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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Sussex => Topic started by: IgorStrav on Saturday 22 May 10 13:46 BST (UK)
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Can anyone give me a hand with finding the location of "Slafham, Sussex"?
It appears as the place of birth for Peter Louder, born c 1827, living in Wrotham, Kent in the 1861. I don't have him in any other censuses (he dies in 1862) to check this pob.
I googled and it mentions Slafham as part of Rotherfield, and then there's Slaugham, too, although they're not very close.
Help gratefully received, thanks! :)
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Could it be naff writting and say Grafham? Its in West Sussex near Petworth?
Linda
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I think it will be Slaugham (pronounced Sluffam)
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I can't see any other reference to Peter, but IGI has an Ambrose Louder b.25 Mar 1821 in Slaugham. Might be a brother perhaps?
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I think whoever indexed it as part of Rothfield needs to go beack to the drawing board. Slaugham is part of the Cuckfield district in Sussex.
If you go to the Genes Reunited website you will find Maureen Carol & Sue Dunn who both have your Peter in their family tree. They both however, spell Slaugham incorrectly. One has is as Slapham (in Essex?) the other as Slafham. Looks as though both of them have also fallen foul of an incorrect transcription of the place name.
Roy G
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Also try the 1841 Slaugham census and if your Peter is related to the Ambrose mentioned by Mike earlier, his parents could be James & Elizabeth.
My thoughts are drawn to James Louder who married Elizabeth Kemings in Balcombe (1816) a parish that adjoins Slaugham.
Roy G
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Slaugham registers should be on the IGI for that sort of time but I have found that many people moved from church to church in this area so had some children baptised in Cuckfield and some in Slaugham or Balcombe and even Clayton.
Andrea
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Thanks to all for your help.
Roy, you are quite right, I am one of the GR people and I was operating under the transcription (which actually does repeat what the image says). This is a relation by marriage and I wasn't too interested in his antecedents, until it occurred to me that finding him in the 1851 might help me trace his wife in that census. She'd only be 14, but they are a travelling family and often seem to have met up
I'm part of a Scavenger hunt trying to pin some people down......you have to think laterally, don't you ;)
If you're interested, here's the Scavenger link
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=456972.new
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Sarah Cooley married Peter Lowder in Malling (Maidstone area) March quarter of 1859. Ref 2a 441
They had 2 children, Elizabeth Jane b 1859 baptised Plaxtol
& Mary Ann b 1861 baptised Plaxtol. Peter died 1862 (probably Plaxtol).
Roy G
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Thank you Roy, yes, that is the woman I am trying to find in the 1851, via the indirect method of checking where Peter Lowder was just to see if she's anywhere close.
At present I can't find Peter other than in the 1861 (although his father is shown there as James, and may be the one whose marriage you found in Balcombe).
The Scavenger hunt link will show you the scale of the brick wall that Royd and I are trying to knock down. ::)
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Yes it is Slaugham itself which consists of 4 parishes, Slaugham, Warninglid, Handcross and Pease Pottage. Slaugham was the main parish. Many of my ancestors came from this parish.
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Seen the number of pages on your search and decided not to read every entry. May be able to help if you put an aproximate birth year and/or birth place on Sarah Cooley or whatever you think her name was.
Roy G
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Sarah Cooley was christened in 1837 in Seal, Kent, the daughter of Jane Cooley, traveller.
However, Jane Cooley (1821, Chertsey) married or lived with Richard Cork (1812, Stone, Kent), and there were a number of children, including Richard jnr (1840), Jane (1842 Ightham), possibly Daniel (1845), James (1848 Reigate), Stephen (1851 Wisley), all of whom were baptised Cork.
So Sarah in 1851 might have been called either Cork or Cooley.
Any assistance most gratefully received.
:)
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Forgive me but my rather basic logic of 19th century morality SUGGESTS if all her siblings were baptised Cork and she was born before them with the surname Cooley, her mother had yet to marry. Has anyone looked at the settelment orders or bastardy returns?
Roy G
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Sarah was born in 1837, so she was ahead of the other children.
So I have theorised that possibly her mother had a child ahead of meeting Richard Cork, with whom she had her other children.
Sarah Cooley married twice. She was married to Peter Lowder (as you said), and on this marriage her father's name was blank. When he died, she remarried to James Dalton, and on that certificate her father is shown as Richard Cork.
