This is still new so fingers crossed
I was delighted to see a mentionof the Alners at Fifehead Neville as my family are also intimately tied up with them. My Great great gran Charlotte Vincent, married Edward William Alner (on the census record mentioned) in late 1870 in Sturminster district. She was 12 years older than him and had a son, James, aged 7, by her previous husband, who it is said had been killed in a harvest accident.
In 1871, they were living in SturNew and Ed.Alner was described as a harness maker.By 1881 they were back at the farm in Fifehead Neville and young James is recorded as an ALNER like his step father.
At this point it gets complicated- Edward's brother Joseph (also on the census record mentioned)was by now working as a cow-man down the road at Melcombe Horsey and he had a daughter named Martha Alner. Young James fell for her, changed his name back to Vincent and they were married early in 1886.(Of course they weren't blood relatives)
They eventually bought a farm in the New Forest,both lived to a good old age, and they are buried at our parish church at Ellingham. (They are my great grand mother & father)
Meanwhile Edward and Charlotte Alner are more of a puzzle. When she died in 1898, she was buried alone at Fifehead Neville and the stone was put up by James and Martha "in memory of a good mother"-ie no mention of her husband. There are also family rumours of some "goings-on". An Edward Alner was married at S-New just 6 months after Charlotte's death.
I wouldn't be surprised if Thomas Hardy didn't base a novel on it all! I hope this all makes sense and is relevant- I drove round the various places concerned and the farm at F-Nev the other evening and it has really brought it all to life.
best wishes, Stockman Fred
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