Story and photos of the Deeble, Gross, Hopper, Jenkinson, Squier, Wheeler, Fowler, Powell familes and other branches who arrived in London in the 1800’s from across Britain. Anybody who thinks that Victorian familes did not travel is mistaken.
Some of these people not only moved around Britain, but also Europe, Africa & Australia, U.S.A.. Sometimes on holiday, sometimes to live.
The main familes came from or went to Bedfordshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Kent, Surrey, Lancashire(now Cumbria), Northumberland with brief stops in other counties in between.
They had many occupations, from general trades; such as Laundress, metal workers, cabinet makers, teachers, chemists, commercial travellers to the grandly named Comptroller of Customs at the port of Woodbridge, Suffolk; Glass bottle manufacturers in Barking, Essex and high quality Saddle & Harness makers based in the City of London.
There are one or two skeletons in the closet though !!
We also have a large archive ofphotos dating from about 1870, but unfortunately my grandmother, bless her cotton socks, when she was in her teens in the early 1900’s, very kindly took it upon herself to raid the Victorian leather albums that had come from different family branches.
She sent these out to part of the Jenkinson family who had emigrated to South Africa in about 1890. I have a delightful letter, and one or two photos in return, thanking her for the time and trouble she must have taken to clearly sort, arrange and label the album she sent to them.
Unfortunately those she didn’t need were either put back in the wrong albums or left out. She also took lots of family photos herself, which was great, but hardly anybody is named. But one family group has a date of June 1886 and from this we have been able to work out, to some extent, who is who.
But if there are any Jenkinsons originally from Surrey/Essex, now living in South Africa, one of the sons was named Halley after the comet, and they still have the album……………..
please can we have a look
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