Hi all,
I am looking for somebody with local historical knowledge of Earls Colne and South Benfleet, to help break a brick wall down in my tree :-)
My great (x4) Grandfather is a Martin Ellis, and we have him as a Gardener living from his marriage in 1804 in South Benfleet, through to his death in 1848 again in South Benfleet. The records give us an estimate of his birth yeasr as around 1776, but so far we have had no joy tracking down a record of the birth/baptism in that area. Recently another family member on this line has found a baptism in Earls Colne for 1776 for a Martin Ellis, which looks promising as no further trace of him can be found in that area (the parents/siblings are all still present in the parish registers), and family names match quite well with my Martin's children's names. My concern is that its quite a way to move from Earls Colne to South Benfleet in those days, so i am tryign to find a connection that could explain the movement for a Gardnener.
I have tried doign a google search to see if prehaps an important family owned property in both locations (and therefore they 'moved' a staff member), or if there was something else that might have linked them, but can find nothing that jumps out. Does anybody else have any thoughts/clues to a possible connection between the places that would explain the move (assuming it did occur).
Thanks
Richard