Essex Society for Family History
RECENT MEETINGS AT SOUTHEND
September 2009 - AGM followed by Granny’s Attic
In September it was nice to meet up again after the summer break. I suspect that quite a number of us spent some of that time ancestor-hunting. It is what we do! Maureen Miller will be familiar to many as one of the Executive Committee. Thanks went to Maureen for coming all the way from Great Baddow to chair the meeting. We won’t go into too much detail other than to say we have seen a good turn out in the numbers who attended the meetings, on average around 60, which is very encouraging. All those who served on the committee were re-elected. This concluded the AGM. I am sure that everyone will be looking forward to next season’s bill of fare, to meeting old friends and to seeing some new faces.
"Granny’s Attic" followed the AGM. Regulars Kathy Williams, Muriel Clough, Peter Dixon, Annette Tidman and our Chairman Heather Feather, brought along some family treasures and explained the history behind them. We looked at documents and other items. There were also paintings and photographs. Five different stories, each offering a fascinating glimpse into the past.
Martin Haydn Roberts.
July 2009 - Identifying Uniforms
The July talk for the South-East Essex Branch was given by Bob Marrion accompanied by Fred Feather. Bob can read army uniforms as most of us read books. He was able to identify all of the pictures that Fred showed, simply by knowing the dates when alterations were made to uniforms. After the Indian Mutiny in 1857 General Havelock VC (a distant connection with member Christine Jemmeson) introduced a cloth to the back of his cap, reminiscent of the hats now worn by the French Foreign Legion. This sensible move protected the back of the neck from the Indian sun and is still known as a “Havelock.” At the time of the 1881 reforms scarlet jackets had different coloured collars and cuffs, which were known as “facings” and these were, for some years, dark blue for “Royal” regiments, white for English regiments, green for Irish regiments and yellow for the Scots. Some regiments such as the Green and Buff Howards later reverted to traditional colours.
Later in the century, Bob explained that khaki serge gradually replaced the conspicuous scarlet. A new style of khaki jacket was introduced in 1915, without re-enforced shoulders or pleated pockets, in order to save cloth. During the Great War an officer’s rank markings was removed from their sleeves, where it was very obvious to German snipers and placed in future on their shoulder straps. After the talk Bob identified and dated photographs brought in by members with great success.
Annette Tidman
June 2009 - The Italian Connection
Ken and Jo Sylvester are well known to those who regularly attend meetings. Their eldest son Brent, took centre stage to talk about the family’s Italian connection. Brent’s great-great-grandfather Edward Bernard Sylvester also went by another name, Edward Bernard William Petroni. The family discovered that he was in vaudeville where he was known as “The Great Petroni.” But, why the two surnames? Was there more to this? Edward Bernard William’s birth certificate states that his father was Edigio Petroni, which explains why Edward called himself “The Great Petroni,” but not why his off-stage name was Sylvester. More on that later. Further research revealed Edigio’s father to be Stephano Edigio Petroni, a man of letters. It took nine years to piece together all the information, but it certainly has been worth it.
The family decided to visit the British Library to see if they might have something on
Stephano. They did, and it was way beyond what they expected. Stephano Edigio Petroni was the author of 25 volumes of work, all of which were published. They even had the opportunity to handle some of these volumes, see a portrait of the man and look at his actual signature! The library also had a copy of the Gentleman’s Magazine and that gave a lot of other important information: that he was born in Perugia in 1770; educated in Rome; was later resident in London as Professor of Italian Language.
Next stop Italy, to Perugia, to see what else they could unravel. Stephano was not born in Perugia, however, but in Magione a short distance away. Naturally they went there. Stephano Edigio Petroni was baptised in Magione on 26th November 1770, the son of Barnardino and Olympia Giacomini Petroni. Following his education in Rome Stephano became a priest. He must have had doubts about his choice of career and what his beliefs were, for when Napoleon invaded Italy he decided to support the “Little Corporal.” This spelt disaster for him within the church; he may even have been on the verge of being excommunicated, so he ran away to France where he wrote a book about Napoleon. He finally ended up in London, became a professor and spent the rest of his days in the capital. Sadly, he never made much money from his writing and when he died in 1838 he left just £50 to his wife and son.
Brent was born and brought up in Southend but the Sylvester family had no connection with the town before then. Edward Bernard William happens to be buried at Sutton Cemetery. Why he came to Southend we do not know. Now this is where it really gets spooky. When Edward died he was living in the road next door to Brent’s. He is still the man with two surnames. It says so in the register. But why choose the name Sylvester? Still working on that one!
May 2009 - Hidden Treasures of Historic Essex
John Drury is an author of several books. His interests include family history and similarly related subjects, This was John’s second visit. His talk on this occasion was “Essex Treasures.”
Balkerne Gate, Colchester, was built by the Romans and was the original entrance into the city. Traces of Roman wall still surround parts of Colchester and stand as an example of how good the Romans were with with construction.
Before the Norman Conquest, every church in Essex was timber-framed with a thatched roof, not unlike those made of weatherboarding that can be seen in some parts of the county. But this isn't all there is. Essex has some of the finest church architecture in the country. It is the simplicity of style many of these buildings have, both inside and out.
Willingale is unusual in having two churches, There are two possible explanations as to why this might be, We'll let the vicar take over from here, 'There were two sisters who quarrelled and each built a church of their own. This story is without foundation as the churches date from different periods. In the 14th-century, the D’0u family came to live in Willingale. Around this time the wool industry was flourishing and the population increased. The existing church was too small to accommodate the increased numbers of worshippers (including tne Spains, another wealthy family who lived in the village and rather than pull down the old church and replace it with a new one, a second church was built next to the original. Until 1927 they were separate and quite distinct, each with its own rector,'
Southend’s Royal Terrace got it’s name when Princess Caroline stayed at Numbers 7 and 9. Let us not forget the Nelson connection either. Emma
Hamilton, Nelson's mistress, lived there from time to time. The story here is that Emma would keep a light shining from her window when he was in port. Essex is a tapestry of things that make it so special. Let us keep it that way, was John’s message.
12 May - Coach trip to L.M.A.
Several from our group did well tracing their ancestral roots. Hopefully we all made some progress, even if it was only to cross off those parishes where our ancestors were not being baptised, married and buried, Trouble is; this is London and we all know how long scanning a church register takes If it is somewhere like Tower Hamlets: one year often equates to an hour on a film reader . Thank you to Jose for organising the trip.
Martin Haydn Roberts.
© Copyright Essex Society for Family History