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Both Derek and I are interested in family history research.

We certainly don't have anyone rich, famous, or notorious in our trees, as far as we know, but perhaps we have not looked hard enough! The family names, or some of them, that we are researching are:

• Farley s. Almost all their generation are gone now, so our research has to be doen the hard way, as time permits, (or more often does not permit!!!)
  I'm really just putting in a few snippets that may be of general interest.
  Lets start with the Farleys. My mother, who was a twin, (by the way) always said that her father, (Albert Edward) had been born on Horsham Railway Station, where his father had been the Stationmaster. This was a load of horsefeathers. (Yes, I have been watching Flora ads before writing this).
  What she did say, which was true, was that he had died on my auntie Gert's 21st. Birthday.
  What she forgot to tell me, although I should have guessed was that Getrude was my aunt's second name. She was actually christened Amelia!

  
  In common with a lot of family history researchers, the names we know were NEVER the given names.My mother was always known as Glad, although her first christian name was Adelaide. See what I mean? Sadly, mum died before I really started on any serious research, if that is what my spasmodic activites can be called.
  So, St Catherine's House, as it was then, and the census office in Chancery Lane, saw me following up a lot of false trails until I eventually retrieved Grandad's birth certificate.
  Even then, why was he Alfred Edward on my mother's marriage certificate, and Albert Edward on his birth certificate?
  Well, he was born near Horsham, but his place of birth was given as Rudgwick. (A name now stamped on the memories of the Farley cousins who are helping with this research.)

  Did his mum go into labour whilst waiting for a train?Is this the origin of the legend?
  There was a branch line railway, but it has now been turned into part of a long distance footpath.
  Was his father anything to do with the railway? No, he was an Ag.Lab, as had been all the generations of Farleys before him. (Before Albert, they never seemed to stray beyond their home territory).
  Albert fetched up in Bermondsey! This may be his birthplace, or he may have been born in one of a row of farm cottages down the lane, which have now been demolished and replaced by modern bungalows.Personally, I hope he was born in the farnhouse.

  .

  Really, there are a lot of unanswered questions about Albert.

  • Why did he leave this lovely part of Sussex for the grime of London, which claimed his life only a few years after the death of his mother?
  • Why did his children, in particular his older children never meet their paternal grandparents?
  • why did his younger children not even know that he had been born in Sussex?
  • Where did he meet my grandmother Louisa Rebecca Chitty, who, as far as I can tell , was a born and bred Londoner?
  There are Chittys, ( a few ) on the Rudgwick Census, but again my mother told a tale of Albert having worked in a lunatic asylum,(and there was one nearby), and having saved the life of Louisa, who was working as , I think, a laundrymaid.(Something about a knife wielding maniac!)

  Fair enough, but I simply cannot imagine Louisa working out of London, unless she was in disgrace, and that does not tie in with the Gran I remember!

  Albert actually ended up in charge of maintenance at the boiler house of Peak Freans. He died in 1937, so I never met him. He and Louisa had 11 children, of whom 8 survived infancy. As I said, the Farleys were long term residents in Sussex, and my mother actually,unbeknown to her, spent the last few years of her life not very far from her father's birthplace! The only other thing about my Farleys that any research swiftly turns up, is that their first child usually arrived a few days after they got married!Plus ca change!(If I have the energy, I will go to character map and get a cidilla. If I don't you will have to imagine it!) Well, at least I know it should be there.
  This is the only picture I possess of Albert and Louisa. I think it was taken in the early 1930's.

  Well on to Louisa's family. I don't know a great deal about them. She was born in Winter's Court , Bermondsey, I think , the fifth child of Thomas Chitty , and Frances Elizabeth Brown. Although I have found them on the 1881 census, I cannot find their marriage!
  I believe that there was a mistake at the GRO, as there are two marriages listed for a Frances Elizabeth Brown, on the same day, and the details are identical. Unfortunately, these details do not tie up with any marriage for a Thomas Chitty.I am too stingy to pay out for wrong certificates, but I will go into it some day! There was an individual called " Ginger", who was the late offspring of "Granny Squiers". who on earth was she? I was told once, but cannot remember. Certainly, someone married three times. Was it Frances Elizabeth?There are wide discrepancies in the ages of her children, but I do not think she could have borne a child that would have been a contemporary of my mother and her sisters.
  Albert's grandfather, William married twice, but that was too long ago!Continued on the next page