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.

Saturday 11 August 2012

Third protagonist - John Waters

Sarah's youngest John Tolley in 1901 was still with Sarah and John Waters and working as a bricklayers labourer. By 1911 he had married Agnes Anne Hodges (1903 Droitwich district) and had 2 children: Cyril J H 1904 and Frederick W 1908. Agnes's mother was living with them in Church Lane, Martin Hussingtree despite them having only 2 rooms other than the kitchen. John was still working as a bricklayer's labourer. According to the census record household schedule number John was next door to John Waters his step-father (and presumedly his mother Sarah when she wasn't visiting his brothers.) 
Searching the birth registers post 1912 for Tolley with Agnes's maiden name Hodges, it looks like there were an additional 2 children: Edgar C 1914 and Douglas G 1921, both registered in the Droitwich district.

Sarah's children from her marriage to Henry Tolley traced and the only surviving child from her marriage to John Waters traced; Sarah herself traced to 1851 and through to her death June qtr 1922 Droitwich district; but our protagonist John Waters still remains a mystery prior to 1877.


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