Delving into the family history on and off for about 20 years has left me hopelessly addicted to the following clues, hunches and inevitable red herrings that are all needed to piece together the bare chapters of someone's life. Unable to resist people's 'brick walls' or an innocent query re the origin of grandparents and those before, there's nothing better than trying to find the unfound.
This is my sudoku, my multilevel crossword, my jigsaw where most of the pieces are missing and there's definitely no picture to start from.
So - to satisfy this addiction, each week I intend to choose someone at random from the 1881 census (checking that their story hasn't already unfolded on ancestry.co.uk) and uncover, piece together what I can from internet sources their untold story.
The puzzling and the unfolding story will be told in this blog.

Monday 30 July 2012

Second protagonist - James Harman (Futter)

1841 has James married with Elizabeth and a son James aged 3 months living in Damgate. James was described as a waterman. Next door was Benjamin Harman born about 1776, a farmer, his wife Mary born about 1786 and Harriet Harman born about 1831. James and Elizabeth's son Benjamin could well be named after James's father.

familysearch has a baptism for a James Harman around the right time but with parents James and Mary and in Holkham, quite a way from Martham. This James anyway was married to a Maria and living at St Michael at Thorn Norfolk in the censuses.

Unfortunately there's no sign of baptisms for James and Elizabeth's children on familysearch, whether searching with each child's name or with any Harman with James and Elizabeth as parents. Searching for any children of Benjamin and Mary Harman, familysearch  has just one: Josiah baptised 25 Dec 1800 at West Somerton (just next to Damgate and Martham) and died 14 June 1801. It would make Mary a young bride and mother at just 14/15? (quite possible as the lower age limit for marriage was only raised to 16 in 1929).

There is a marriage on familysearch  at South Ruston Norfolk which is quite feasibly that of Benjamin and Mary:
Benjamin Harman of this parish single man and Mary Freman of this parish single woman were married in this church by banns 26th August 1799 by me Henry Crowe. Both Benjamin and Mary signed by making their mark as did one of the witnesses Susannah Rackham. the other witness Sarah Ratfield signed her name.

South Ruston was close to Tunstead virtually due west from Martham but not that far. Swafield where Mary indicates she was born in the 1851 census is just a little further north.

I suspect that the Harriet with Benjamin and Mary in 1841 was a daughter of Henry and Susanna Harman. She appears with them on the 1851 census in Rollesby just close to Martham. Henry, born about 1799 in Somerton (next to Martham) and where our protagonist James stated he was born in the 1881 census, was a farmer of 60 acres employing one labourer. His wife Susanna was born about 1799 in Martham and with them in 1851 as well as Harriet were two sons: John born about 1834 in Martham and Benjamin born about 1838 in Rollesby. All three children were working on the farm.  In the 1841 census Harriet wasn't with her parents; there were though five other children in addition to John and Benjamin: Henry born about 1821, Marian 1826, Elizabeth 1829, Rebecca 1831 and Susan 1836.

The censuses suggest a story of Benjamin and Mary Harman and their two sons Henry and James, the older one, a farmer following on from his father and the other a boatman.

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