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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Kent => Topic started by: kristasis on Saturday 19 December 09 09:34 GMT (UK)
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Hi there, My name is Krista NICHOLAS and I am interested in information about my GGG grandfather Zechariah Foulser NICHOLAS.
Zechariah Foulser NICHOLAS was born 1818 in Deal, Kent, England to Zechariah NICHOLAS and Hannah (Hannah's maiden name was ASHINGTON and her parents were Thomas ASHINGTON and Rebecca REDMAN. She was a widow when she married Zechariah and her surname at the time was GARDNER).
The thing I am interested in though is as to WHY Zechariah and Hannah named their child Zechariah Foulser NICHOLAS. Zechariah Foulser NICHOLAS was born in the December 1818 and Hannah and Zechariah married in the May of 1818 which means she was already pregnant with him when they were married. I am interested if anyone has any ideas about why Foulser could have been his middle name.
I had thought of the far fetched possibility that his father may not have been Zechariah NICHOLAS and that his biological father may have been a FOULSER hence why his middle name was Foulser (considering his mother was pregnant with him when she got married to Zechariah). does any one else have any other ideas or information?
Zechariah Foulser NICHOLAS moved to Ireland and was married to Anne GRIFFITHS in 1853 in Galway.
Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can do to find information regarding this Foulser link? I find it strange that his middle name would have just been Foulser without reason (although his grandmother was Fowler)., I feel as though there must be some link somewhere.
Any help or ideas would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Krista.
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Hi Krista and welcome to rootschat :)
There could be a simple unexpected answer to that middle name- I had the same situation with the use of "Flavel" as a middle name. I googled and discovered that Flavel was the surname of a Puritan writer. This fitted as the father of the boy was a nonconformist clergyman and I think he was a fan of Flavel's books.
Why not G**gle FOULSER... just on the off chance you find something that looks a possibilty.
charlotte
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I see on the IGI another son born to the couple in 1820 was baptised George Gardner Nicholass - it's more likely that Foulser will be a surname in the Nicholas family - possibly his mother's maiden name?
I think it very unlikely if Hannah was pregnant by someone else when she married that Zachariah would want to acknowledge the fact so publically.
Carole
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Thank you both for your replies.
When Hannah and Zechariah were married Hannah's name was Gardner (she was a widow and her late husbands name was George Gardner). There are no maiden names that we can find that reflect the Foulser name... Except possibly his grandmother who was Fowler. Hannahs maiden name was Ashington. I found it strange also that she named her son with Zechariah after the surname of her late husband (George Gardner Nicholas, b 1820) ... this is why I had thought of the other possibility.
Thank you Charlotte also for your message. That is an interesting idea and I will definitely look into it.
Thanks again,
Krista
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"Except possibly his grandmother who was Fowler."
I would have said that is the most likely answer. Its not hard to see how FOWLER cold be misrepresented as FOULSER.
The mistake might have been made by whoever wrote the original details in the parish register; it might have been done by whoever transcribed it later; or it might have been done when the IGI transcription was digitised for their web database. I would recommend you find a way to view the original parish register page to see what was actually written there, and how legible it is.
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Agree with Nigelo that that is the ost likely answer to the mystery of that middle name- mistranscription.
charlotte
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Hi Krista I have been a Foulser for 59 years, my name is Roger, I have traced my name back to 1752 to John who married Mary Lamborn, I think we originate from Diss Norfolk. Getting back to your mystery, one of my ancestors name was Zachariah Corneluis Foulser, he was born 23/7/1806, could he be connected? He would have been around eighteen at the time of the birth, seems strange that Hannah married a guy with a similar christian name that was spelt slightly different? you can check out my Zac on familysearch.org. I can also tell you that around three hundred years back the maiden name of a wife was given to the first born child whether it be male or female, I found another Roger Foulser who married a Mary Moore the first born was called Moore Foulser, I cannot find the link to me yet, this may have something to do with your case. Just to add a few more coincidents, my daughters first husband's name was Stuart Gardner, the name Gardner originates from slave traders allegedly, she married a second time and had a baby boy, she has called him Zak, small world eh. keep me posted. Roger
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Hi Roger, thank you very much for your story and suggestions. This will definitely have to be something that I will look into... especially after Christmas. There are a lot of coincidences there though, it sure is a small world. We think that Foulser probably came from Zachariah's mother, sarah fowler (with mispellings and pronounciations etc), our Foulsers are probably still linked though (and the Zachariah is definitely a coincidence - do you know where Cornelius came from?). Thank you also for the information about the mothers maiden name... that is definitely an interesting concept to keep in mind for further research. I will definitely keep you posted on further findings. Thanks again, Krista.
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Hi Krista you are more than welcome, it is very strange to have Foulser as a middle name, as you have suggested there must be a link somewhere. Regards the name Cornelius, I have not seen it mentioned anywhere with past Foulsers that I have traced, it was mentioned in one of the Planet of the ape movie's lol, apart from that, no idea. There are so many variations of Foulser,Folser,foudlesier, fowler ect, from what I have picked up, some of the errors were caused by the scribe who filled in the forms, many people were illiterate, in the case of my family name I have found that most of the men could read and write, however the woman were treated as second class citizens and did not get a good education, I have found old documents where the men could sign there name, but the woman signed with an X. You often see a ff at the start of some names starting with F, this was how a scribe did a capital letter F and it was sometimes mistaken for two ff's, I found that out on Steven Fry's QI show. You will recall in my last email I mentioned that I had traced my name back to John Foulser who married Mary Lamborn at St Georges church Hanover Square Westminster in 1752, I feel sure that he made his way down to London from Norfolk, but I cannot make the connection which is very frustrating, if there is anybody that could get me back a bit further, I would be more than willing to donate to there favorite charity. Krista hope you have a great Christmas. Keep in touch. Roger
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Is Foulger another variant? I noticed some early Norfolk Foulger wills at Diss as well as the two Foulsher/Folser wills at Diss in the NRO catalogue.
