Wandering into the New Year

This blog focuses on the two hobbies which give me great pleasure (most of the time), walking and family history. As described yesterday I had plenty of family history resolutions/goals in 2010, but I don’t think there were actually any walking resolutions.

I did end up walking the South Downs Way in 2010, which I had hoped to do for some time, but it wasn’t really a new year’s resolution. I also walked parts of the North Downs Way and the Capital Ring around London in 2010, but again I wouldn’t consider either of them to have been brought about by a new year’s resolution.

For 2011 however I have a pretty clear idea of the walking I want to do. I haven’t really considered whether it is actually going to be possible to fit it all in, and of course a lot will depend on what the weather is like.

The walks I would like to complete in 2011 can be divided into three categories:

Long Distance Walks

South Downs Way – I want to do the South Downs Way again, this time it will probably be from west to east, and all in one go. In 2010 I walked it on one or two days a week, but in 2011 I want to take a week off in the Summer and do it all in one go.

North Downs Way – In 2011 my friend Chris and I need to get the North Downs Way finished and out of the way. We have about five days worth of walking to go, but it is a bit of a headache getting out into Kent to actually do it.

High Weald Landscape Trail – This is another walk Chris and I hope to complete in 2011, and one I am really looking forward to because the first half is through true ancestral landscape with opportunities to many churches along the way.

Shorter Named Walks

There are several shorter routes dotted around the south east that I would like to walk:

Worth Way – A fairly short walk (about seven miles) along a disused railway between Three Bridges and East Grinstead (both in Sussex). It shouldn’t be particularly challenging but will serve as a nice little warm up for some of the longer/steeper walks.

Chalk Stones Trail – Another shorter walk, taking in part of the South Downs and the village of West Dean, Sussex. What is there not to like?

There are also several shorter walks in London that I wouldn’t mind doing, and I would like to revisit the site of the 2012 Olympics and see how the building works have progressed over the intervening months.

Genealogy Walks

There are lots of places that I want to visit, just to go and visit the areas where my ancestors came from and explore a few churches and cemeteries. In fact there is hardly a village in Sussex that isn’t on my list (admittedly it is as yet an unwritten list) of places to visit and photograph.

The list isn’t just limited to Sussex, there are plenty of places in Kent, Surrey, Hampshire and London that I want to visit. I definitely want to spend more time in the town of Alton and the village of Exton, both in Hampshire.

Unlike most of the other walks, these walks will be more about the destination rather than the actual walking itself. All I need to work out is how I am going to fit it all into 12 months.

My Genealogy Goals for 2010 – How did I do?

About this time last year I wrote a few blog posts about what I wanted to achieve in 2010 and as we are almost at the end of 2010 (and it is a bit late to do any more about it now) I thought I ought to face the music and see if I actually achieved anything I set out to do.

The first post was 2010 to do list – sort my photos and postcards in which I described my wish to get all my photos and postcards organised and integrated into my genealogy software Family Historian.

Pass or fail? Fail – my old photos are slightly more organised on my hard drive now and I now have a process in place for recording and scanning my postcards (but only as new ones arrive) but none of the photos or postcards have been added to Family Historian.

Next up was 2010 to do list – identify my photos and my desire to put some names to the many unidentified photos in my collection and if not names then at least some dates and places.

Pass or fail? Fail – I spent a couple of months looking at one photo, which I don’t think I ever wrote about and didn’t come to any real conclusions, and that was about it. If anything I have probably added more unidentified photos to my collection, although I did manage to discover the location of one postcard this year with the help of Google Street View.

Then was 2010 to do list – spring clean my database which described several goals that I wished to achieve when it came to my database. This was largely about tidying things up, checking for errors and filling in some missing details.

Pass or fail? Undecided – I am actually still working on this at the moment, progress is slow but I am getting there.

After that came 2010 to do list – what to do with wills? in which I described the problems I have with recording all the information that can be found in a will and how I intended to overcome this.

Pass or fail? Fail – Most of the wills I have in my collection have not been fully mined for data, usually I pick out the information that interests me (names of children) and then move on to something else.

With a little irony the next post was 2010 to do list – create a proper to-do list which described my plans to create a ‘super’ to-do list, which would record everything I wanted to do with my family history.

