#52 Ancestors - Week 7 - Landed

For many families, throughout their histories there are numerous ties to the land.  For those fortunate enough to own land, those ties can be even deeper.  Whether our ancestors owned land or worked it, mined it or travelled it regularly, ties to land plays a major role in how our families evolved, developed and lived.

My father's family had strong ties to Fordham Hall (also called Manor Farm) in Essex, being tennants at the Hall for several generations.  Although they were not the owners, they were major local landholders and were the gentry of their small community.

Fordham Hall, Essex

The Green family of Fordham Hall farmed the land, kept a pack of foxhounds,and took part in many community events.  The article below, from the 'Essex Standard' on Friday 13 October 1837, mentions Isaac Green of Fordham as one of the judges at the annual meeting of the local Agricultural Society.

The wedding of Constance Green, daughter of Walter Proctor Green, in 1909 was a major event at Fordham Hall, with a large party attending and the event extensively reported in the local newspapers.  Below is a photograph of the wedding party, taken on the lawn at the rear of the Hall.

#52 Ancestors - Week 6 - Maps

Maps can be an extremely useful tool for family history.  They show all sorts of helpful things - what sort of land were our ancestor's homes built on?  Were there woodlands, rivers, lakes, canals, or open pastures nearby?  Was the land flat or were there steep hills?  How far were they situated from the county border, from neighboring towns and parishes, and more.

Knowing the lay of the land nearby gives us information on how easy it was to visit neighboring areas. We need to know where our ancestors lived. But we also need to take a look around and see if there are other places where he or she could have interacted with others — places where he or she could have created more records. Our ancestors didn’t necessarily stay within the lines for all of their activities.

One ancestor of mine lived in the village of Fordham in Essex and clearly had contact with nearby Bures, in Suffolk.  It’s in another county, but is less than 4 miles distant. Maybe he sold his grain at Bures, or went to market there or attended meetings – somehow he got to know the people there.  It is where his wife was born.  It is where they married.  Maps make it clear how easy it was for him to travel that distance, showing that even though the two towns are in different counties there is a nice, fairly straight road between them.