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Wiltshire / Re: Mereweather/Merryweather's from Sedgehill
« on: Monday 05 July 21 23:13 BST (UK) »
Lot’s brother Mark is my 3rd great grandfather. Mark was a Wiltshire police officer, possibly a detective with Scotland Yard. Some Merryweather descendants claim he was murdered, but he died in 1879. If you do a Google search you’ll find a photo of Mark in uniform with WC 18 on his collar. This photo of Mark actually shows on the wall in the background of a photo of Frank, Lot’s nephew, with his wife and 9 children at their home in Utah.
Following Mark’s death, Frank, my 2nd great grandfather, left England in 1881 at age 17. Since he was the only one in his family to move to America, my family knows very little about those who remained in England. Fortunately, Frank and his brother Albert exchanged letters. A 1933 letter from Albert shows the return address as 65 New Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire. After Mark died, his widow, Sarah Ann Thick (Merryweather), moved to Chippenham so it seems most of the family ended up there.
In looking for more information about Mark’s death, I searched Lot Merryweather and stumbled upon your thread. It seems we’ve both hit some dead ends, but please let me know if I can share any info that might help your research. I’ve been able to trace the Merryweather family line (Mark and Lot’s father, grandfather, etc) back to the 1700’s; however, records get a little confusing at that point. If what I’ve found is accurate, there’s a father named Joshua who has a son with the same name. Public records show two marriages of Joshua Merryweather to a woman, Sarah Hardin?, but a generation apart - I can’t imagine that both married women with the same name,
but slightly different spelling, a generation apart. It just adds to the confusion of the Merryweather surname being spelled differently, making it difficult to know which families are directly related. As I’m sure you know, some spellings replace the y with an i, r or rr, weather or wether, Mere, etc. Muryweder is also one I recently found and it goes back pretty far.
PS One of the ‘John Merryweather’ individuals was a criminal so I’m hoping that’s a different family!
Anyway, nice to meet a long lost relative.
Following Mark’s death, Frank, my 2nd great grandfather, left England in 1881 at age 17. Since he was the only one in his family to move to America, my family knows very little about those who remained in England. Fortunately, Frank and his brother Albert exchanged letters. A 1933 letter from Albert shows the return address as 65 New Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire. After Mark died, his widow, Sarah Ann Thick (Merryweather), moved to Chippenham so it seems most of the family ended up there.
In looking for more information about Mark’s death, I searched Lot Merryweather and stumbled upon your thread. It seems we’ve both hit some dead ends, but please let me know if I can share any info that might help your research. I’ve been able to trace the Merryweather family line (Mark and Lot’s father, grandfather, etc) back to the 1700’s; however, records get a little confusing at that point. If what I’ve found is accurate, there’s a father named Joshua who has a son with the same name. Public records show two marriages of Joshua Merryweather to a woman, Sarah Hardin?, but a generation apart - I can’t imagine that both married women with the same name,
but slightly different spelling, a generation apart. It just adds to the confusion of the Merryweather surname being spelled differently, making it difficult to know which families are directly related. As I’m sure you know, some spellings replace the y with an i, r or rr, weather or wether, Mere, etc. Muryweder is also one I recently found and it goes back pretty far.
PS One of the ‘John Merryweather’ individuals was a criminal so I’m hoping that’s a different family!
Anyway, nice to meet a long lost relative.