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Thread: What a fluke!

  1. #1
    annabel
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    Default What a fluke!

    Today whilst idly looking at old posts here, i found one about the British Newspaper Archives site, so I thought i would take a look. I searched for Fricker not looking for anything in particular, and after a while i found a newspaper article mentioning "a Mrs Fricker". Now i have someone on my tree with an unusual middle name which I always thought was significant but did not know why. And here was a report of a court case where a woman with this name as a surname had left money to Mrs Fricker, but it was being contested

    Now here is the luck. I had no first names of anyone involved, just the year of death. I went on Ancestry and put in the year and surname. There was no death entry, but there was a notice of the probate from the court case. On it was the place of death, the very address where the child with the unusual name was born.

    After a bit more searching it seems that this lady married to get her surname, but was almost immediately divorced due to her adultary. It was widely reported in the national papers in detail and must have caused no end of embarassment. Her siblings were reported as not having anything to do with her. She moved to London where she developed a painful condition, and she would have needed care. My Mrs Fricker must have provided it and they obviously thought a lot of each other as she named her son after her before she died in Mrs Fricker's house.

    The lady left her money to my ancesters, who were poor, but those siblings managed to win their case. It was not much, although it would have made quite a difference to my poor family. Its nice to find some kindness amongst the dry certificates and censuses. The funny thing is the rest of her life and her husband's is almost a complete mystery

  2. #2
    Famous for offering help & advice
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    Love flukes! Time I had one!! Congratulations on a great start on your New Year, Annabel

    Sue

  3. #3
    Super Moderator Sue Mackay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by annabel View Post
    Today whilst idly looking at old posts here
    You see what a good root around in B-G can do! Congratulations on your subsequent detective work.
    Sue Mackay
    Insanity is hereditary - you get it from your kids

  4. #4
    sueannbowen
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    It is the little life snippets that make this so interesting and gets us away from the straightforward (haha) BMD. I
    One of the MOds here found a newspaper article for me (the only one so far) about a Sussex rellie who fell from a cart in Sussex and died in hospital leaving her 'pore family grieving'.

    Good luck with the next part of her story.

  5. #5
    exiled brummie
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    As a result of idly looking at a very new post by annabel I paid a visit to the site, entered Deason and found amongst countless hits, the marriage announcement for my g g grandparents, news that another relative had won an 11 stone wrestling contest, plus the death announcement for 1st cousin 3 times removed, who was born and lived on the Island of St Helena. Will be browsing and downloading for months!!

  6. #6

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    I have found hundreds of articles advertisements and reviews for my actor great grandparents. So many that I got fed up with reading them! Discovered that Great Grandpa went to South Africa to the diamond fields and then discovered that great grandma did too. I now suspect that this is where they met because a family story from a different branch has them marrying there. I know they got married in Liverpool because I have the certificate. and by 1881 they were in Scotland then Ireland the Darlington!
    Without the newspapers I would never have found them at all.
    Sadly, our dear friend Ann (alias Ladkyis) passed away on Thursday, 26th. December, 2019.
    Footprints on the sands of time

  7. #7
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    Here's to Annabel’s Fluke – hadn’t looked at the newspaper entries for a while but after reading your post I went back and found a new entry, which tied in with a long search for a 3x Gt Grandmother. Off the back of this I felt confident enough to invest in a death certificate which I had been contemplating for a while – it came this morning and is most definitely the right one and opens up distinct possibilities of tracking back this family at last – yippee

    thanks Annabel

    Lesley x

  8. #8
    annabel
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    Its such a great resource with a bit of luck and a following wind! So glad that you have got past your stumbling block. How lovely to find that last bit of the puzzle at last

  9. #9
    nataliew
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    the newspaper resource is amazing for putting colour into the story! I've found Essex ancestors attending famous union meetings, auctions where they lost it all and Thames ancestors winning boat races. It's a great resource

  10. #10
    exiled brummie
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    Like Cristol I too had forgotten about the archives until Annabel started this thread. Yesterday I was able to confirm for a cousin that her g grandfather's brother did indeed found a bicycle company, and found also that he and his wife also attended literary functions.

    Another find possibly relates to my mystery g g grandfather who was born, so far as I can tell (he is not so much a brick wall, more a nuclear bunker), in Pencombe Herefordshire. A report dated 1840 is for an appropriately named lad of the right age being sentenced to 3 months in gaol for stealing a piece of boiled bacon valued at four pence from a farm at Pencombe. Reading between the lines it appears that, like my younger granddaughter after him, he tried to place the blame on the farmer's dog. Unfortunately for him the farmer didn't have a dog.

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