A Story of my family Research and my quest to find information on my ancestors.

About 2 years ago we were clearing some things from our attic and I found one of my mum's old books on family tree. I had always been interested in history and especially liked learning about "Social History" at school, things like the Industrial Revolution, Civil war and the Middle ages etc. I had also been interested in stories of people who could their Ancestors back to the days of "Lords & Ladies of the manor". I wondered if could do the same, and /or find something interesting.

I purchased a computer family tree programme and started asking my relatives for information. At about the same time my aunt had also become interested in family history, and had been able to locate our family bible, which has gone some way in helping us trace our paternal ancestry

At first it looked like I wasn’t going to find any of my Grans family that lived near Plymouth (my Grandfathers family come from Landrake & St Germans Cornwall and I have his tree back to the 1650’s but that is another story!).

Any way back to the story, my Grandmother Jean Andre (nee FRANCIS) was born in Gillingham Kent, she was the youngest of two, with an older brother Albert John Du pre FRANCIS, her mother Bertha Minnie (nee MACHON) came from the Channel Islands. Jean's father, John Henry FRANCIS was a Dental Technician who served with the Admiralty. This was a career that took him all over the British Empire. Jean can remember when she was very young, her father coming back very tanned from foreign parts.

And in 1933 he and his family moved to Malta where he worked in The Bighi Military Hospital (now the government offices of Malta). Jean has many fond memories of Malta, and they were very happy there. towards the end of the 1930’s the growing threat of war meant that in 1939 John Henry was called back to England and the family moved to Saltash, which is just across the water from Devonport Dockyard, where John took up his new post.

In order to tell the story I need to fill you in with some background information

John Henry’s parents Ernest Dupre and Annie Emma Louise (nee MARRIOT) married on Sunday 24th June 1894 at All Saints Church Kensington London. Ernest was a Dentist and worked and ran a small practice in Wimbledon.

John (b 1896) was one of four children those being:Albert Ernest Born Saturday 13th April 1895, Hilda Amy Victoria Born Thursday 3rd November 1898, Edward William Born Friday 29th December 1899

Both Albert Ernest and John Henry enlisted and fought during World War One. Tragically Albert Ernest a Sargent in the East Kent Regiment, "The Buffs", was killed on Somme France on 6th September 1918, just eight weeks before the end of the war.

Edward farmed near Potters Bar, St Albans unfortunately his farm was cut into two to make way for the M1 when it was built in the early Sixties. The small book I said I had found was my mothers, she bought some years ago when she too had to looked into family history. She visited Aunt Hilda (who went on to live into her nineties), Aunt Hilda told her some family stories and gave mum some information. As mum was starting work she didn’t have time to really pursue the family tree but she did find that there was possible connections with Plymouth, but I would need to uncover them. After several house moves the information was lost but mum does remember Hilda telling her a story about an ancestor drowning after a shipwreck on the Goodwin Sands. A story I have not yet verified!

I had been able to trace the family tree about this far back when I attended one of the societies (Devon Family History Society) meetings, the other members there had the 1881 census on and looked Ernest’s family up. Thanks to their subsequent help I have been able to go back further:

Ernest Dupre FRANCIS, was one of 10 children, born Tuesday 21st March 1871 at 8 Robertson Street Hastings Probably above his parents Shop.

His parents James FRANCIS and Emma Eliza (nee MOON) were a quiet adventurous couple. Between 1851 and 1860 the couple had both married (I hope as I haven’t found their marriage yet) emigrated to America, making the perilous journey along with millions of other emigrants hoping of better prospects on the other side of the Atlantic! The couple had two children (the first in 1856, and the second in 1858). They decided that it wasn’t any better and decided they would return from 4th avenue New York to London and had their 3rd child by July 1860. They then lived at several addresses in the London area those being Kentish town and 65 Oxford Street now the site of John Lewis department store (NB John lewis firstn established his shop on Oxford Street in 1864 so my ancestors may have worked for him during the time they lived there). By 1867 the couple then moved to Hastings where they lived worked in their drapers shop.

This is where the Plymouth connection comes. Emma Eliza MOON was baptised on 23rd September 1829 at St Andrews Church, Plymouth. Her parents Edward and Sally Ann (nee ROWLAND) married by licence 12th September 1826. Emma E was the 2nd born of 9 children.

The family lived in Jubilee Street (I assume from-1826 – 1840’s) and they were living at 30 Hampton Street in the 1851 census. By 1861 Edward, a master mariner had retired. Edward MOON, a Master Mariner, was baptised in Ilfracombe, North Devon, the son of Richard and Margaret MOON, his father may have died before 1841 as Margaret was living with the Family in Jubilee St . I have not yet looked into his sailing history but I have been able to find on ship that he may have captained – the 214-ton Amynta. Sadly Edward died in 1862/3 and was buried in Ford Park Civil Cemetery on 15 Jan 1863.

