January 2010
Apologies for the long break in updates! Didn't have time for research, then had new pc and so my old software didn't work. Tree updates to follow….
Marsh News.
Lots of people (ie “new” relatives) have got in touch and given me new information that I have added to the tree. Of course some new relatives have been born and sadly some have passed away. I have also made some progress with my Grandma Martha Goodwin's ancestors.
Gerrard News. My cousin has been infected by the family research bug and we have been visiting Nottingham archives and generally trying to follow my paternal line. Thanks to a chance meeting with a semi-professional genealogist we now know that our mutual grandfather’s name was registered as Thomas Henry Gerrard Bowmar.  No father named. So the Gerrard tree is slightly misnamed! 

His mother was admitted to Leicester workhouse on Christmas Eve 1886 (giving her name as Annie Elizabeth Bowmar alias Gerrard from St Margaret's parish Leicester), gave birth to him in February 1887 and then discharged herself in March. Assuming she told the truth about her birth year (1865) and name - we cannot find her birth registration or presence reliably in any census, his workhouse birth record states she is a Dressmaker of Nottinghamshire. We feel she was from Kirkby and there are ties there since the family then took up residence in that area. Why she gave birth at Leicester is a mystery. So, despite our best efforts so far his mother and her ancestors are remaining elusive.
There is an Annie Bowmar (born Kirkby 1867) who tempted us for quite a while but she married William Scothern (13th October 1884 at Kirkby) so is presumably out of consideration..... we may never know!
Family lore says that Thomas Henry was brought up by another family and it seems he immediately and permanently dropped his mother's name. He is aged 4 lodging with Thomas and Elizabeth Bacon's family at The Hill, Kirkby in Ashfield in 1891.

We have had more success with Grandma's (Mary Elizabeth Naylor) family so that goes back to James Naylor (1802-1840) now – but my cousin has been busy and I have updates to get from her soon.

October 2004
Marsh News.
Goodness, how time flies! Not really done any research, but have had a fine time meeting "new" relatives.
We are not barbecue fans, but we live in the old village Blacksmith's house - comlete with forge in an outbuilding which we have restored enough to use for a large barbecue - very good for larger gatherings of friends!
In August we invited lots of Marsh relatives over for a "bring and barbecue". 31 people and a dog were the result (See pic.) (I will supply names on email request).
I printed out the tree to display, in 2 parts as it proved to be nearly 13 feet long (!), and printed name labels for us all so we could sort out who was who - this was a great success. People kept coming up to me to report another arrival of relatives - asking who they were, I could only say that we would have to ask!
Old friendships/acquaintances were renewed after up to 40 years and new friendships made. It was amazing how many people lived near each other without knowing.
Since then I am sad to report that in September Jack Wain passed away, we went to his packed funeral in Rotherham and as a result met Laurie Wain, his wife and girls - coincidentally discovering mutual friends even tho' they live in the south.
As my eldest brother Ian is visiting from Scotland at the end of the month we have decided to go out for lunch - and there's no point in going in a small party when the Marsh clan could be invited - so there's another gathering on Nov 1st (info on request), it won't be as big - and someone else is doing the cooking!

December 2003
Marsh News.
Not long after I updated the site in November, I had an email from another "new" relative Karon Hollis who is descended from Elizabeth Marsh, a sister of William (who married Ann Stringfellow) my Great Great Grandfather, she is therefore my fourth cousin!
I did not know any details about Elizabeth, but now the tree shows that she married John Dove, their grave is in Sutton cemetery. They had 8 girls and 5 boys so that has stretched the tree! I was rather interested to find that 2 of their daughters and one son married siblings named Wass, that must be an unusual occurrence! Also, one of her Grandsons married a Hannah Vardy - we already have a girl of that name marrying into the family. Karon has given me some nice photos but I haven't had chance to put them online yet.
Then I finally plucked up courage to phone an "Eric Marsh" in the phonebook to see if he was my Gt Uncle Brit's son. He was! We had a nice conversation about the tree - he had tried to do one but failed because of having lost touch with relatives. He has kindly filled in loads of details for us - so an even wider tree now!
We are now missing the descendants from only one of Thomas and Mary Ann's children - Doris. Her only son Tony Mumford has not been seen for some years. Any ideas? He went to Swanwick Hall Grammar School - but has not registered on friends Reunited.

November 2003
Marsh News.
The most exciting news is that I have been told of a Marsh DNA project which, given sufficient Marsh volunteers will enable us to find out where we all came from originally and maybe connect different branches of the family. See the web site from the Links page for details - and persuade any male Marshes to join in please!
I found the baptism record of my 2 x Great Grandfather William Marsh proving him to be the son of John and Mary Marsh.
Unfortunately there does not seem to be any relevant surviving documents regarding Mansfield Union Infirmary (workhouse) where Amy Marsh was stated in the cemetery register as having died in 1916 (see comment in February) However I completed the search through the register which covers 1897 to 1938 but only found one additional family member.
I have started to look through the Marshes in Sutton in the 1901 census - it is now indexed by surname and found some additions which are on the census page. I found Thomas and Linney Yates and was able to add another three children to the one I had from Lynne Weston. Trouble is the two eldest are stated as Thomas' Stepsons and have the name of Marsh. Are they Linney's illegitimate children or someone else's? Another mystery! I now have another John William Marsh in addition to my Grandfather, they were born in 1889 and 1890, also a John W born in 1874, popular names!
Gerrard News. I have been busy this summer, but I visited the archives again recently, and had more fruitless efforts to find more about Grandad Gerrard. In the 1901 census I found a Thomas Gerard living with Edmund and Anna Voce at 3 Earl St Nottingham, he was stated to be a nephew and that he was a collier of coal. I will need to do the Voce tree to eliminate him and surprisingly (to me) there are lots of Voces in Nottingham.
Goodwin news. In the 1881 census my Great Grandad John Goodwin age 15 was living with his Mum (presumably remarried) Ann Bowmer and 3 step sisters. I have found a record of a marriage 07/06/1870 at Duffield, Derby between Ann Goodwin and Benjamin Bowmer. It states her father as being William Simpson so knowing her maiden name now I can have another look for John and Ann's marriage which I couldn't find under the Goodwin name for some reason. John Goodwin is himself supposed to have married twice so it must run in the family.


