If you have a "brick wall" in your research, email me with a description of your obstacle and a contact email address.  I will add it to this page so that visitors may be able to assist you.

I have a problem finding a Arthur BLAKE My G.Grandfather, born Sittingbourne 1816ish.  His father was John BLAKE( post-boy )

 I have all his history so far. We have travelled over to the records office in Maidstone on several occasions to go through the parish records to no avail. I have also asked the Post Office archives people, but they said they don't think they can help. We have ascertained his age from censes records and his father's name came from Arthur's Marriage cert.
Contact:  Ken 

His death occurred 9^th August 1854, Sheerness Kent. Cause: purpura (hemorrhage).  Burial 12^th August 1854.   Do not know where he was buried.  Maria was a few weeks pregnant with their child Thomas Francis Richards BRIGGS born 5^th April 1855, Sheerness who grew up to be a master tailor.   Poor Maria was married and only a couple of weeks pregnant (wonder if she knew she was) and widowed  - all within 3 months.  After several years of looking, still I cannot find Thomas BRIGGS senior's birth records, mother’s name and/or any siblings. There are several Thomas BRIGGS in the various census that match his age and trade but all of them are still alive in the 1861 census and therefore NOT my Thomas BRIGGS.
Contact: Ann Spiro Perth, Western Australia

The 1871 census holds a family which could easily be mistaken for them but this Maria BUTLER is with her family on a later census under her married name of SHURETY. Somewhere on the 1861 census are her potential parents!!!!.

I think I have looked at this from all angles. Did her mother die and that's why they were put into the school. Was BUTLER her maiden name and she didn't marry William???? Etc etc. Any help much appreciated.
Contact: Gloria

I have a long line of CHAMPION Family in Woolwich, Kent.

From:  Sutherland John CHAMPION who was apprenticed in 1735 to a grocer, Thomas ROGERS. His father John CHAMPION signed the record.  Sutherland John CHAMPION and Mary SPARKE had a son William, born 1760, who married Charlotte CANHAM.  I have information from there forward but am looking for Sutherland John CHAMPION,s parents and siblings.

Could Sutherland be a descendent of William CHAMPION who married Elizabeth SUTHERLAND in 1649 . Saint Katherine's In The Tower, London?   They did have a son William CHAMPION born abt. 1678. 

If anyone could give me information on this family it would be greatly appreciated.
Contact: Maxine

I have been told that somewhere along this line in the family there are French links but have hit a wall to find anything pre the wedding certificate.
Contact:  Blondy 

I am looking for information on Elisabeth b, born 1792 in Kent County, England.  She married James Michael Morris DEVERE about 1812 and had a son, James, born 1813.  They went back to his home in France and had 7 other children before coming to Florida in 1831. Does anyone have information on her family, her baptism, her marriage, the child's baptism, or emigration information? James Michael MORRIS added DEVERE to his name at some point after fleeing from the "Reign of Terror" during the French Revolution in 1892 and going to England.  Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Contact:  Marianne

 After Louisa's death in 1812 Thomas married a Sarah LISSNEY in 1818 at St Dunstans in the East (we think this is her second marriage as she had a child Catherine who was born in 1811).   We are not sure of Sarah's maiden name.  We believe that there may be another child of Thomas and Sarah born after Thomas's death as in 1841 there was a child Ellen GOWAR aged 11 living with Catherine LISSNEY in the house next door to Sarah.   Another theory for Laura is that Catherine had taken the name GOWAR when her mother married Thomas (she would have been about 7 at the time) and that Laura is her illegitimate child, but I have more or less discounted that as why would Catherine be called LISSNEY in 1841 but her daughter GOWAR.  We are not sure whether Thomas knew about this child before it was born, but either way, nothing was mentioned in his will. 