Perhaps he was her father, or perhaps he was her stepfather.
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Realised that immediately after I sent the message, but you responded before my modified amendment to my last text was posted. The main point I made was Has anyone looked at the settelment orders or bastardy returns for Seale?
Roy G
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No, haven't looked at the Seal settlement returns or bastardy settlements.
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I now gather from what you have written that your main aim is to establish who was your Sarah's father.
The 1841 census for Igtham and 1851 census for Wisley should give you the name of who her mother and half or full siblings were living with, but not whether he actually was her father.
Her birth in 1837 was prior to certification, but could have taken place in a parish workhouse so perhaps there is something in the local workhouse minutes.
Apart from a possibility of a Bastardy order therefore, the only other way of establishing the PROBABILITY of Richard being Sarah's father is the closeness to her birth of her mother's marriage to her partner if she actually married him.
I have noted that there was a CORKE family living in Seal around the time Sarah was born. What's Richard's ancestry, was he part of that family?
Roy G
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The trouble is, Roy, that I'm not so concerned with the birth father of Sarah, as pinning the Cooley/Cork family down in the 1851 - with which my fellow researchers and I have been signally unsuccessful.
I won't make you read all the Scavenger hunt, but basically we have a Richard Cork jnr (born about 1840 in Cudham), and a Daniel Corke (born about 1845 in what is said to be Chelsea by the censuses - no birth/baptism reg found).
We think they're brothers, but can't prove it,although there are occasions where Daniel is living next door to one of the other Cork children, and to Richard Cork senior.
We have the details for Sarah Cooley in terms of her marriage and the entry in the 1861, and also her presence in all the other censuses which include one where her "father" Richard Cork is living with her.
So in the search for this 1851 Census record, which should have most of the Richard Cork/Jane Cooley family together (they're all young children) I thought I would track down Peter Louder/Lowder in this census, just to see if a search of the images in the location would turn anything up (I've already searched a number of census images, because we know the family were in Pyrford, Surrey, on 23rd February 1851 for the baptism of their son Stephen Cork - and must therefore have been somewhere or other locally just a month or so later).
I'd love to find them in the 1841 too, but the Corke family you mention, and all the other ones we've looked at, don't seem to be them. They were a travelling family, which may explain it.
So at this point, I suppose my main concern is to see where Peter Louder/Lowder was in 1851 or earlier, and that was why I sought this board's help in pinning down the pob. For which, and your other suggestions, many thanks!! :D
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Travelling families are notoriously difficult to find at any time. Sometimes they avoided the enumerator, and other times he felt it better to avoid them, so they may not be there, or perhaps they are, but under pseudenym.
Transcription errors may also come into play, try looking for something like Gooley, Goody or Godley as an alternative.
Roy G
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Thanks Roy, my fellow searcher (descended from Daniel) and I (descended from Richard jnr) will continue to beat our heads against the brick wall.
I don't know whether to be surprised or horrified that Peter Lowder/Louder is also very difficult to find in the 1851.
We have already theorised that there was a great gathering of travellers that year to avoid the census. :o
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Slaugham Ghyll is part of Crowborough in East Sussex near to Crowborough Common and Sweethaws. Until recently (i.e. in the census) Crowborough was part of Rotherfield parish. Slaugham in West Sussex is a different place and although there could be a connection between families from the two places it is unlikely and I would look for a more likely link first.
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Thanks for your post, Yodleg.
I haven't got any further since this original thread in tracking down Peter Louder/Lowder, his correct place of birth, or indeed where he - and the members of the family he married into - were in the 1851 census.
It was just another vain tap at my still inpenetrable brick wall.
But your interest much appreciated!
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I've been looking at some members of the Godley family who are recorded as living in Rotherfield at Slafham. They worked at Crowborough Gate. I believe that Slafham is in the area now known as Crowborough common, which would have been in Rotherfield parish then, and Crowborough Gate is now called Crow and Gate which was then in Buxted Parish. Crowborough is a fairly new parish and is made up of bits of Rotherfield, Buxted and Withyham.
Reg S
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Thanks for your interest, Reg.
It's some time since I was beating my head against the brick wall of this family, but I will have another look around Crowborough Common for the 1851 and see if I can find any more Lowder/Louder families