Surname Saturday – Where are the Whitlocks?

My great-grandmother was Mary Ann Whitlock, born according to the census, in 1872. My father and I have both been searching for her birth in vain. We’ve also been searching for the birth registration of her twelve siblings. They appear on the census too, but not on the BMD. So where are they all? Looks as though they weren’t registered, or may have been registered under a complete mis-spelling – though it seems unlikely that all thirteen entries would have been spelled wrong.

Mary Ann Whitlock

So where are you, Great-grandmother?

Tombstone Tuesday – Aldeburgh Lifeboat Disaster

Not exactly a tombstone, but a memorial to the brave men of the Aldeburgh lifeboat, who lost their lives in 1899.

My first cousin three times removed was Allan Arthur Easter, known as Jack. He survived the capsizing of the lifeboat, but died from his injuries a few weeks later aged only 28.

A contemporary report of the disaster can be seen on the RNLI Aldeburgh website.

Surname Saturday – Reuby

Reuby is my husband’s family name, and I have about 55  in my tree, the oldest being Philip, born in Ireland in 1814. It’s often mis-spelled, and Philip’s surname was spelled Rubie in the records I’ve found. Considering the mis-spellings that come through my letter box every day, I can’t complain about the variations I need to search for in old records.

Philip’s son, also Philip, was born in Cork in 1836, and moved to London before his marriage in 1863. There are a surprisingly large number of Reubys in London around that time, possibly related, although I haven’t traced all the descendants of his brothers and sisters yet. Philip himself had 16 children that I’ve traced so far, so there are plenty of his descendants to look for.

Reuby often appears in US records as a given name, although if this is just a variation on “Ruby” I can’t discover.

Surname Saturday – Easter

Arms of Aldeburgh

The name Easter has nothing to do with the Christian festival, or the time of year. It means “of [from] the East”, and our branch of the family originated in Aldeburgh, on the East Suffolk coast.

We have 160 Easters in our tree, the earliest being William Easter, born in 1675 in Stow cum Quy in Cambridgeshire. Robert Easter, my great-great-great-grandfather, moved to London from Aldeburgh in the 19th century.

My father is the last Easter in his line, being the only son and having no sons himself.