I was told by another distant relative that Thomas GOWAR as well as owning tenements, also owned (but was not the licencee) of the Coach and Horses at Greenwich.   From the English Pubs web page I noticed that there were in fact 2 Coach and Horse Inns in Greenwich, neither of which show a Thomas GOWAR as being the owner.  Any help with information on the GOWAR would be very much appreciated.
Contact:  Eveline

I am looking for deaths for this couple - checked Ancestry Death Indexes 1837-1983 without success.  My mother born 4 May 1921 Bermondsey, London remembers visiting her Grandparents in Sevenoaks, Kent, about the time of the Second World War and believes she was in her late teens or early twenties.  She only saw them the one time.  1903 I have definite proof that he was a Gardener.  Earlier records show him to be a Gardener, Police Clerk in Oxford (father 1st Chief Superintendent of the Oxford Police Force) Manager, Licensed Victualler.  At the time of her visit she understood her Grandfather to be a Gardener of a large estate in Sevenoaks but its possible he may have been a retired Gardener.  Its been suggested he may have worked at Knotts Park Estate but I have been unable to find any record to this affect.  I have been unsuccessfully trying to find these deaths for 14 years.
Contact:  Jacky

I am searching for the parents of Edward HYDER born 1745 and Spouse Mary TOMSET abt 1745 married at Aldington 13 Oct 1780. 

I am also trying to obtain details of Thomas HYDER and Eliz.......  DADD who married at either Canterbury or Seasalter  5 Mar 1739.  If anybody knows of their children's dates or even their parents this would be wonderful.  I have obtained the will of Thomas and it shows four children Thomas, Ann, Mary, Elizabeth , also mentioned a grandson Thomas.

Most of my family came from the Aldington Ashford area of Kent , but from a great Aunt who told me when I was a child that her grandfather came from Seasalter , I have noted several Hyders but not sure if this information is correct.  Any help or info  would be most appreciative.
Contact:  Jill

My family, the METCALF's go back to a Francis METCALF - his children were baptized at Westerham, Kent and some moved to, married and were buried in Rolvenden.  Francis is a total mystery to me as are his two wives. He was probably born around 1700

Francis METCALF born abt 1700 child with first wife, William METCALF born 1733 Lydd.  Children from 2nd marriage: George, Henry, Sarah (b. 1735), Ann (b. 1737), Francis (b. 1740) and Edward (b. 1741) all born Kent, most in Westerham.

Any help in locating information on Francis METCALF and his two wives would be very much appreciated.
Contact:  Michael

I have been trying to find information on my Mother's family and have hit brick walls. My great grandparents came to the USA from the Kent area in the mid to late 1800's. The family name is PAVIS. Thomas PAVIS and his wife Mary (TILLEY?) had a number of children, The ones I know are...Ellen (Hawkes), Julia, Charlotte (Gadd), Thomas, Edward, Joseph (Julia..went to Australia where their son was born then came to Connecticut),William and my great grandmother Sarah PAVIS (married Walter MACKEY in Connecticut). From what I have found they lived in the Kent, Cambridgeshire, wood ditton area. I can find everyone but my great grandmother!
Contact:   Joan

I would appreciate any leads to my ggggg grandfather, James POPE, born about 1720 in England, married to Mary LNU, about 1746 possibly in Smarden, Kent, England, died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, sometime after 1760.  He and his wife had three sons, George Whitefield POPE, possibly christened September 22, 1751, in Taunton St. Mary, Somerset, England; Richard, born about 1748 in England; and, Charles, born in England between 1746 and 1748.  A report in the Rowan County, North Carolina library says that James POPE was related to Alexander POPE, the poet, but I have not found anything to back this up.  Mary POPE, by then a widow, settled with her three sons in Guilford County, North Carolina, between 1775 and 1780.  George Whitefield POPE became a prominent Baptist minister in North Carolina, and died about 1818.  I do not know what became of his brothers, Richard and Charles, other than they also apparently took up residence in Guilford County, North Carolina.  Mary POPE, the widow of James POPE died in Guilford County, North Carolina, date of death unknown. 
Contact: William Pope

