Help Help Help Please Please Please. Now you see em - now you don't!
My great great grandparents are william Miley and Merella, They are in the census in 1891 and again in 1901 when they are at court farm warlingham. They are with a Spicer Cooper and Alexander Lee amongst others.
Merella sometimes recorded as moreta, Murilla or on a death listed as Muralli Miley on free bmd.
I recently got a birth certificate for one of the children and she is shown as Merella Homes (she just recorded a cross for her name).
In the 1891 census she gives a birthplace of kent, westerham.
I have found her in 1871 recorded as Merreld holmes with father James and mother Harriet but cannot find this family before or after 1871. They are with Coopers and Drapers.
The name Holmes does not sound like a traveller family so I wonder if any one has any knowledge of them - perhaps they are really Coopers. Given the age diffrences between James and Harriet she may be his second wife? There is a son listed who is too old to be Harriets child.
I've tried laterall thinking but i just keep falling asleep (lol).
Jim
Just come across this old thread and do have info on James Holmes/Arnold and Harriet Smith. James is the son of Aaron Holmes and Charlotte nee Arnold. The children of this family use the name Holmes and Arnold and are part of my Arnold family of Kent and Sussex. Aaron Holmes was bapt 1798 Chevening Kent to a Susanna Holmes, a traveller. Susanna also had a Frances 1792 Hayes Kent who married Thomas Bird in 1823, Moses 1805 bapt Sevenoaks, and a Joseph about 1801 Sevenoaks but havent found a bapt for him yet. Aarons wife Charlotte Arnold was bapt 1806 Cowfold I believe to James Arnold and wife Mary travellers, having several children in Kent and Sussex and the elderly James and Mary are on the 1851 in Reigate Surrey. One of their sons Francis bapt 1818 Chiddingstone, traveller was killed on Horley railway line in 1879 and on his burial the vicar puts a note that a Moses Arnold was killed in same spot 2 years previous. When I looked these up in newspapers Moses was born 1798 Crawley and son of James Arnold and wife Phoebe and grandson of my 5x gt grandparents Thomas Arnold and wife Ann. I dont know quite sure how yet but the two James Arnold were probably cousins. Your Merrella Arnold who married William Riley , her sister Mary Magdalen married Samuel Crutch who is gt grandson of my 3x gt grandfather Henry Coopers sister Siberina Cooper who partnered Charles Busby. Your James and Harriet are on the 1901 census at Westerham Kent as Arnolds. The Holmes and Arnolds do have children bapt with Spicer Cooper and Uriah Cooper and I expect the connection between them all is my 3x gt aunt Siberina who is buried in St Marys Cray Kent in 1826. Siberinas son John Busby and Joseph Arnold/ b 1801 Sevenoaks are on several census together in Dartford Kent.