RootsChat.Com

In the midst of a move from Oxford to Sheffield in 2021, I was staying in a rental cottage close to Chesterfield, and took the opportunity of further research into my late husband's Sheffield/Dronfield heritage.

I was gratified to find entries for his paternal line in various 19th century censuses very close to my location - it was a farming family - including a greatx2 grandparent in the 1891 in the pub a few doors down from where I was staying.

So when my sister in law (my husband's brother's wife) came for a cup of tea one day we had a pleasant walk up to a church in a local village to see if we could track down a tombstone for the various family members who had been buried there.

We enjoyed the walk, loved the church, but were not successful finding the tombstone, unfortunately.

My sister-in-law incautiously mentioned that her mum (brought up in the West Midlands) knew very little about her father who apparently came originally from Derbyshire.

She now knows that telling a family history researcher anything like that is likely to start an enthusiastic hunt - and sure enough, I soon had a family tree roughed out for her on Ancestry on my laptop in my rented cottage.

However, the most amazing coincidence was that I was able to ring her later the same day to say that her greatx3 grandparents had been married in 1849 in the same church we'd visited that afternoon.

I've subsequently found hers and my husband's relatives' gravestones in the churchyard, too.

In doing some location research in my (relatively) new Sheffield home, I came across the first name “Enos” which was new to me but is a Biblical name meaning “man” or “mankind”.

In my case, it belonged to a 19th century man bearing the name Enos Furness (seems to be a very Yorkshire name to me) who was a spring knife manufacturer who had a workshop on the hilly site above the Rivelin Valley, where there were many (cutlery) grinding mills.

My house now stands on the site.

I was puzzled to note that the Probate record for Margaret Anne JOLLIFFE of 14 Walton Crescent, Oxford, which I've accessed in Ancestry, is shown on the 1932 page, with a probate date in Oxford of 8 May, though it shows Ms Jolliffe's death as 19th June 1932.

I have separate confirmation of the death date from a burial record of 22nd June 1932.

I had previously thought the Probate Records were set out within the year that the Probate was granted, not the year death occurred (unless that happens to be the same).

Should I assume in this case that despite the heading of 1932 on the page, the probate was actually granted on 8 May 1933

It can't have been granted before death, can it 

One triumph from this great site was the finding of a remote Australian relative of my notorious (well, to me) Cork family, who managed to track us down via an address on a census which was the same address a relative of hers had been married from.  Thank you Rootschat and Google.

Once we started sharing information about our joint ancestors, we were astonished to find that her very strong family rule that 'you should NEVER smoke in bed' (well beyond advice simply based on common sense) was connected to an ancestor who died in 1893 at a ripe old age after staying in a farmer's loft whilst working away from home on a harvest.

Poor fellow had set himself alight with his pipe after a hard day's work.

I’ve just thought - a coloured profile picture?