RootsChat.Com

Laurakim

I have not looked at Rootschat for so long, could not believe it when I came across you.

I have found out quite a lot about Offord, who was my father's grandmother's brother.  Very complicated, but,  William Baker who came from Diss in Norfolk, married Maria Offord of Little Stambridge, they had a number of children of whom John Joseph Baker was one, John Joseph married Elizabeth Ann Clark,  they had seven children, one of whom was Offord, and another was Maria Elizabeth who married William John Payne who was my father's Grandfather.
I now know that Offord, who went to Australia by working his passage, stayed there to marry and produce three children, one, Bessie I think died as a child, the other two, Terrance and Ronald Offord both fought and survived the first world war.   Ronald married at some time as he re-enlisted in the second world war and put his daughter  Evelyn June Baker as his next of kin.
Offord worked as a police constable in Broome  Western Australia....this I guess is where the stories of him being a pearl diver came from, he did send home a string of pearls for my Grandmother according to my father!  but he resigned from the police in 1907.  The last electoral roll for Western Australia however, in 1909 still shows him as a constable.  The next roll 1913-1917 shows no Offord, but shows his wife Georgina Baker, and, a George Baker...heaven only knows who this is.  Georgina remarries in 1918  but I have never found any documents for a divorce. But,
Offord returns to the UK in 1924 aboard the 'Jervis Bay' with a new wife  Mary Alice, they head for London Road  Grays  Essex which is where the Payne family live.  They are shown as going to journey on to "other parts of the British Empire"  but I have never found out where.  I do know that this explains how he was able to sign off his indentures for his  Watermen and Lightermen time,  I think that he had the longest apprentiship in living memory.
I would be fascinated to hear about the stories your Grandfather told, and to find out just who was your Grandfather.
Look forwards to hearing from you,

Linda

Thanks to everybody who has taken the time and trouble to reply  to my query....

Joy,  yes Penkridge was my grandfather's village  he was born and brought up there.  My Davies line live in the village from at least 1851 according to the census.  Thomas and Laura Ann were both still there on the 1901 cencus and I believe that they were both buried there.  Sadly my grandfather and his mother were not on the best of terms so my father's memory of them is thin to say the least.  His comments to me were, "I only met her once and I did not like her"  isn't that sad.   If you could find her and Thomas I would be delighted.  A death date could be just the information I need.
I am related to three other families in Penkridge,   the Whitehouse family, Janet Davies married Percy Whitehouse  and they had two boys, Cyril and Alan.  Nellie Davies married George Morris but I do not believe that they had any children, Fanny Davies married John Rostance, and their son John still lives in Penkridge - or at least he did last year which was when I last heard from him.   Sadly knowing all this has not helped me with finding out Laura Ann's family.  A definite death date for Laura would be a bonus.  Thanks Joy.

Willow x.  Thanks for looking this up, I have not come across the name Hicks before, but will take a look and see if this is my answer.  I followed up the Wolverhampton archive link that you gave me and found Mary Ann there, but like you, could find nothing for Laura Ann.

Sillgen,  Hi, I have looked for her birth in Wolverhampton, but came up with nothing, I do think that she has lied about her age on her marriage certificate, by saying that she was 21 she would not have had to have parental consent, maybe her parent(s) were not happy with her choice, or they were not in touch.  I am still trying to find her date of death.  Hopefully with Joy's help I will achieve this.

Thanks again everyone, what a nice bunch you all are.

Lindy

Hi Vicky,

Nice to hear from you, have to admit that I have not been doing a lot on the family tree stuff over this last year, family commitments have been numerous, sadly.
My Paynes all started in the Ingrave/East Horndon area.   Two years ago my sister and I travelled to Essex where we met a couple of second cousins, one we knew from years ago, the other we had never met.  We travelled to Ingrave and actually stayed in an old inn in Horndon on the Hill.

 John Payne and Susan Gibson had I believe  seven children.  John was born in 1790 Susan in 1792  and they married in the parish church of Ingrave and West Horndon on October 4th 1814.  This I have from Parish Records.
John Payne's parents were John and Elizabeth but I have no more information about them than their names.
I have their children, again from the parish records, as being  Susanna b. 1816  Eliza b. 1818  John b. 1820  he was baptised Jan 1820 in the All Saints church East Horndon  Thomas b. 1821  William (my ancestor) b. 1823  Joseph b. 1826  and Edward b. 1828.
According to my records I have John 1820 marrying Mary Ann (?) b. 1831  and having three children   John b.1861  Richard b.1863 and Alice b. 1870

Now this sort of matches with what you have, but I have to admit that the name Meen is a new one on me.
I do hope that I have not got it wrong, but in this game you can never be really sure can you.

I am quite sure that there were a number of Payne families in that area, and I am positive that all of them were called John at one time or another.  Just to make life simple.  But there cannot have been all that many Susan Gibsons who married a John Payne I would not have thought.  Can you let me know where the Meens come into the picture?
And just when I thought that I had it all figured!

Strangely enough, I have just changed my wallpaper on the computer to show the church at Fobbing
Essex  where a number of my ancestors are buried.  Whilst on our trip to Fobbing my second cousin, my sister and myself found ourselves sitting in a cottage which had once been lived in by our ggg grandfather sipping coffee with the present owners and looking at the original deeds for the cottage.  My ancestor had run this tiny cottage as a post office whilst working as the local builder and bringing up I forget exactly how many children at the same time.  Remarkable.

I hope that this information gives you pleasure and food for thought.

Whereabouts are you, obviously not Essex from what you say.

Best regards

Lindy

If it is of any help to anyone, I too am looking for 'Davies's' from Worthen,  I managed to find some of the people I was looking for on the - Shropshire, England: Parish Registers, Hereford Diocese.

These gave me marriages, baptisms and deaths 1754-1812

I would not say that these records are complete, but I put in the name I was looking for and ended up being able to trace what I believe to be all of the family I was looking for.

I also looked on the IGI of the 'Family Search.org  which had some information which helped.

In the parish records
I found back to the marriage of Thomas Davies and Margaret Williams  in 1800.
 The family search site tells me that both were born about 1774 in Worthen   although I have no proof to back this up, but when you are searching for Davies's in Shropshire  any information that points anywhere is worth looking at.

My lot moved away although I do not know the exact date, but a marriage in Much Wenlock in 1844 (John Davies to Ann Tomkiss) is followed by a census mention in Penkridge Staffs in 1851  so I have not had the same problem with missing census records.
Lindy

I have been searching the records for the Payne family forever, and yet it seems that the only other people looking at this name are my two second cousins.  As far as I understand it, Payne is a long established Essex name and I am amazed that nobody else out there seems to be even interested in the Paynes.
Did we do something REALLY awful at some time?  so that nobody wants to be associated with us 

We married into other families as well,
Thomas, Barnes, Baker, Sullings, Greenaway  and these are only the ones I am sure of, there are male Paynes who married and whose wives surnames I am unaware of.

Isn't there anybody out there who would like to know more about the Paynes?

Lindy