Desire Avenue

Recently discovered piccie of my great great grandfather, George Baker, taken in 1935, on his trusty three wheeler mode of transport.



George would have been 76 years old and this was in the period of his life when, having been evicted form his tied cottage, he was living 'rough' in a crofters hut cum caravan in a field above the village of Bures.

He lived there until 1944 when he was found collapsed in the hut. Taken to hospital in Braintree, he died a couple of days later.

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Great pic, RobB!
It's so weird that your ancestors lived in Bures and my Grandparents lived in Wakes Colne, a couple of miles away...

I can get nearer still with my ancestors......the Theobald / Honeyball side lived in Chappel / Ford Street/ Aldham area.

My paternal gt gt gt grandmother (or one of them anyway), Elizabeth Brand, was born in Wakes Colne in 1809 and baptised there on 28th October that year. Elizabeth was a base-born daughter of Sarah Brand.

Elizabeth was to marry John Theobald (born Messing 1805) in Aldham on 12th March 1831.

Their seventh child, Charles Frederick Theobald (1843-1872) was my gt gt grandfather.

John Theobald died in Aldham in 1852 aged 47 years whilst Elizabeth died, aged 87 years, at her married daughters home in Dorking, Surrey, in 1897.

It's kind of eerie to see an ancestor looking out at you from time like that, and to think that if it wasn't for them ... you wouldn't be here!

Thats so true Beth. When you think about it,we're all only here by total fluke.

My gt gt gt gt gt maternal grandfather Samuel Theobald (1751 - 1801) married three times after his first two wives died young. I am descended from a son,John Theobald (1793 - 1869), from that third marriage.

If either of Samuel's first two wives had not died,then Stina would be a few sales down on her albums.

I know, it really makes you think doesn't it? Particularly with my foreign ancestors - if my paternal grandmother's grandmother hadn't come from northern Spain to live on the Isle of Sky, of all places, or if my paternal grandfather's grandmother hadn't come from Italy to live in Wales .... or even further back, if the French hadn't decided to persecute the Hugenots out of France in the 16th century and Elizabeth the 1st hadn't let them come and live in England ....

.....and they did all that for your benefit.

I truly thank them all.