chances

Serendipity: or do you believe in chance?

It seems, sometimes, as though someone up there means you to find that elusive record, or that ones ancestors, who were unrelated at the time, or for no obvious reason had some chance association.

I have come across several "happenings" in my researches that show how chance can play an important role in discovering that vital clue, or unexpected and interesting associations.

Please click on Buttons:

1. Finding Joseph Chapman in the 1851 census

2. The Filmer Link.

3. Two ancestors in 1851

4. Did the Lodger result in a marriage ?

5. Did a resident of Frome lead to a family myth ?

6. What chances of a colleague having been in Grand-dad's house ?

1. Joseph Chapman (sen) my 3xgt.grandfather was a stone mason, with the family business at Portway, Frome in Somerset. While he was at home for the 1841 census, he was not there in 1851. Mary his wife had died at Bridport in 1838, but the family had not moved to that town. I knew that he was still alive, but where? Whilst in the Wiltshire Record Office, and looking at the 1851 census index for Warminster, the book fell open at Wilton and staring me in the face was the entry Joseph Chapman, freestone mason, born Frome. He was in lodgings presumably working. It would be nice to think that he was working on the Cathedral in Salisbury, but that might be pushing my luck too far.

Return to top

E-mail to Steve Chapman

2. The Filmer Link. While talking to a cousin on my maternal side the name of FILMER was mentioned. I said that I had some Filmer photos that had come to me down my paternal side. When my cousin showed me published pedigrees it turned out that my paternal line, from Somerset, was connected by marriage to the Filmers, and that my maternal side, from Sussex and Kent, was similarly connected. Even more coincidental, these two marital links were both descended from a common ancestor.

Return to top

E-mail to Steve Chapman

3. Gregory & Press. My father's gt.great grandmother was Jane Chapman (nee Gregory), and her cousin owned a drapery business in Kentish Town, in London. Looking at the 1881 census for George Gregory I noticed the the house next door was inhabited by his employees. Among these employees was one Fredrick Press, born Gt.Yarmouth. My father's mother was a Mabel Alice Press, whose family came from Gt. Yarmouth in Norfolk. While the Press family were mariners her father, and uncle Frederick both entered the drapery trade. So by chance two of my ancestral relations knew each other in 1881. However, the two families were not linked by marriage until 1906. A chance occurence that would not have been discovered if I had not looked next door.

Return to top

E-mail to Steve Chapman

4. Holderness and Press. John William Press was the brother of my Maste Mariner gt. grand father Benjamin Manning Press. John William moved to Hull in Yorkshire where he worked as a marine engineer. His record in the 1881 census showed that the family had a border, Herbert Lacy Holderness. This immediately made me jump. My Ross ancestors came from east Yorkshire and the name seemed familiar. Sure enough Herbert Lacy Holderness was a distant cousin of my grandmother. A link between two families in 1881 that were to be linked by marriage in 1884. Was Herbert boarding with John William because the families knew each, other, or was it through their association that led to relations meeting and marrying three years later. Or is it yet another chance association?

Return to top

E-mail to Steve Chapman

5. Sewells in Frome. As a boy I was told that Anna Sewell, who wrote "Black Beauty" was a relative. Whilst I have definate connections with Press, and through them Sewells from Norfolk research has shown no definite link between the two families. However, I did have hope when I discovered Anna's uncle, a William Sewell. For a short time I did think this may be my ancestor William Sewell. I soon found him to have been a grocer in London, with an only daughter. Later while looking at census returns from Frome in Somerset where my paternal ancestors were stone masons and sculptors I found listed, William Sewell, retired grocer and his daughter. The Chapmans of Frome were staunch non-conformists, supporters of the Temperance Movement and members of the Zion (later Congregational and now United Reformed) Church. The Story of Zion Congregational Church, Frome written by W.J.Harvey in 1918 shows that Miss Sewell had been a member of that church. One must wonder whether this association led to an assumed relationship between the two families with the marriage of Bernard Chapman to Mabel Press in 1906.

Return to top

E-mail to Steve Chapman

6. Great Grandfather's Mill. My great grandfather, William PUNT, was a miller. I have located, and visited the sites of several of the water mills where the family lived at various times. On visiting one such sites I was kindly invited in to the old Miller's House by the present owner. He was most interested to hear of previous occupants, and in passing asked about my previous occupation. When I mentioned the research organisation for whom I had worked; he immediately asked if I had known a certain individual. It turned out that his best friend from many years ago at University had been a colleague of mine at work. Unfortunately the said person was now dead. If he had been alive I would have loved to have asked; what are the chances of you having been in a house where my great Grandfather once lived? His answer would have been interesting as he had been one of the countries pioneer biometricians, and a past President of the Royal Statistical Society.

Return to top.

To Home Page.

E-mail to Steve Chapman

Page last revised 20th July 1999.