. He was the first of the family to move to Histon, where the family would spend the next century or more. On the other side of the family, my great-great-great-grandfather Robert Page, grandfather of Arthur Page who was killed in the Battle of the Somme, was born in Harston in 1817.



Hildersham

When my grandmother Winifred Reynolds's younger sister Lydia was baptised at the family church in Dry Drayton in 1914, the parish registers recorded that she was 'of Hildersham'. Their father Thomas Reynolds had been a horse keeper on a farm at Great Wilbraham at the time of the 1911 census, and when Lydia died in 1915 the family were living in the centre of Cambridge, so they cannot have lived at Hildersham for long. Presumably Tom was working on a farm in the village.



Histon

This was the home parish of the Cornwell family. They had lived here for generations. My great-grandfather William Cornwell, was born in Histon in 1864. His father William Cornell was born in Histon in 1819.



Holywell-cum-Needingworth (then Hunts)

Needingworth is an important starting point for the Mortlock and Mansfield members of my family. My great-grandmother Eliza Mortlock was born here in 1865, as was her grandfather Abraham Mansfield. The parish church is in the hamlet of Holywell, a mile or so beyond Needingworth beside the Great Ouse. My great-great-grandparents Thomas Moody Mortlock and Eliza Mansfield have an imposing headstone in the churchyard, and there are also memorials to several of their children, my great-great-aunts. Mortlocks and Mansfields still live in the parish today.



Little Thetford

A hamlet on the outskirts of Ely. My grandparents Edmund Stanley Cornwell and Winifred Ellen Reynolds lived in Little Thetford, first at Grunty Fen and then at Green Hill, from 1933 until they died in 1951 and 1983 respectively. My mother was born in Little Thetford. I was baptised in the village church and spent the first three years of my life there.



Oakington

My grandfather Edmund Stanley Cornwell was born here in 1903. He was baptised in the church font on 27th September. His parents had moved from nearby Histon.



Prickwillow

On the outskirts of Ely, this was the original home for members of the Convine family, who married into the Carter and then Cross families. My great-great-great-grandmother Anne Convine was born here in 1834, and my great-great-grandmother Sarah Carter was born here in 1860.



St Ives (then Hunts)

My great-great-great- grandmother Keziah Clarke was born here in 1814. She married Abraham Mansfield who was transported to Tasmania for burglary, and she spent much of the first part of her life in the St Ives workhouse. Two of her sons were also in prison, one of them dying there, but her daughter Eliza, my great-great-grandmother, married into money and Keziah was able to enjoy a more comfortable old age.


Shudy Camps

My great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Carter, who married into the Reynolds branch, was born here in 1843.



Stapleford

My great-great-great-grandmother Eliza Wilson was born in Stapleford in 1819. Stapleford parish is part of the urban area of Great Shelford. Eliza married Robert Page at Great Shelford church, and they spent the rest of their lives there.



Swavesey

My great-great-grandfather Thomas Mortlock was born here in 1842. The Mortlocks were an important non-conformist Swavesey family of farmers and millers; they had arrived in the village in the 17th Century.



Toft

My great-great-great-great-grandfather Henry Anable was born here and baptised in the church on 6th September 1801. He later married Elizabeth Constable at Grantchester, where she is buried, and then married Mary Markham in Dry Drayton.






Essex

Great Sampford

This small parish near the Cambridgeshire border was the home of the Reynolds family. My great-great-great-grandfather James Reynolds was born here in 1809, and my great-great-grandfather Robert Reynolds was born here in 1842. They both gave their birthplace in census returns as 'Old Samford', but both their births were registered in this parish. The family appear to have been tailors before leaving the village to work on farms in south Cambridgeshire. There are Reynolds headstones to the south of Great Sampford church, one to Thomas Reynolds and his wife Jane who died in 1851. He was the uncle of my great-great-great-grandfather.


Radwinter

My great-great-great-grandmother Abigail Darnal was born here in 1814. She married my great-great-great-grandfather James Reynolds here in 1832.


