Pam, Thanks for looking. The Luffmans first came to Alford via John Luffman (my 2 great grandfather) who came up with the Somerset Fencible Militia and left the unit in Alford to marry.Those living in Alford in 1861 are my father's uncles, aunts and cousins. I have met some of their descendants who 20 years ago lived in Boston, the familial likenesses were quite amazing. My grandfather, Richard Luffman (1828-1903) was living in Steeping with his first wife Elizabeth Bierley in 1861. He now worked for the Great Northern Railway as a platelayer, so I am a third generation railwayman.It is now apparent that he had no children with Elizabeth, Ann was the last hope so to speak, a perinatal death or possibly stilborn.
On the subject of illegitimacy, William Henry Rhoades Luffman was born in 1863, the son of Ann Luffman(1840-1868) and a farmer's son Henry Rhoades.After Ann's death in 1868 William was brought up by Richard Luffman (my grandfather) and Elizabeth his then wife as their son, which when I first started muddied the waters for a while. He married in 1885 in Boston, worked on the railway and was subsequently employed by the GNR as a signalman at Bentley Crossing Doncster, coincidently with a mile of where I lived from 1965 to 2007. As they say, its a small world.
To resume the main thread Elizabeth Luffman (nee Bierley) died in 1894 and my grandfather was remarried at the age of 66 to my future grandmother Laetitia Burton (1859-1901), my Aunt Ida, was born 6 months after the marriage, and my father Sydney Harold was born in 1899 by which time his father was 71! Fortunately I think that is all there is to say, again, thanks for looking.
Roger
