8 February 2009

Young again

Today I'm going back to Chatteris for the yesterday's birthday of Elizabeth Young, sister to Maria, who was born in 1836. I last "saw" her in 1851 but I can add to what I said the other day about her sister:-

In 1881 Maria is head of the household with two children and a lodger called George Shepperson. Surely a coincidence that the middle name of her younger child is also Shepperson?

No, I didn't believe it either, particularly as she has two more children and then she marries George (1885) and they have three more. They seem to stay in Chatteris until Maria's death in 1897.

Elizabeth, her older sister, married Matthew Wadlow in 1855 and my last sighting of them is in 1891 with their eight children! There was plenty of room for confusion whilst I was searching for these two, because there was another Elizabeth Wadlow born in the same year, living with Matthew - her father.

I read somewhere that the proper genealogist accepts nothing at face value (seems reasonable) and also requires three different proofs of every fact before taking that person into their family (as it were).

Three, eh? Wouldn't it be lovely if life were that simple. I checked on the IGI that the Elizabeth Young who married Matthew Wadlow was the daughter of the right father - that's one. I have her christened as the daughter of that same father - two. But I'm blowed if I can think what the third one might be - I might just go away and think about that one.

More soon . . . . .

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