I am descended on my maternal side from the Billingers of Huttoft/Bolingbroke. Any information would be gratefully received.
My Great Grandmother was born Henrietta Billinger, but was mostly known as Annie [although in the 1901 census she is down as Hetty]. In this census she is shown as a 16 year-old living alone with her father, Henry, in Bolingbroke/Hareby St Peter and St Paul. In the November of the same year she was in the local workhouse giving birth to her first child, Emily. She proceeded to have 3 further illegitimate children: May [1905], William Henry "Harry" [1908] and my Grandmother, Ivy Elizabeth [1911]. [Henry snr is shown as having been born in Huttoft which is where my Grandmother died in 2002].
Henrietta Billinger [now Annie Miretta Bush Billinger] married Walter Epton in 1915 as his third wife, giving birth to her only illegitimate child, Tobias the following year. Unfortunately, Tobias was to die of polio in the Thirties. My Grandmother, Ivy Elizabeth Billinger, now became Elizabeth Epton. Walter already had a daughter Ivy by his second wife.
Working backwards through the censuses, Henry snr was living in Bolingbroke with his wife Sarah and their children Annie and William James. I presume Sarah died between 1891 and 1901. William James [Uncle William] presumably moved out as I know he had a family which is based in the Newark are.
Back in the 1881 census Annie and William wouldn't have been born yet, but Henry is living in Bolingbroke with daughter Christiana and son Ephraim. There is no wife and Henry is down as a widower, so I presume Christiana and Ephraim's mother had died and Henry had not married Sarah yet. Where did the children go afterwards? Presumably they all moved out.
In the 1871 and 1861 censuses Henry is shown married to Betsy and there are various children: Sons - Amos, Christy and Ephraim and daughters Elizabeth/Eliza and [Mary] Jane.
To confuse matters, the surname is shown in the 1881 and 1871 censuses as being Billinghay. I presume this is a mistake by the enumerator as Billinghay is a town just the other side of Conninsgby from Bolingbroke.