Sible Hedingham

My great-great-great-great-grandfather Daniel Harrall was born in Sible Hedingham in 1788, and baptised at the protestant dissenters chapel in neighbouring Castle Hedingham. He later moved to Kent, where his granddaughter Mary Ann Harrall would be my grandfather Vincent Helgia Knott's grandmother.



Kent
(See also the site map of the Medway).

Dartford

My grandfather Vincent Helgia Knott was born here in 1908. He was baptised in Holy Trinity church, but the family left Dartford soon afterwards.


Gillingham

My great-great- grandfather George Knott was born here in 1843. It was the home of the Knott family for many years, and my great-great-grandfather and most of his siblings were baptised here.


Greenhithe
The Knott family, including my grandfather Vincent Helgia Knott, were living here at the time of the 1911 census. They were back in Strood before 1914.


Faversham

My great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Bowles was born in the Mall at Preston on the outskirts of Faversham in 1843. Her father was from Faversham, and the family spent some years in the Faversham workhouse. She was baptised in Preston-next-Faversham church.


Frindsbury

The Frindsbury district of Rochester was home to my great grandparents George Knott and Mary Ann Bowles from the 1880s onwards. They lived in Grange Road, where they kept a small shop until about 1920. They had been married in Frindsbury in 1872.


Higham

My great-great-grandmother Mary Ann Harrall was born and baptised here in 1850. It was the home parish of Mary Martin, her mother. Her father, John Harrall, had come from neighbouring Hoo.


Hoo

My Harrall ancestors were from Hoo. Daniel Harrall, who had been born in Essex, moved here with his wife Sophia in about 1812 to take on the ownership of a farm of 40 acres. They were strict non-conformists, having their children baptised at the Dissenters' Chapel in Strood. However, most are buried in Hoo St Werbegh churchyard. My great-great-great-grandfather John Harrall was born in the parish in 1815.


Lower Halstow

My great-great-grandfather George Waters was born here in 1849 and baptised in the parish church.


Newington

My great-great-grandparents George Waters and Mary Ann Harrall were married in this church on 15th October 1871.


Rainham

My great-great-great-grandmother Caroline Wells was born here. She married William Knott in the parish church in 1817.


Rochester
The urban area of Rochester includes Frindsbury, Strood and Gillingham, important places for the Knott family. Rochester was the place my grandfather called home. My great-grandparents William Knott and Mary Ann Waters both died in Rochester in the 1950s.


Strood

Strood, that part of Rochester on the far bank of the Medway from the city centre, is an important place for the Knott family - it was their home from the 1880s until almost the middle of the 20th Century. My great-grandparents William Knott and Mary Ann Waters were married in St Mary's church in 1892. They lived at various addresses in Cuxton Road and London Road, and then, after a brief sojourn in Dartford and Greenhithe, they returned to Strood before the First World War and spent the rest of their lives on Temple Street, which was demolished in the 1960s. Several of their children were baptised and married in St Nicholas's church.


Upchurch

My great-grandfather William Knott was born here in 1869.


Wilmington

My great-great-grandparents George Waters and Mary Ann Harrall kept the One Bull beerhouse in Wilmington, just outside of Dartford. George Waters died a few weeks after the 1911 census and was buried in Wilmington churchyard. Their granddaughter, my great aunt Daisy Knott, was married in the church a few weeks after that.



Suffolk

Mildenhall

My great-great-great-grandfather William Wiseman was born in Mildenhall in 1816. He moved to nearby Ely in Cambridgeshire to marry.


Wickhambrook

My great-great-great-grandfather Elijah Carter was born in Wickhambrook in 1833. His parents moved to Prickwillow in Cambridgeshire, and he married Anne Convine, a girl from there.

Wales

Denbighshire
My great-grandmother Mary Ann Waters was born in Llanferres to Kent parents in 1872. her father was working as a steam engine driver in a slate mine. The family were back in Kent for the 1881 census.