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Hello Moondance

Are you connected to this family?

Thank you for the info. I have made contact with the author, who apparently is my second cousin.

He says that their heritage is traveller but, as you say, the man in the book joined the fairground.

I have ordered the book. Looking forward to reading it.

Kind regards

Hi Tony

I am doing research for something and happened across your post and joined this forum specifically to answer - because I have just read a book about the Pratley family of Oxfordshire! The book is called "Traveller's Tale: The Making of a Fairground Showman" and is the biography of Walter Edward Reginald Pratley, known as Reg, who was born in 1895 and died in 1939. He wasn't born into the Fairground community, he joined it. The author of the book is David Slattery-Christy (Reg's grandson) and there are several family trees at the back. I couldn't find a Pratley born in 1955 because the trees are mainly concerned with the late 19th century and early 20th century, but you may well find clues in the book and in the family trees! The Pratley family came from Appleton and you can find some of them buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence's church there.

These are my direct ancestors through my maternal line.

Hello

I have the names Morrow and Kincaid in my family.

Would there be a general area in Ireland where these surnames are historically more common?

Hello

My mothers maiden name was Chapman - born in 1949 in Mitcham Surrey.

Here father was always known as ‘Charlie’ and doesn’t seem to exist anywhere on records.

I have since discovered his first name or middle name may have been Cornelius. But I still can’t find him anywhere.

He was known as a boxer and bare knuckle fighter in his younger days.

He and his brother were known fighters in their younger days around the Mitchum area, and my mother was born there. This would have been pre-ww2 and up to the 50’s maybe?

I only remember him as an older man who had settled in Streatham with his pigeons and his ever-present trilby. He used to buy and sell metal amongst other things.

Finding black and white info on him has proved to be almost impossible. He didn’t even seem to appear on my mothers birth registration.

My father was born in Oxfordshire in 1955 and his surname was Pratley - deceased now.

He used to visit his fairground family in the 1970’s.

He mentioned a few times that he came from ‘travelling fairground folk.’ And my memories certainly confirm this.

Again, a struggle to determine who they may have been.

It’s a shame that I took so much for granted as child.

I may need to try and find out his mothers maiden name. 

Not sure what to do next. I have so many dead ends in my tree.

Many thanks for your help and advice so far.