To all of you out there,
On reflection, I'm absolutely gobsmacked that you're still showing any interest whatsoever in my feeble, amateurish, cheapskate attempts to piece together my wife's family history. As I look back now to what I knew when I first started this thread - and some related ones - just a matter of weeks ago (ie: zilch) and what I know now, I'm even more amazed. So thanks again to those who have searched on my behalf and found all sorts of goodies. I'm still prepared to take Nell's barbs, because I know I'm on shaky, speculative ground much of the time, but one of the things I've actually learned along the way is that, while family hearsay is often confused, there's almost always some factual basis for the stories - the challenge has been to separate the wheat from the chaff.
So I'm going to continue to ask for assistance - in the knowledge that when you get fed up, you'll simply stop responding!
Let me tell you what I've learned so far about Walter Charles Snook, a man of almost complete mystery to his own granddaughter...
1861: Born in Bath Road, Lymington, to ex-squatter Henry Snook and his wife Charlotte Mantill.
1865: His mother died. Father apparently never remarried.
1871: Still there.
1881: Still there - a "mariner".
1884: Married local gardener's daughter, Annie Perkins. Moved to 23 Station St, Lymington.
1886: Annie Maud born.
1887: Walter Martell born.
1890: William Henry George (another mystery man!) born.
1891: Still at 23 Station St - a "yacht steward" (this seems to have been a Merchant Navy position)
1893: Agnes Emily Perkins born. His father, Henry, died (South Stoneham).
1893-1899: A bit of a gap (see questions below)
1899: His wife died (Lymington)
1901: Living on his own means at a hotel in Southampton dockland. His children scattered.
1906: Living in a different hotel in Northam.
1907: Apparently remarried, but wife's name not known (Bonnie Isaac or Fannie Woodcock).
1919: In the Merchant Navy - his ID card lists Bessie Snook (wife) as next-of-kin. Believed to be Bessie Evans. No idea if/when they married.
1925: Mentioned on son's marriage certificate as "caretaker" - probably of the fire station at 127 St Mary's Rd, Southampton
1925-1949: Virtually nothing known.
1949: Died in Birmingham, aged 88.
Other facts: Alderman Walter James William Broomfield figured significantly in his life. He was born at Dunsford and was distantly related via his mother, Elizabeth Jane Snook.
Other hearsay: He, Annie and the children moved to Dunsford at some stage in the 1890s and then moved on to the Wheatsheaf in Lymington, where the licensee was Priscilla Bright, who became wife of WJW Broomfield in 1910.
So here are the bits I can't work out:
1. What was the exact family relationship between Walter Charles Snook and Elizabeth Jane Snook? (I'm speculating that her father, Walter, might have been Henry's cousin, but that's as close as I can see them)
2. Why was there such a strong bond between Elizabeth Jane Snook and WCS? (Difficult to answer that genealogically!)
3. If WCS took his young family to Dunsford, why? (He seems to have been a career seaman, not a farmer)
4. Why/when did they move back to the Wheatsheaf, if it actually happened? (and was there any link between Priscilla Bright and the Snook/Broomfield families at the time or was it merely coincidencental that she took the Snooks in and later married WJWB?)
5. Where were they all when Annie Snook (nee Perkins) died in 1899? (her place of death is recorded as Lymington, but would that include Dunsford/Boldre?)
6. Why, on census night in 1901, were the two sons at Dunsford, the two daughters at separate addresses in Sholing, WCS in a hotel and Priscilla Bright nowhere at all?
7. Why did WJW Broomfield apparently play such a key part in the lives of his distant relations? (I don't see how anyone can possibly know that, but I'm documenting it as one of the mysteries)
If any of you can help with either additional facts or honest speculation, I'd be very grateful either way.
Cheers,
Brian