Pass or fail? Pass – I am still using a simple text file as my to-do list and to be honest I am finding this is perfectly adequate for my needs and so simple to use and update.

Then things got specific with 2010 to do list – some actual research goals which listed several of the individuals that I wanted to pursue in 2010, this was quite a mixed bag of relatives and ancestors, all of whom seem to have had an interesting story to tell.

Pass or fail? Fail – Although I did do some work on most of these individuals I never really followed any of these stories through to their conclusion.

Finally came My New Year’s Resolution itself, to start researching my wife’s Italian ancestry. Somewhat predictably this was a major fail. I did buy a book on researching Italian family history and a kit for learning some basic Italian, but these have sat on my shelf largely untouched all year, no progress whatsoever.

In 2011 I think I will keep things a little simpler and more achievable. Most of these goals from last year are still ones I would like to achieve in 2011, but above all I need to be realistic and recognise that I don’t have the time or money (but mostly time) to do everything I want to.

Picture Postcard Parade: Interior of West Grinstead Church (Part Two)

This is second of two postcards of the interior of St. George’s Church in the parish of West Grinstead, Sussex. This photo was obviously taken at the same time as the one I wrote about yesterday, and published by the same people.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the church was starting to get overgrown, but presumably there was some sort of special occasion for which floral displays had been created, even if they do look a bit like ivy taking over the church. You can find out more about the church at the Parish of West Grinstead website.

Picture Postcard Parade: Interior of West Grinstead Church (Part One)

If you have read my last two Ancestral Profile posts (if not, why not?) about John FAIRS and Eliza WORSFOLD you will remember that the church at West Grinstead, Sussex was an important part of their lives. Both John and Eliza were baptised at the church, they were married there and both were buried in the churchyard.

This is the first of two postcards I have of the interior of West Grinstead Church. It was either published by Archibald and Frederick Baker or their partner Cecil Travers, it is not clear which one it was, or whether it was a joint effort. The date is probably between 1905 and 1910, or at least the original photo was probably from that date, as it was probably reprinted at least once.

Ancestral Profile: Eliza WORSFOLD (1806-1867)

Eliza WORSFOLD was my 4x great-grandmother and the wife of John FAIRS, whom I wrote about last week. She was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth WORSFOLD and appears to have been the eldest of four children.

Eliza was baptised in the parish church of West Grinstead, Sussex on the 13th April 1806. Nothing more is known of Eliza until she marries John FAIRS at West Grinstead on the 11th October 1826. As I mentioned last week, the couple had ten children (all baptised at West Grinstead):

1. Mary FAIRS (baptised 17th December 1826)
2. Harriet FAIRS (baptised 26th January 1829)
3. Elizabeth FAIRS (baptised 27th February 1831)
4. Eliza FAIRS (baptised 10th November 1833)
5. Henry FAIRS (baptised 10th January 1836)
6. James FAIRS (baptised 8th October 1837)
7. John FAIRS (baptised 8th December 1839) [my 3x great-grandfather]
8. Ann FAIRS (baptised 13th February 1842)
9. Jesse FAIRS (baptised 24th September 1843)
10. Fanny FAIRS (baptised 16th August 1846)

In 1841 John and Eliza were living at Goreland Farm, West Grinstead with their five children (Elizabeth, Eliza, Henry, James and John), with John working as an agricultural labourer.

Eliza’s husband John died in 1846, so by the time of the 1851 census we find Eliza living as a widow with her four youngest children (John, Ann, Jesse and Fanny). Although the address isn’t included on the census page, they were probably living at a house named Whitefoots in West Grinstead. Eliza’s occupation is given as charwoman.

In 1861 Eliza is living in the village of Partridge Green, still within the parish of West Grinstead, but unfortunately the exact address is not given. Her occupation is given as housekeeper and she is living with her nephew John WORSFOLD (an apprentice wheelwright) and a seemingly unrelated lodger William BAKER (a blacksmith).

According to her headstone (which may not be accurate) Eliza died on the 3rd December 1867 and she was buried next to her husband at West Grinstead on the 9th December 1867, she was aged 61 years.

There appears to be little more that I can add to the life of Eliza WORSFOLD but it may be possible to find out exactly where Eliza was living after her husband’s death (through parish rate books) and she may have received some form of poor relief after her husband died and she had to raise several small children on her own.