HM James Romford Road Manor Park

[Quinnh]

Hello,

Hezekiah Morris James is my 2nd great grandfather.  He was born in June 1846!  in Ipswich and died in August 1922 in Romford Essex. 
I see that he owned HM James 736 Romford Road Manor park and it looks as if his family was quite large!!  Google says the business went into administration.  I have been researching my family tree for a little bit now and then and get quite frustrated with only getting names and no insight into the people behind the names?  It seems such a shame that people are born married died and not a lot else for some?  Does anyone have any suggestions how I can delve a little deeper and try to find out a little more about the lives of my ancestors?  Thanks so much in advance .

[maddys52]

Newspapers are a good source for "rounding out" a family story - search for the name, and the address - sometimes interesting snippets can come up. 

I see there is a family tree on familysearch with a few photos
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G3FL-FSM

[Ruskie]

Hezekiah Morris James is my 2nd great grandfather.  He was born in June 1946 in Ipswich and died in August 1922 in Romford Essex. 

Welcome to rootschat Quinnh.

I presume you mean Hezekiah was born in 1846?

Censuses are a good way to follow the family and gives you a snapshot of their lives one night in ten years. Occupation and address for example can tell you a lot about the wealth of a person, so it can pay to read between the lines. Also birth, marriage and death certificates give further information.

For many of us, this is all we have about the lives of our ancestors. There can sometimes be more to be found if we had criminal or very wealthy ancestors.

[Ruskie]

In the 1911 census it tells us that they had 10 children and 10 were still living. This can indicate a certain wealth and good health.

Another example: the family of 10 (ie 8 children) lived at 736 Romford Road* in the 1901 census, at the “Range Maker’s Shop”.

In 1891 they were living in White Post Lane, Little Ilford, at the Ironmongers Shop.

All these little clues add to the bigger picture.

* the building you can see at this address via a google search would bear no resemblance to the building in which your family lived.

Compare the side by side maps:
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=19.125837646902422&lat=51.55262&lon=0.05351&layers=168&right=BingHyb

The current 736 Romford Road is between Fourth and Third Avenue. Looking at the property on google street view you can see some of the neighbouring properties which are older - 736 is likely to have originally looked something like these, though there are even differences in style of the older buildings. 736 is larger, so over the years your family probably purchased and combined neighbouring properties to make what you see today.

[Ruskie]

An older map, before later development on the High Street:

https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18.84535446385281&lat=51.55290&lon=0.05448&layers=163&right=BingHyb

[Brentor boy]

Do you have a copy of his will? If not, you can purchase a copy via the "Find a Will" site. It might provide you with some insight into who and what he found important. His estate was valued at £5086. 8. 6d

[Quinnh]

Thank you all, this gives me encouragement to keep digging.