There seem to be an almost limitless possibility of variants on the name.
I'm sure you are but it would be worth keeping a check on the latest additions to the FreeReg site http://freereg.rootsweb.com/cgi/Search.pl
Carole
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Hi Carole
Yea Foulger is another variation of Foulser, what is so frustrating is that Foulser is such an unusual name, you would think it would be reasonably easy to trace, still it could be worse, it could Smith or Brown. Thanks for your input. happy Christmas. Roger
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I have noted http://www.familysearch.org (Record Search Pilot) that the maiden name of Nicholas Foulser's grandmother has been transcribed as FOULER ......................Sarah FOULER married Zachariah NICHOLAS 27 Oct 1779 Deal. I would say, whatever the correct pronounciation or spelling, that Nicholas "Foulser" is named for his grandmother's family.
Casalguidi :)
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Hi Casalguidi sounds like you could be right, as I said in a previous post, some scribes also spelt names wrong, pity they did not have the internet a couple of hundred years ago Google would have been really handy LOL. Roger
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Hi I am directly related to this guy who lived in the East End of London I think...he must be my GGGG grand father...my grandfather was Arthur Samuel Foulser and I know we came from a family closely connected to the sea..
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Hi Lauren
I just got in from work and spotted your post, give me a couple of days and I will get back to you with some information that may connect us as a family. Roger
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OK ..great..my Uncle has sent me a family tree he started which showed that that Zechariah died around 1851....and had a son called John Thomas who would have been my great great grandfather..I know we are linked to someone called George Foulser who was something of an anarchist trade unionist...and that most of the family were in the Bermondsey area..and that I inherited an old canphor sea chest and was always told it belonged to one of my great grandads..that's about it!
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Hi Lauren I am sure we are related, but to define how close, could be a bit tricky and very time consuming, but I would assume that we are cousins of some sort. If you could send me a fax number I could send you a copy of my tree, you said that you also had a tree line perhaps you could send it to me, my fax no is 01708457951 or you can email me on rogerfoulser@aol.com. Basically I am pretty confident that the name Foulser originated in Norfolk/Suffolk. I have looked through many old records showing the name 400 years back with all sorts of weird spellings. I have actually traced back to John Foulser who married Mary Lamborn in 1752 at Hanover Square London, but I cannot get beyond that, They had three kids John, Sarah, and William, my side followed from John jnr who married Ruth Valentine in 1787. they had 8 kids one being a Zachariah born 1806, but he is not directly in my line, my line comes from George Foulser who married Hannah Park in August 1817, they had 6 kids I follow from his son another George who married Mary Danial in 1850, they only had one son named John he married Martha Wise in 1880, they had 4 kid a George being one of them, but my line was my grandad henry who had my dad named Henry, which is where I come from. I have dob's ect. Back in the eighties I spent a couple of grand to get the info I have, I now check through the net for any info I can get. If anybody reading this could shed more light I would be very greatful. I wait to hear from you regards. Roger
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Hi Lauren forgot to mention Martin Foulser's websit, just google it, you will find it quite interesting. Roger
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Well there we go how fascinating... I will try and send you a family tree...but don't have a fax machine here in UK as at the moment - am living and working in Athens...Ruth Valentine...that explains a lot as Zechariah Cornelius are Jewish names and I imagine that Ruth chose them as she was prob an Ashkenazi Jewish immigrant..six degrees of separation as they say...my uncle is the guru on all of this born Foulser he changed his name by deed poll to Freeman as he found in the business world no one could spell it. I was brought up in my grandfather's house Arthur Samuel Foulser who was an amazing guy. Will see what I can find and send it to you.
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am forwarding you message to my cousin Andi.....she is really into all of this! will send you her findings which absolutely corroborate yours ..so yes we are distantly related...hard luck.
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This is what Andi has said -
have traced Zachariah on Ancesty (a family tree website that I subscribe to), which has really good records for London births, deaths and marriages, which I have cross-checked with Census data to verify a lot of the family connections for people alive after 1841.
Not sure if you know, but there is also a free website set up by the Mormons which contains church records (baptism, marriage, death). I don't know the www. address - I always look up Latter Day Saints in Google to find it.
From these I have traced Zachariah's line back to the mid 1700's in London. His grandfather John married Mary Lambourne in London in 1752 and his father John married Ruth Valentine in 1787. They were all married in Churches, so I'm not too sure about any Jewish connections.
The Jemima probably came from Jemima Jones who was Zachariah's daughter in law. She was born in Salisbury, but with the name Jones I can't get further back than her parents!
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Hi! I've just started looking for my Foulser family tree. So far everyone seems to come from Bethnal Green. I'd love to have any information about where the family name originated from. My Great grandad is Joseph George Foulser a Tea cooper, born in Bethnal Green 1860. His father was another Joseph also a Tea Cooper.
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Hi, I too am related to Zachariah Foulser (b.1806) through his son George (bc. 1840) my gggf.