Time Machine

After much musing I decided to go on to the 1901 census to do an address check for my house to find out the likely first owners/occupiers. I hadn't expected it to be this easy but lo and behold up comes the information. Mrs Annie Phillips and her two daughters Margaret and Elizabeth were living there in 1901. So we have a start point now.

I don't need to know these things of course but I find it fascinating. Finding out the faces behind the people in the past. My dad is currently doing our family tree which is proving surprising and I just love the idea you can find out who people were (to a point) and keep a piece of history with you.

So in 1901 67 year old Mrs Annie Phillips and her daughters lived in my house. They were dressmakers and I thought, hmmm I wonder where they lived before 1901 and before my house. So I decided to check the 1891 census. Up pops Mrs Anne Phillips, her daughters Margaret and Elizabeth and a lodger. Ok she was still a widow at 57. Could I go back further?

Up comes the 1881 census and lo up pops Mrs Anne Phillips and her 2 daughters and 3 lodgers, all living in the same place as before, just round the corner from me now. This gave me the information that she was still a widow at 47 which is really young. Curiosity spread and I decided to check the 1871 census and she appears with the 2 girls and a husband Thomas who was a shipwright. (carpenter to me and you) so she must've been widowed very young as her husband died between 1871 and 1881 in his early 40's and he was at least 2 years older than her.

I wanted to see how far back I could go so I went to the welsh 1861 census (as I know the girls had been born in Wales) and I found them living in South Wales with some extended family. I'm not able to trace Anne any further as I do not have a maiden name for her yet but Thomas I could so I managed to trace him a further 20 years back - 1851 and 1841 census living with his family in South Wales.

I want to know more. I want to go forward and see if Margaret and Elizabeth married or if they died as old spinsters in the house and then who did it go to, if it belonged to them or if they rented it from a company or landlord. Unfortunately it's not going to be that easy to trace forward as the next census is not online yet but I think a trip to central library might be in order to continue this trip!

God I love history. I cannot understand people who aren't completely enthralled by the past, what we did, how we did it and what we learned from those ancestors.