Vosper connections - our newest cousin, William Matthews

From: William Matthews
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2015 3:06 AM
To: Info Seeker
Subject: Re: Vosper connections - our newest cousin, William Matthews

Teri,

Thanks for the Google map of Pillaton. When I was very much into my family research many years back we were in the Weary Friar one day and started to ask the locals for details about the property the details of which I had extracted from documents I had seen in London linked to the Vospers at Pillaton. It is from these locals that I was told that they thought, no more than that, the property was one that had been demolished several years earlier close to the 'driving school', So evidence is based on hearsay and not for certain. It could be that the property was demolished and the driving school built on the same site. Here in the UK we have a grave shortage of land and building houses, roads, railway tracks, airports, etc. is fiercely contested in the courts if it is eating up the ;green belt'. This is particularly so near London. Building on 'brown field' sites is not so much a problem, that is, sites that have previously been used for buildings,etc. that have been demolished. Hope this is an explanation if not conclusive.

Val and Bill

On Sat, Nov 28, 2015 at 9:58 PM, Info Seeker wrote:

Bill, from your first message you stated:  Their property where they lived and worked is sadly no more, but I know its approximate location. 

Is the location on this area?  Can you show me where it was?

Here I am, looking exhausted, inside the Weary Friar:

Cousin Teri

From: Info Seeker
Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2015 11:26 AM
To:
Subject: FW: Vosper connections - our newest cousin, William Matthews

Hi Bill!  Sorry it has taken me so long to get to this, I've been kind of overwhelmed, and I wanted to make sure I did this right. 

I'm attaching an updated "Vosper Cousins" chart, to show your relationship to the other Vosper cousins we've joined up with.  Diana Richard's connection is not documented, as I have never heard back from her or her sister.  (I met her at the castle entrance at Launceston)  (Diana, please get in touch, if you'd like to include your family info)

I've updated my Ancestry family tree to include the information you sent me, below.  However, I cannot open the FTW file you sent, as I don't have that software.  So I don't have info on my tree for your descendants, nor Val's full name.  Here is a link to your father on my tree:  http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/47009625/person/24451313938 .  I think an invitation was sent to you for my tree – if you still need that, let me know….

For everyone else, here is the text of the first message Bill sent me:

I am linked to the Vosper family of Pillaton and lived within 5 miles of this village until I was 18. My grandfather even had the middle name of Vosper . (George Vosper Matthews) I still visit the village from time to time and stay in the Weary Friar pub next to the church. Robert and Mary Vosper (Bawden) were my great, great, great grandparents. Now resident in Kent I have returned to my family history search after 15 years. Thank you for the information about the Bawdens - I had very little information on them. The Vospers were leather workers in the 19th century. Their property where they lived and worked is sadly no more, but I know its approximate location. 
William Reginald Matthews

Bill, have you ever considered doing DNA for genealogy?  As you can see from the Vosper Cousins relationship chart, I like to put down if there is a DNA connection.

Doing some research for this email I came across an email from our visit to England last year that included so many of the Vosper family sites that I thought you'd all be interested.  I'll send that out separately….

Thanks so much for updating your relationship – it's always nice to find a new Vosper cousin!

Teri

From: William Matthews
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 12:06 AM
To: Infoseeker
Subject: Vosper connections

Hullo Teri,

Thank you for your email and the family tree that embraces Robert Vosper. I now see where you fit into the Vosper family tree!    Robert Vosper and his wife Mary Bawden are where our family branches coincide working back in time.

I have a family tree but it is free standing and I am not sure it will paste into the ancestry.com website. What I do have is a spreadsheet of the blood line in our family and that I have attached. You will not be interested in anything but the first two pages as the remainder is associated with my wife's family that came from the Shropshire/Staffordshire area of the UK.

Perhaps I should explain my spreadsheet. My wife and I and our family are not shown. The first entry on page 1 are my parents (Reginald George Matthews and Elsie Alberta Marks), the next block of 4 are my grandparents, the next block of 8 are my great grandparents, the next block of 16 are my great, great grandparents. Then onto page 2 where there is a block of 32 that includes Robert and Mary Vosper that ( yes you have already worked it out) my great, great, great grandparents. Entries further back are less complete and so I have not continued the spreadsheet further. I do have a number of entries but they are not contained in the spreadsheet.

 Most of the headings explain the spreadsheet. Under census returns an 'X'  indicates that person was not alive when the census was taken. An unfilled cell indicates that I do not have a record to be entered here. Where there is an entry such as  #(74), for example,   then usually I have a copy of the census return from the PRO in London. Most of the family shown in this spreadsheet were farmers, farm labourers or in the Royal Navy. You will be aware that Devonport dockyard, one of the British fleet HQs, is very close to Plymouth/Saltash, hence the navy connections.

I am really 'rusty' about the family tree as I have done anything to it for about 15 years. My interests have been in postage stamps and vintage postcards. I only joined ancestry.com on a whim very recently and this has allowed me to have added a few more details. I rarely go to London these days (35 miles distance) and have not been to the PRO for all those years, not that there is a lot more to do there. National Public records only began in the early 1830's and so for anything further back a visit has to be made to the parish churches or to the county archivists offices that for Cornwall is at Truro and for Devon is at Exeter. Most of the ancient parish registers that still exist are now stored by the archivists . Such is the interest in family history these days that researchers have to book a table at these offices well in advance. There are many professional researchers that do the work for people overseas that almost have a permanent booking!!!

Census returns are completed every 10 years in the UK, starting in 1841, but there is a 100 year rule that prevents the census information from being accessed by the general public for that time, so the most recent census that is available is that taken in 1911. As the years have passed so the information requested on the census forms has increased. The 1841 census was very basic. In the early days many of those competing the forms had difficulty in reading and writing or even remembering where they were born or their precise age, so comparing census returns often raised what appears to be inappropriate entries on consecutive census returns. You will see several such cases in my spreadsheets.

I have also attached my tree of descendants starting from my wife and myself.  It is part of my free standing family tree using Family Tree (FTW) software, so this will test whether you can open it. I tried opening it as an attachment before I sent this email and did not have too much success, maybe you will have better skills than myself. Anyway, I hope the contents of this email and its attachments prove interesting.

Best wishes

Val and Bill Matthews