I am trying to trace the Death of Mark QUESTED born 1857 at Mersham Kent, son of Stephen QUESTED and Mary Ann GREENSTREET.  He appeared in the 1861 / 1871 census but nothing after that.  Any information on him would be much appreciated.
Contact:  Jill

SMITH, John.  Born somewhere in Kent (Wye area probably) in 1812-15.  A farmer and carpenter who immigrated to Perth County, Ontario, Canada in the mid to late 1840s.  He bought land in 1845 and 1848 from the Canada Crown Company but perhaps could purchase ahead of  immigration.  Spouse: Sarah STANFORD, born 1815 in Sussex, no children.  Adopted children: Martha Sarah, b. 1834, and William Stevens, b. 1836, who were born in Wye area and he brought them to Canada in 1848. They were the children of Stephen WOODCOCK and Charlotte STEVENS. (See below)  Maybe not an official adoption, but they were know as SMITHs in Canada.

WOODCOCK, Stephen, born 1815 in Lewisham to William WOODCOCK and Martha SMITH.  Married Charlotte STEVENS of Crundale in 1833.  She died in 1838 after birth of a daughter named Eliza.  The three children  (Martha, William and Eliza) were on the 1841 census with Charlotte's parents, William and Sarah STEVENS in Crundale.  The little Eliza stayed in England at age 10 when her sister, age 14, and brother, age 12 moved to Canada with John SMITH and maybe Sarah STANFORD.  I do not know when Stephen WOODCOCK died -maybe 1842.  His sisters Esther Woodcock WILLIAMS and Caroline Woodcock POLLARD have a later history of coming to Mitchell Ontario  and being somehow related to my listed SMITH group.

SMITH,  James and Thomas, brothers born between 1823 and 1828 in Kent.  Immigrated to Mitchell, Perth Co., Ontario, Canada.  They are somehow related to the John SMITH who settled in Mitchell in 1848 or so.  James is my g grandfather but I cannot fit him in.  However,  I have diaries, a family bible, joint land ventures and photos that connect them all somehow.  Any help with this completed brick-wall would be very much appreciated.
Contact:  Nancy Seger

As far as brick walls go, my TILDEN family has me stumped.  Far back as I can go is one Samuel TILDEN circa 1627.  I have an inkling my TILDENs are related to or descended from John de TILDEN and Isolde REVE but I can't find the missing link.  This family of TILDENs was in Tenterden, mine were in Cranbrook, right next door.  If anybody could help me find a connection, I would be rapt.
Contact:  Lynda

1.  Family lore has it that William was from farming stock near Cornwall.  However a couple of his sons wedding announcements from New Zealand announced that he was from Kent - which is very close to Crowhurst.  I can send the announcements through if required.
2.  Family lore has it that he was a ship's carpenter.  I am gradually working through the Agreements and crew musters at the Public Record Office at Kew to look at all the crew lists of the ships that arrived at Western Australia between 1835 and 1844.  I haven't had luck with this angle thus far, but am still pursuing on an ongoing basis.
3.  Family lore has it that he had a brother John who came out and settled in South Australia - married there, had no children and died there.  I have hunted to ground a list of John's in SA but there is no way to tell of a link to William.
4.  Fact - William was married to Sarah HURST on 23 August 1844 at Bunbury in Western Australia.  His age at the time was 35.
5.  Fact - He died on 29 April 1874.  His age at the time was 65.  This would mean he was born somewhere between 23 August 1808 and 29 April 1809.  His christening date could be anywhere after August 1808.
6.  Fact - His religion was Church of England.

At this point the facts and the 'family lore' kind of contradict and balance each other out which makes things a little confusing.  Most of the other information in the family lore document I have has proved to be accurate.   This is all I have to work with at the moment and am not sure where to go from here. I am open to suggestions as to different resources or any avenues I may be able to use to help my search.
Contact:  Anthony 

This page was last updated:  November 22, 2009