Saturday 26 April 2008

One brick wall gone

Now that Ancestry uk have got most of the WW1 records on I have found out even more about James and Lewis George Ellis. I think I might even have found out what happened to John Chaplin, my great grandfather on my grandmother's side of the family. It needs a bit more research yet, however.
The research in to the lunatic, Mary Yale, is coming on apace. I've had some research done for me in Leeds, which has helped a great deal and helped me with some of the family members.
Quite by accident I have found the whole of Mary's family tree on Google Books. In a book called "The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal" I entered a search for Samuel Fenton the Leeds merchant and linen manufacturer, having an idea that he could be related to Mary Yale (ie her grandfather.)
Lo and behold, the whole family, including Mary's brother, William, who emigrated to South America in 1826.
I always had suspitions that Mary belonged to an influencial family, but here was the proof, and she was actually part, albeit minor, of the Royal bloodline.
I have been redundant now for 6 months, failing to find a job in the field I want to move in to. I have now decided that I will work self employed doing family history research for people in countries that make it hard for them to get to repositories in Nottinghamshire. More on that later