June 2003
Early in May, I had a surprise email from David Roebuck who had found the website and said he was a distant relative of mine. Sure enough, his great great grandma was Harriet Marsh, so our common ancestor is John Marsh who was born in 1807 - our 3 x Great Grandpa! Subsequently David's sister Ann has been in touch and has enabled me to add loads of descendants of Harriet.
David also kindly sent me a photo of Harriet and four generations of her offspring which I had already seen in a newspaper cutting from Lynne Weston - see the photo gallery page. I sent it to Lynne and found to our mutual amazement that Lynne and David have known each other for many years and live almost opposite each other, not knowing they were related!
David has subsequently sent me some more photos and they are also on the Gallery page - I will add more later.
A couple of weeks ago I had another "Marsh meeting" - this time I had the pleasure of meeting Margaret and Celia Marsh, two of my Gt Uncle Horace's daughters, and Valerie, one of his Granddaughters (her Mum was Connie Marsh)
We had a fine chattering time having lunch at Belton House and Margaret kindly brought some photos etc for me. I also learned that I have gypsy blood! Margaret and Celia say that my Great Grandma Mary Ann Marsh was a gypsy, certainly her marriage entry states her father's occupation as "Traveller (deceased)" but previously I had not known whether that referred to a travelling salesman. Maybe that's why I can't find for certain her birth certificate!


February 2003
I had a productive day at the record office on 7th February, and on the Sunday we had the pleasure of meeting Jack and Andrew Wain - we enjoyed that immensely although it was their fault that we met them at the Boat Jumble at the Showground and ended up spending money!
Following up on last time's discovery of George Wain marrying Matilda Marsh, I tracked them down in the 1881 and 1891 census, they were living in Quarry Yard Sutton. They had moved from there by 1901 so I didn't find them (no surname index, only a street index). So I now have some at least of their children. See the Marsh census pages for details.
Jack and Andrew have expressed interest in chasing up their Wain tree to see if there is a relationship between the 2 Wains.
I also tracked down Jack's Mum (Doris Marsh) and Dad's (Jack Wain) marriage entry - 19/12/1925 at St Mary's Sutton, Jack already knew his Grandad's name but I hadn't got it.
I had to get the actual register from the archive so whilst ordering that I got the one for my Mum and Dad's marriage - and discovered that her cousin Roy Allcock got married immediately before them - yes on the same day, 14th Feb 1942. His brother-in-law James William Neil Shaw was a witness and he signed all his names!
For interest, I looked at the fiche record of the earliest Marsh marriage that we know about, Matthew Marsh marrying Alicia Hardwick on 25th April 1734. It is nothing like the official records that we get later - handwritten in what looks like a small unlined book.
I can't remember what specific death made me get the archive book of the cemetery records out, but it was very productive - it runs for so many years that I didn't have time to finish it! It began in 18 something, but I started looking from 1915 and got to 1937. Amongst a load of unknown Marshes I found the following interesting ones:
Thomas and Mary Ann's offspring:
Amy Marsh aged 18, 25/10/1916, strangely her abode was given as Mansfield Union Infirmary so more investigation required here.
Charles Henry Marsh - at last, I had been told he died age 16 so couldn't find him, he was 20 and was buried 26/04/1919. Maybe he was a victim of the 'flu epidemic at that time.
Mary Ann herself - pleased to have found her, she was buried 27/3/1922 age 58.
John William & Martha Marsh's son James Stanley (ie would have been my Uncle) who I thought came between my Mum and Rene but was buried age 6 months 1/12/1923 so was the youngest.
Edith Marsh and Robert Allcock's daughter Lily who was buried age 7 on 8/11/1927. I had her dates wrong but I'm sure this is her since the address is the same as Roy Allcock's when he got married (see above) and her age is the same.
So - some corrections and loose ends tied - a good day's research!
Hopefully, Rene's son Tony is going to look in the old copies of the local paper for details of some of these entries for me.


Gerrard News (or lack of!)
I had sent off for what I hoped was my Grandpa (Thomas Henry) Gerrard's birth certificate. Since the birth I found was registered, the registration districts had been split and amalgamated, so the first reply was that they hadn't got it -try Liverpool.
Now I have a reply from there which says they found the birth I asked for - but that the baby died aged one day....
3 possible conclusions:
His birth wasn't registered.
His name wasn't Thomas Henry (or just Thomas) Gerrard
His birthday wasn't what he said it was.
Also I suppose that it wasn't indexed correctly so I can't find it.
Hmm more thinking required.