10 April 2009

Three'n'One

So, three birthdays and a wedding today. First up is William Sparkes (second cousin five times removed), born today in Tuddenham St Mary in 1821. The son of John & Mary (nee Freeman) he became an engineer (of what, I don't know) and married Eliza Sexton in 1850. They had seven children and William married again to Mary Ann Marrow in 1868; I assume that Eliza died but I haven't proved that to my satisfaction yet! William died, in Tuddenham, in 1877.

Next up, we have a buy-one-get-one-free offer - twins Nina Alexandra and Victor Albert Alexander Watts, born in Cambridge in 1902 and christened at St Barnabas, my computer tells me that they are my 3rd cousins twice removed. And that's all I know about them.

And now to the main event: the wedding today in 1842 of my great-great-great-grandparents. Richard Fordham and Naomi Bullard tied the knot at St James', Hemingford Grey; he was "of this parish" (Hemingford Grey born & bred), she came from across the fen in Earith and they went on to begat three daughters and a son before Richard's early death at the age of just 31. Alas, I then lose track of Naomi - I can find nothing about her after the 1851 census, no matter which name I search on. She just disappears. Her two surviving children are still around - Naomi, who went on to marry Millice Campbell Culpin, was in St Ives as a housemaid in 1861 and James was still in the village as "nephew" to a family whose name I can't find anywhere in my records! He married, eventually came to the great metropolis of Cambridge and joined the staff of Queens' College (punctuation correct - it's named after two Queens!)

More soon.

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