Thank you 1783Caz, don't worry too much on my behalf with your male relatives, you are doing your best and after all that is all you can do. I find it amazing that there are folk out there with photos etc connected with your ancestors and who are not willing to share with you. Also I realize, although it seems strange to me, that there are folk who are not interested in finding out about their families at all. Some folk even get an inheritance from distance relatives, in places such as Australia and still have no desire to seek out connections or history. As you know, here we are instead desperate to put the pieces of our ancestry together. When I think of James the blacksmith I imagine he would have been quite an important figure in a hamlet, such as Batchworth, Rickmansworth and possibly surrounding areas. Before the onset of the railway, when the horse and carriage were the main form of transport, I would imagine there was great need for skilled blacksmiths. Sad to think he ended his days in the workhouse having seemed to do such a vital job at the time.
Jtas mentioned looking for a will for Mary Goodman. I looked at the Irish Archives site and did not find any will for Mary. Although I saw that there were some Goodman women who made wills these were mostly from Northern Ireland. I wouldn't imagine that in the end Mary had any money left. She lived with my grand dad and his wife when she firstly became unwell. Apparently she was visited by some of her ex well to do clients, from the time that she was a private midwife. Eventually she ended up in a place that was basically a poor person's nursing home. It seems there was little security in those times money could easily disappear if your circumstances changed. At least in this present time, with the welfare state, we have some security should we become destitute.