Sally Ann had a more lengthily life and continued to reside at Hampton Street. I have followed the census / directories through and I have seen how gradually her children made flight from their nest, all but Phoebe who eventually married in the 1870’s to William P HILL, Sally Ann died in 1885 at the ripe old age of 82!

Sally Ann’s father Thomas ROWLAND is one of my most extraordinary Ancestors- he actually owned some land!!!. Thomas ROWLAND was baptised on 12th November in Ughborough Devon son of Grace and Richard ROWLANDS.

He became a Cordwainer (shoemaker) and married in the nearby parish of Brixham in 1791 to Sally/Sarah Wills. I haven’t looked into the baptisms for Brixham for Sally Ann’s older siblings but I do know that the couple were in Plymouth by 1799 for the baptism of Henry Rowland (Sally Ann’s older brother). Unfortunately Sally/Sarah (nee WILLS) died. On 2nd may 1812 Thomas remarried to Ann FRANCIS, (a widow and I have reason to believe her maiden name may have been KING as a son she and Thomas baptised who had the middle name of that, KING is also recorded on her epitaph).

In the 1822 Plymouth Directory Thomas Rowland is listed as "ROWLAND and PITTS, Queen Anne’s Lime Kilns and Quarry Coxside" he is also listed in various other trade directories. On the 1844 Tithe map Thomas is listed as owning 6 plots in the parish of St Charles, they are listed as

:335a Queen Anne’s place – pasture, 335b House,334 Garden, 337 Garden, 369 waste, 370 garden,.

When we look at the map we see that he owned all of Queen Anne’s Battery (QAB) and some other land on the Cattedown Peninsular I think on area called deadmans Quarry. In 1835 QAB is described as " an irregular curved shape with 14 portholes for guns and as having long been allowed to decay …although the smell of gunpowder are still frequently perceived there, it is only the blasting of the rock behind". This tell us tha there was workings there in 1835 pointing to Rowland & Pitts company. It is also a strange tio note that the poor microfilms of the 1861 OS map do show a Quarry between the house and the battery. The height difference between the marina and the Teat’s Hill Flats behind can still be seen to day.

On seeing that he owned a house I went to the library where I looked up the 1901 map for the area an his house was there facing the fore shore. I have tried to find pictures of the house but I was unable to, I think that the house was probably removed either by the army or bombing during the war as the area was used a base for the American troops. In recent years Queen Anne’s battery was converted in the 1980’s into a fancy Mariana for Yachts. During the conversion the shoreline was brought forward so if his house were still there it would now be about 100 feet from the sea.

After further research I found a source that said that thomas had sold QAB in 1852 to Joseph BANKS. In fact he leased it to Him. Although Mr BANKS developed the facilities there so much so that in 1870 "one of the largest ships built in Plymouth" the 1127 ton Nimrod was launched. Thomas made a will in February 1856 in which he left his money equally to his children.

He eventually passed away on the 8th July 1856. His death is even recorded in the Plymouth and Devonport Journal:

His whole estate was offered for auction on Wednesday 1st October 1856 at 4pm at the Globe Hotel Plymouth and was described as:

Thomas was buried on 12th July 1856, His wife bought a freehold plot (the family has the right to bury there for 100 years) for £5 10s 0d a new plot now costs £600!

Finding Plots at the cemetery!- this is a task which isn’t easy. It all started when I went to Tree house which is the DFHS "record Centre" at the time we were looking for the MOON family, I was with my mum at the time and she was looking through the various draws of card indexes. She came across the indexed transcription of Edward MOON’s plot and we copied it down. The next week we visited Ford park Cemetery to try and find the head stone, Ford park has recently been in the news a lot because of vandalism and the setting up of the Trust who now look after it. When we walked through the Gate we were greeted by Dave the grounds Keeper He showed us how large the cemetery was and showed us some interesting Head Stones. We office where we met with the clerk who took the details of the people we were looking for. He said that with out a plot number finding a grave would be near impossible, as there are over 250000 burials. We wandered about for 5 minutes when the groundskeeper called us back to the office. There the clerk told us the plot number, which he had found by searching the deed payment books. So we excitedly rushed to the Plots with the grounds Keeper, unfortunately the memorial was missing! We looked around a little bit and mum saw the letters DU PRE – the middle name of Gran’s brother, so the people in the plot behind must be related. On the back of the stone we found more inscriptions including one for Thomas ROWLAND.